Chicken Soup -- any ideas on how to spiff mine up?

I've tried a number of different versions, usually with good results, and of course New York City has some legendary versions. A sampling over the past six years:

Golden "Jewish penicillin," from three favorite delis: with matzo balls or with noodles or with kreplach.

Thai with coconut milk, galangal and kaffir lime leaves.

Chinese wonton.

Sichuan black-skinned chicken -- available fresh along the Hudson.

Greek avgolemono.

Latino with avocado, cilantro, oregano and tomatoes.

But so far we haven't settled on a go to recipe -- these are fun and interesting, but ....

Two things seem essential:

Excellent chicken, which I usually just before serving.

Excellent broth, sometimes made with a beef shin bone -- a trick I read in the NYTimes a few years ago.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Bob, our weekly chicken soup always has a tsp of Herbie's Chermoula Spice mix - now available in the US from http://www.herbiesspicesusa.com/ . This is actually our "house" spice , and the boys absolutely love it. So maybe something with a Moroccan or North African feel ?

I had Tom Kha Gai (Thai spicy coconut soup with chicken) for dinner last night - possibly my favourite Thai dish.

I've tried a number of different versions, usually with good results, and of course New York City has some legendary versions. A sampling over the past six years:

Golden "Jewish penicillin," from three favorite delis: with matzo balls or with noodles or with kreplach.

Thai with coconut milk, galangal and kaffir lime leaves.

Chinese wonton.

Sichuan black-skinned chicken -- available fresh along the Hudson.

Greek avgolemono.

Latino with avocado, cilantro, oregano and tomatoes.

But so far we haven't settled on a go to recipe -- these are fun and interesting, but ....

Two things seem essential:

Excellent chicken, which I usually just before serving.

Excellent broth, sometimes made with a beef shin bone -- a trick I read in the NYTimes a few years ago.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Cook up some rice--I use brown basmati.

Get some broth warming.

In olive oil, saute chopped fennel, chopped okra, a crushed hot red pepper, a few cherry tomatoes, a chopped shallot, a minced garlic, and as much chopped chicken pieces as you want; after ten minutes of cooking and stirring, add some sweet white, let simmer down a couple of minutes and then add the whole thing to broth, stir, bring to heat, but not to boil.

Add small portions of rice to each bowl and pour the chicken soup over it.

Serve with chopped parsley or cilantro leaves.

Bob, I have a great version that uses chipotles. I'll look for it tonight. (I hope it's not in one of the boxes of cookbooks that have yet to be unpacked!)

Of course, in New Mexico, green chile would be de rigeur.

One of my soup tricks is adding some Vegit (salt-free with a wonderful blend of herbs).

A drop or two of high-quality fish sauce will add complexity w/o tasting fishy.

I sometimes add a splash of Worcestershire and/or a drop or two of liquid smoke.

Why spiff it up? For me personally the joy in chicken soup is its simplicity. I guess I'm just getting boring in my old age.

My Italian grandmother used to make the matzoh ball version on occasion. She'd toss in some verdura which generally meant escarole to round things out.

Hmmm, now I've gone and made myself hungry.

And, an afterthought, chicken liver dumplings are good swimming around in chicken soup, too.

Liberal application of powdered cayenne pepper in the boil / heating stage is what I do to mine. Retains the “chicken” quality, but spices up the soup in general.

Richard

"Why spiff it up?"

Spiff doesn't mean complex in my world, Gary, just how can I make it better. Simplicity is great -- our current favorite is basically vegetable soup in a great stock, with chicken added just before serving.

The local fire dept. makes a chicken & beef chowder the first Saturday of the month as a fund raiser and it is quite tasty. Chicken and chuck are cooked together in large kettles. When done, the meat is removed and allowed to cool before being separated from skin & bones and all the meat run through the meat grinder. To the broth is added fresh shredded cabbage, onions, carrots and celery, followed by canned ingredients; creamed corn, peas and tomatoes. The meat is added back in followed by the potatoes, 45 minutes before serving. They sell a lot of it.

I use wide Dutch egg noodles and a hint of allspice. Something about it really works for me in chicken soup.

I like to make mine with a parsnip in the mix..a hint of unidentifiable sweet (savory sweet) for those who don't know..

b

I like to make mine with a parsnip in the mix..a hint of unidentifiable sweet (savory sweet) for those who don't know..

b

The grandmother of a friend would always use parsley root in soup. I wonder how different that would be? I did use one many years ago in a pot of soup, but it was so long ago, I forgot about it.

Bob, my mother used to color the chicken soup with a bit of tomato sauce. (gee, what a surprise!)
I still do that, and I also puree some of the vegetables and put them back in the soup to add heft.
Oh, and I add rice cooked in the broth.

That's pure comfort food for me.

I never use raw meat or bones when making my stock/broth. All the skin, meat scrapes and bones that are used have always been baked etc. first. It gives the broth a much richer flavor and color. This doesn't necessarily go along with the Asian style soups that use a very thin broth.

The meat, with the exception of seafood or meatballs, has also been precooked either by baking, braising, roasting, grilling or frying. I add the meat the last few minutes of the soup. This gives the meat contained in the soup some actual taste.

I use the vegetable scraps from whatever vegetables will go into the soup in making the initial stock. Then I add the vegetables to the soup just giving them sufficient time to cook through. This leaves the vegetables with their flavors.

Currently one of my favorite soups is an Asian style soup made with chicken broth.
To the stock I add a little soy, a piece or two of orange peel, some ginger, and a little anchovie paste(sub for fish sauce). I strain the broth before I use it. The last minute before serving a drop of toasted sesame oil is added to each bowl.

For vegetables, it contains carrots, scallions, pea pods and bean sprouts,

For meat, it contains meatballs made with pork, scallion, Kim Chi, ginger, cilantro, garlic and a bit of Asian chili sauce.

The meat balls are cooked in the simmering soup until the float. The vegetables are cooked al dente.

We love our chicken soup for the simplicity. Great chicken or turkey, home made stock, fresh noodles, sweet carrots, onion, garlic, fresh parsley, and my Portuguese grandmother always threw in a bit of white wine. Last time I made it I did not have noodles but I did have Italian potato gnocchi from Trader Joe's. It was great! Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper are a must.