Chicken Soup Jewish Style

 My earliest memory of my mother cooking was making chicken soup. She put all the ingredients into a big pot and about 2 hours later we had my favorite food.  Joan Meyer was a 1950’s bohemian educated at NYC and Brooklyn college in the fine arts. She married my father, Michael Feuer, a refugee from Vienna after WW2. Her very rudimentary knowledge of Judaism was from American Jews who she knew from Brooklyn. 

My father represented an attractive new Judaism. I call it "non practicing Orthodox". Due to being kicked out of Nazi Austria, my father survived by escaping into neutral Switzerland for the rest of the war. That is a whole different story but suffice it to say due to the illegal activities of a Righteous Christian, Paul Gruenger a border guard, 3000 Jews were saved.

My father came to the US in 1946 educated in 4 languages and classical music,  my mother was smitten. She thought she was getting a European gentleman but my father fell in love with skiing in Switzerland and became more devoted to skiing than art or religion.  But, since my father had an Orthodox education on the holidays we went full throttle. I was educated in Orthodox Judaism and chicken soup in a Jewish home was a constant Shabbat and holiday standar

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This is my latest incarnation of this staple.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken 

2 quarts cold water, add as needed

8 carrots ( 4 roughly chopped and 4 sliced to be added to the soup after the broth is made)

4 stalks celery ( 2 roughly chopped and 2 sliced)

1 Parsnip roughly cut (my mother added it whole)

2 onion ( 1 roughly chopped, one finely chopped)

1 bunch fresh dill weed and 1 bunch parsley chopped.

salt and pepper to taste

3 cloves of garlic crushed 

Directions

1. Place chicken, breast side down, into a large pot; fill with enough cold water to reach about 3 inches over the chicken.  Add the roughly chopped carrots, celery , parsnip and onions, dill, salt and pepper.  When it boils bring to a simmer and cook partially covered (leaving room for steam to escape and it will add the aroma to the house) for 2 hours. I like to remove the chicken after about 1 hour and let the meat fall off the bone so that the meat doesn't overcook. Then I add the bones back to the soup and cook for another hour. My mother never did this step and only my father would eat the "soup chicken". I find that this step allows me to enjoy the chicken meat in other recipes. (chicken tacos or salad)

2. Strain the broth, I use a colander and a big bowl, and add the broth to the original pot. Discard the strained vegetable and bones, or freeze them to make another batch at a later time. ( I hate waste)

3. Make the chicken soup by adding the reserved finely chopped celery and carrots to the strained broth and bring to a gentle simmer. Simmer, until the vegetables are tender and the broth has become more concentrated , about another 30 minutes. Taste for salt and pepper. Add chopped chicken pieces if you want and garnish with fresh parsley and dill.