Real chicken soup

Real chicken soup... somehow this recipe was floating around in my head. Especially now, during these grey autumn days. And during a visit to the weekly market two weeks ago, I spontaneously bought a nice, meaty soup chicken at a market stall. I should mention that it was a corn-fed chicken that had lived a happy life up to that point! 😉

Incidentally, soup chickens are former laying hens, unlike chickens that are bred and raised for meat production. Because they are older, they are usually larger and have a higher fat content.

Real chicken soup for colds

Chicken soup is a well-known remedy for colds. Ask your grannies! However, they probably won't be able to explain why this is the case, so I did some research.

Real chicken soup contains the protein building block cysteine. This has an anti-inflammatory effect and reduces swelling in the mucous membranes. It is also rich in zinc, which is said to be even more helpful for colds than the classic vitamin C.
Dazu kommt ihre leichte Verdaulichkeit. Wenn man sich krank fühlt, ist es nicht ratsam, den Körper mit schwer verdaulichem Essen weiter zu belasten. Gekochtes Hühnerfleisch und Gemüse dagegen ist rasch verdaut und entlastet das System.

Real or not real?

I admit: my real chicken soup is actually only half real. Because in the end, I added some organic instant chicken stock to enhance the flavour. Our taste buds are simply a little different nowadays than they used to be. Spoilt beasts, that's what we are. Maybe you're different, maybe you don't need to do that and just want to season the soup lightly with salt and pepper. That's entirely up to you.

To save or to eat, that is the question.

My plan was actually to treat ourselves to a bowl of the delicious soup and freeze the rest. That way, I would always have real chicken soup on hand for cooking when I needed it and wouldn't have to resort to using instant stock. However, that didn't work out at all because my father devoured the soup with such enthusiasm that there was nothing left in no time.

All right. My blog motto, ‘real recipes from real life,’ works perfectly.

Of course, you can also make the real chicken soup more filling by adding soup garnishes. Whether you choose semolina dumplings, pancakes or soup noodles is entirely up to you. I went for semolina dumplings, which I love. Admittedly, I bought them ready-made and frozen. I've only tried making them myself once, but that disaster is another story and one for another time.

Real chicken soup

A soothing and hearty soup for the whole year

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Preparation time 4 hours hrs

Servings: 3 litre of soup

Dish: soup

Cuisine: Austrian

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 1 soup chicken
• 2 bunch soup vegetables (carrots, celery, leeks)
• 2 gelbe Zwiebel
• 1 Stange Lauch
• 3 cm ginger
• 1 bunch lovage
• 10 whole peppercorns
• instant chicken stock as required

Method

 

1. Clean the soup vegetables if necessary.

   Cut the onion in half. Remove only the very dry outer skin, otherwise do not peel.

   Cut off the end of the leek and cut into pieces about the width of your hand.

   Slice the ginger with the skin on.
2. Pour 3 litres of water over the soup chicken in a suitably sized pot. Add the vegetables, lovage and peppercorns.

   Bring to the boil and simmer for about 3 hours. Then leave to cool overnight in the pot on the switched-off hob.
3. Remove the chicken from the soup and strain the soup through a sieve. Season the soup with salt or instant stock to taste.
4. Remove all the meat from the chicken and cut it into small pieces.

   Discard the boiled herbs and ginger pieces. Cut the vegetables into pieces.

   Add the vegetables and chicken back to the soup or set aside separately and serve on the side.