Chicken Soup Recipe You Can Make at Home

  1 tablespoons olive oil
  1 whole chicken, breasts removed and reserved
  2 onions
  2 quarts boiling water
  Salt
  2 bay leaves
  1 large carrot
  1 celery stalk
  1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves
  Ground pepper

Time for some chicken soup. The slight sore throat I had last weekend has gone, but left behind a runny nose, a cough, and sneezy sniffles. Meh. 

This particular recipe is one we've made before  – this time we made matzo balls to go along with it. They were okay – to my mind, fairly firm and they soaked up the chicken soup really well after they boiled for 20 minutes in water. The first few got all gummy on my hands, and we had some frozen chicken fat in a container handy (ready to receive the latest contribution of schmaltz from the current batch) so I scraped some of the frozen fat off with a knife and greased my hands up to roll them out. It seemed like the ones I rolled out after that had a smoother surface and a more intense chicken flavor in the center, almost as if when they were dunked in the soup, the chicken essence got forced farther into the dumpling by the hot soup.

David says they were just okay, but they weren't bouncy enough like his Bubbe used to make. They're supposed to be dense enough to cause a risk of injury to the instep if dropped on the floor.  

It's pretty good stuff, Maynard. We served up big bowls, after a brief hot-soup-related incident in the kitchen (David survived). And then we served up a couple more big bowls. And then I had one more, because the flavor was so good. About halfway through the second bowl, my sinuses started to drain. Damn good stuff, Maynard.