Jewish holiday, Friday night dinner, feeling under the weather or just because – Chicken Soup is always our family favorite! Just like my grandma used to make, this homemade chicken soup recipe,with Matzo Balls and Egg Noodles, is easy enough for even the most cooking challenged!
There are tons of recipes that promise a great soup in half of the time to make it, but be warned, you will trade time for quality. Authentic chicken soup takes some time to make, but the rich and savory taste will make it worth the wait. Don’t be afraid to make chicken soup from scratch – it isn’t as hard as you think and the taste is worlds better than canned soup!
Listen, I am all about short cuts, but not when it impacts the taste. This is simply the best chicken noodle soup you will ever make. You will never eat chicken soup in a can again after you taste the rich and tender chicken broth and oodles of egg noodles, vegetables and matzo balls. Make extra and freeze it! It warms up like a dream!
Nothing cures a cold like a home remedy of a bowl of traditional Jewish chicken soup. My Grandma Lee had the best Jewish penicillin chicken soup recipe. This was a staple on Friday night Shabbat dinners, Rosh Hashanah, Passover or just for a weeknight dinner. She would often make a big Tupperware full of chicken soup and matzo balls for me to take up to school (she wanted to make sure I ate well when I was away!)
How to Make Homemade Chicken Soup
Many people claim a homemade chicken noodle soup recipe, but they use canned or boxed chicken soup in their recipe. Trust me….there IS a difference! If you want that true homemade chicken soup taste, read on!
My sister, Julie, got her famous recipe right from my Grandma Lee over the phone.As most of you know, I am not the cook in the family….. that’s my sister, Julie. So, while I would ask my grandma to make it for me, Julie had the foresight to ask her to teach her how to make it.
She talked her through the whole thing. She never wrote it down, but we did! Below is our best approximation of the basic recipe she taught us.
Everyone likes their chicken soup a bit different. Grandma strained hers so it was clear and then added the pieces of carrots back in. We like a few more bits in it so I don’t strain it. Sometimes we chop up the onions and celery and leave them in as well. We never make it exactly the same twice. We throw in a bit more a bit less, but somehow it always comes out tasting just like it’s supposed to!
How long can you keep homemade chicken soup?
Chicken soup can be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. Beyond that I would recommend freezing it in either a container or heavy duty freezer bags. Either way, I usually keep the noodles and matzo balls separate and put them in the soup when I am ready to warm it up.
They say that chicken soup helps to clear the nasal passages and it acts as an anti inflammatory which helps with the cold symptoms!
Chicken Soup Recipe
4.78 from 18 votes
Jewish Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe
Author — Jennifer Fishkind
Serves — 8
Jewish holiday, Friday night dinner, feeling under the weather or just because – Chicken Soup is always our family favorite! Just like my grandma used to make, this homemade chicken noodle soup,with Matzo Balls and Egg Noodles, is easy enough for even the most cooking challenged!
Place the chicken and the onion in a large stock pot
Fill with cold water
Bring to simmer
Skim fat from the top before adding in remaining ingredients
Add in carrots, celery, dill salt and pepper
Simmer partially covered for at least an hour to an hour and a half
You will know when it is getting close when the chicken begins to fall apart
Cook for another 1/2 hour after that
Remove the chicken, onion, celery and dill from the pot
Add in egg noodles and cook as directed on the package
Remove the chicken from the bone and add it back to the pot if desired
*The secret of the perfect Matzo Ball: Use the packaged stuff. Manischewitz Matzo Ball Mix. I have had many a homemade matzoh ball in my day, but the best ones come straight from the box. They have it proportioned perfectly, so I never bother with trying to figure it out myself. Save yourself the aggravation, follow the directions on the box and make the perfect ball!
Vinegar, much like salt, is a flavor enhancer — it not only imparts its own taste and acidity to a soup, but in small quantities, it helps to bring out the brightness of other ingredients as well.
Foods that have a great deal of acidity, like lemon juice, vinegar, white wine, and tomato puree, can help liven up the flavor of bland-tasting bone and other broths. "The acidity of these ingredients works to complement and enhance the broth's flavors, not mask it.
For an umami-packed boost, try adding a few dashes of soy sauce or fish sauce to your chicken noodle soup. These ingredients are rich in savory flavors and can add depth and complexity to the dish. Start with a small amount and adjust according to your taste preference.
Vinegar – A spoonful of vinegar is a quick fix when you find yourself with a bowl of dull, flat-tasting soup. Just a small amount of acid will brighten up the flavors. 2. Soy Sauce – Soy sauce is another item that's ideal for brightening up and adding depth of flavor to an otherwise dull soup.
The best way to counteract vinegar if too much is put into soup is to add a sweetener, such as sugar or honey, to balance out the flavor. You can also add dairy, such as cream, milk, or yogurt, or a starch, such as potatoes, rice, or pasta, to help mellow out the acidity of the vinegar.
It accentuates the taste and adds the right kind of tanginess to it. If you don't have white vinegar, you can easily substitute it with apple cider vinegar. It is safe to use and can be added to any kind of dish.
It only needs a little bit, one to two teaspoons for an entire pot of soup. Soup usually contains several ingredients and flavors, all competing to be the star of the show. Think of vinegar as the conductor of an orchestra. It can take a cacophony of flavors and sync them into perfect harmony.
Lemons are a chicken soup game changer. Why? They brighten up and balance the salty, rich flavors of the dish, and make all of the ingredients come into line. Like a vinaigrette on a salad, the pickle on a burger, and the sour cream in a coffee cake, a squeeze of lemon gives chicken soup a game-changing brightness.
While broth and stock both get richer and richer the longer you cook them, the problem is that the chicken meat will dry out and get tough if you let it go too long.
Add Acid. Arazi likes adding a touch of preserved lemon paste to her chicken noodle soup, which she says adds “zesty flavor” as well as a punch of umami. Alternatively, just squeeze some lemon juice into your soup, which will brighten everything up and round out the flavors.
Sometimes soup just needs to simmer longer to reach the perfect consistency. Check to see if the vegetables are tender, and then taste the broth. If the soup tastes a bit watery, give it more time.
Marinating not only adds flavor, but the combination of healthy fat and acid in most recipes also helps tenderize the meat. A good marinade is roughly three parts oil to one part acid, plus salt and other seasonings like spices, crushed garlic, or a little natural sugar.
These elements: salt, fat, acid, and heat all add a unique layer of flavor to a dish. Salt not only makes foods taste saltier, which we humans enjoy because it's essential to our diet, but also enhances the flavors of other elements in a dish (i.e., adding salt to cookie dough enriches the overall cookie).
Every cuisine has a method for adding depth via ingredients. Oftentimes it's umami packed ingredients like miso paste, soy sauce, oyster sauce, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce or anchovies. Those ingredients have complex flavors on their own and lend them to a dish when they are added.
You can extract a clean, strong broth from a combination of water and several pantry ingredients. It's all about layering powerful flavor-enhancers that you probably already have on hand—bacon, tomato paste, herbs, peppercorns, a Parmesan rind, and, of course, kosher salt.
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