Chicken Soup with Matzo Balls or Spaetzle

This soup is inspired by my mother’s recipe; she recommended the parsnips and the sage.  She also used to add what she called “dumplings,” but I have always thought that spaetzle is more descriptive. 

Arlene says she married me because of this soup.  Our friend Barbara couldn’t eat anything for the first five months of her two pregnancies except our once a week deliveries of a pot of this soup.  Hope it works for you, too!

Ingredients:    

One half of a cut-up chicken fryer plus one breast (with bone)

2 large parsnips

4 carrots

2 large stalks of celery

2 medium onions

2 t. kosher salt

1½ t. ground sage

1 t. dried dill weed

½ t. ground celery seed

½ t. garlic powder

Start with an 8 quart Dutch oven or stock pot.  Put the chicken in the pot.  (If you want a richer soup, you can brown the chicken on all sides in the bottom of the pot.  I do this sometimes, and sometimes I don’t.  Makes for a slightly richer, slightly tan colored broth.)  Do not peal the parsnips or the carrots, but cut off the ends, and then put them in the pot.  Peal the onions, cut them into 1 inch chunks, and then put them in the pot.  Cut the celery stalks in thirds and add them.  Fill the pot with water to about ½ inch from the top.  Bring to a boil.  Then reduce the heat to a rolling boil. 

In a while, there will be a foamy substance that rises to the top.  Skim this off.  You may have to do this a few times over 5 to 10 minutes to get it all.  Then add all of the seasonings.  In about one hour to one hour and fifteen minutes, the soup should be ready.  (It is not possible to tell whether soup is done if you try it right from the pot, because it is too hot.  So spoon some into a cup, let it sit for a couple of minutes, and then try it.).  Add salt if needed. If you want richer soup, let it cook for another fifteen minutes to a half an hour, but the yield will be greatly reduced. 

When the soup is done, discard the parsnips and the celery.  Take the chicken out of the pot and cut the meat from the bones.  Let the soup rest while you are doing this.  That will allow you to skim much of the fat off the top.  (If you want to get all of the fat, let the soup cool down, and then put it in the fridge overnight.  The fat will come off as a solid piece.)  Put the meat back in the soup.  And you’re done. You’ll have about 5 quarts of soup.

For the matzo balls, you have a basic decision to make.  Do you like them hard, medium or soft?  The following recipe delivers about 15 to 20 small, medium-consistency balls.  (If you want them hard, then leave the top off of the pot while they are cooking.)

Ingredients:

4 eggs

4 T canola oil (you can use chicken fat, if you wish)

4 T chicken soup (water will work, too)

2 t. kosher salt

1 t. onion powder

1/4 t. dill weed

1 cup of matzo meal

Beat the eggs lightly in a bowl.  Add the oil and soup (or water) and beat enough to combine the ingredients.  Then add the salt, onion powder and dill weed, stirring to mix them in.  Add the matzo meal and stir to completely moisten.  Put this in the refrigerator for about an hour until it is firm.  Bring about 4 quarts of water to boil in the Dutch oven.  (Two t. of salt is optional.)  Moisten your hands and form the matzo mix into one inch balls, dropping each into the rapidly boiling water as soon as it is formed. (Keep your hands moist, or this part won’t work.)  Put them in as fast as possible.  Once they are all in, give the water a very gentle stir to make sure none of the balls are stuck to the bottom.  Cover the pot tightly and cook for 20 minutes.  DO NOT open the cover; if you do, you will boil the balls, and they will become very dense.  Keeping the lid on steams them.  Serve two matzo balls in a bowl of the chicken soup. 

But honestly, if you like light and fluffy matzo balls, I think the Manischevitz Matzo Ball mix makes very good, very light, good tasting balls with very little trouble.  It is what I use. But again, be sure to leave the lid on for the full 20 minutes.

The spaetzle or dumplings are not suitable for Passover, as they contain flour.  But my kids love them, and always ask me if I have made enough of them so that they can have as many as they like.  This recipe will make a lot of spaetzle.

Ingredients:

4 extra large eggs

1½ c. of all purpose flour (or more)

½ c. of milk

1/8 t. of kosher salt

Break the eggs into a mixing bowl.  Beat with a fork for a few minutes.  Add the milk and beat until well mixed.  Add the flour ½ cup at a time.  After each portion is added, stir the egg and flour mix with a fork until all the lumps are gone.  (This won’t happen with the first ½ cup, but don’t worry, the lumps will disappear after the second.)  Make sure to incorporate as much of the flour as possible into the batter.  Keep adding flour until the consistency of the batter is such that when you scoop some up on the fork, it stays and then falls off in one solid clump.  If you don’t add enough flour, the spaetzle will fall apart in the soup.  If you add too much, the spaetzle will be too hard. 

Bring the pot of soup (after removal of the parsnips and celery and after you put the meat back in) to a rapid boil.  It has to be a rapid boil, otherwise the spaetzle will sink to the bottom and start to break apart.  Scoop up batter with the fork and let the clump of batter drop into the soup.  Keep doing this with all of the batter.  Gently stir the soup once (to unstick any clumps), reduce heat to a rolling boil, cover and cook for five minutes.  The consistency of these spaetzle will be much denser than matzo balls.

Serve soup a while after you have turned off the heat.  Otherwise the soup will be too hot to taste.  You will probably need to add salt to taste, as I have kept the salt to a minimum in this recipe.

Enjoy.