| Start off by putting
the chicken into a stockpot or other large heavy pot and covering it with the cold bottled
water (tap water can be used, but you won’t get the smooth mellow flavor you do from
bottled water). Now cut the celery into pieces, add it to the pot along with the onion,
garlic, peppercorns, parsley and bay leaves, and bring the pot to a gentle boil. Note: you
don’t want the stock to boil rapidly or the soup will turn out murky and cloudy. At this point, reduce the heat to low and skim away the foam, which
has accumulated on the top of the broth. Then cover the pot halfway and simmer the broth
for about 90 minutes. When the cooking time is done, remove the lid from the pot and cool
the stock slightly.
Next, remove the chicken from the pot and set it aside
momentarily. Then using a fine mesh sieve, carefully strain the broth, discard the
seasoning debris, and immediately return the clear broth to the stockpot. For a lean
version of the soup, take a ladle and skim as much chicken fat as possible from the
surface of the broth. Then while the broth is still warm, go ahead and stir in the poultry
seasoning and the salt and pepper. Adjust to your taste if desired.
In the meantime, remove the chicken meat from the bones and
chop it up into bitesize pieces. Then add as much of the chopped meat to the broth as you
wish (depending upon how rich you want the soup to be). Any remaining chicken can be set
aside in your refrigerator for other uses (like, maybe, a big bowl of New Orleans chicken
salad, for example—umm!).
Anyway, return the fire to low and then stir in the
vermicelli—you want to allow it to simmer in the broth for approximately 15 minutes
to become al dente.
Now here’s the secret to really good chicken soup:
Beat the eggs with the lemon juice. Then temper the eggs
(by adding small amounts of the hot broth to the beaten eggs a little at a time to bring
up the temperature of the eggs without curdling them). Then rapidly pour the egg mixture
into the stockpot with the soup and whisk it in well. All that’s left is to heat the
soup to serving temperature.
When you’re ready to eat, ladle the soup out into deep
bowls and garnish with a generous sprinkling of chopped parsley, sliced green onions and
slivered carrots. A stack of buttered multigrain crackers and a glass of choice chilled
wine will top off the presentation! |
| 1.) To
produce a totally fat-free version of this chicken soup, allow the broth to come to room
temperature. The cover the pot and place it into the refrigerator overnight. Then next day
the fat will have congealed into a "cake" on the surface of the soup. Simply
lift it up and toss it out, leaving you with "defatted" chicken broth. 2.) You can substitute other types of pasta for the vermicelli if
you choose, but it is the presence of vermicelli that makes chicken soup traditional. |
