Molly's Favourite Chicken Soup
Submitted by tazvnh
Old-fashioned chicken soup simmers a whole chicken with chicken feet, garlic, carrots, celery, and herbs for three hours to extract maximum flavor and collagen. Grandma-style cure-all served over pastina or rice.
YIELD
12 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
3 hrsREADY
200 minMolly’s chicken soup is the no-shortcut, three-hour, restorative kind of soup that grandmothers across cultures recognize on sight. The secret weapon is the chicken feet, which give up massive amounts of collagen as they simmer, producing a broth so rich and gelatinous it sets to a soft jelly in the fridge. That body is what carries every other flavor in the pot.
The technique is patient and old-school. Cover the chicken and aromatics with cold water, bring slowly to a simmer, and skim diligently. Skimming the scum that rises in the first 20 minutes is what gives you a clear, golden broth instead of a cloudy one. Three hours of low simmering is non-negotiable; the broth keeps deepening as it goes.
After straining, the recipe asks you to discard the spent aromatics but keep the carrots, celery, and garlic. Pull the meat from the bones, return everything to the pot, and reheat with seasoning. Serve in big bowls over pastina or fine spaghettini, then mash the soft vegetables with a fork at the table. Mashing releases their sweetness into the broth and is the way Molly insists it has to be eaten.
Pro Tips
- Start with cold water, hot water clouds the broth and seals proteins to the chicken before they can flavor the liquid
- Skim faithfully during the first 30 minutes, ladling off the gray foam that rises to the top
- Keep the simmer gentle, a hard boil emulsifies fat into the broth and makes it greasy
- Refrigerate the strained broth overnight and lift the fat cap off the top before reheating for a cleaner soup
Variations
- Add a parmesan rind during the simmer for umami depth
- Stir in chopped fresh dill or parsley at the table for brightness
- Float a handful of cooked matzo balls in each bowl for a Jewish-style chicken soup spin
Ingredients
Directions
Pour water into a large pot.
Add the chicken, and chicken feet, garlic, onion, carrots, celery, parsley, bay leaf, salt and peppercorns, and slowly bring to a boil over medium heat.
Reduce heat and simmer for 3 hours, using a spoon to skim the fat from the soup as thoroughly as possible.
Cool.
Strain the soup.
Discard the onion, parsley, bay leaf and peppercorns, and set the other vegetablees aside.
Skin the chicken and remove the meat from the bones.
Return the chicken meat, carrots, celery, garlic cloves and broth to the pot and bring back to a simmer, seasoning with additional salt or pepper to taste.
Serve the soup in big bowls, over pastina, rice or spaghettini.
This soup’s curative powers are released only when the vegetables are mashed together in the bowl.
Use a fork for mashing.
Use a big spoon for eating. Makes 3 quarts.
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