Chicken Soup Three Ways

These chicken soups are warm and comforting on a cold day  They would be particularly nice to have when sick.  I plan to keep one batch in my freezer on a regular basis just to have for that reason. It's nice to make a very large batch of this that can be divided into meal-sized portions.  Then we can have it with dumplings, noodles or matzo balls depending on which we want that day or how much time we have.

This recipe turned into quite the project.  My initial plan was simply to create a freezer meal for chicken and dumplings, which we have always enjoyed and eaten regularly.  The chicken and dumplings freezer meal turned out well.  It consisted of two parts, the chicken soup and the dumpling dough that were frozen separately.  I realized the chicken soup part could be used to make other kinds of chicken soup like chicken noodle soup and matzo ball soup.  I decided to wait on posting the chicken and dumplings until I could post all three variations of the soup together.  This took a while as I needed to try all the variations and we didn't want to be eating chicken soup all the time.  There is often a long development process in creating freezer meals.


This recipe requires adding stock when you reheat the soup to serve.  I highly recommend the Better Than Bouillon brand stock bases.  They make it very easy to add stock to a dish.  You simply add water and the corresponding amount of base.  Many bouillons are primarily salt, but Better Than Bouillon brand bases are not.  They have great flavor.  I recommended chicken stock for all of the soups but the last time we had one I used vegetable stock instead because we were out of chicken.  The vegetable base added great flavor.  I highly recommend it.

Chicken Soup
Difficulty:  Moderate
Category: Some Assembly Required
Column: CQ

Serves 12

1.5 lbs chicken breasts
4 cups chicken stock
1 lb carrots, thinly sliced (I don't bother peeling them.)

1. Bring the chicken stock and chicken breasts to a simmer over medium heat.  Simmer until the chicken breasts are fully cooked.  Remove the chicken breasts from the stock.
2. Add the carrots to the chicken stock and turn off the heat.  You can let the residual heat partially cook the carrots.  They do not need to be fully cooked before freezing.
3. Shred the chicken breasts.  An easy way to do this is to put the chicken in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Turn on the mixer and the paddle attachment will shred the chicken quickly and easily.  
4. Add the chicken breasts back to the stock. I know at this point the mixture will not be very soup like.  That's okay.  It's easy to add more chicken broth when you're ready to serve and the soup won't take up as much space in the freezer.

To Freeze:

Cool the soup properly, divide into the desired number of containers and freeze.

To serve as Chicken Noodle Soup:

6 cups chicken or vegetable stock

5 stalks celery, sliced

1 cup small pasta, such as macaroni or ditalini.  Generally I just use this as a way to use up partial packages of pasta I've had hanging around.

1. Thaw the soup in the refrigerator overnight.  Add the soup, stock and celery to a pot and bring to a boil.
2. Add the pasta and cook boil until the pasta is fully cooked.
3. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Dumplings

Adapted from: Good Eats

Difficulty:  Moderate

Category: Some Assembly Required
Column: DJ

1/2 cup chicken stock
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 tsp salt
2 3/4 ounces all-purpose flour
2 eggs

1.  Bring the stock, butter and salt to a boil over high heat.  Add the flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
2. Bring the heat down to low and continue to cook the mixture, stirring constantly for about 3 minutes. It should form a ball and pull away from the sides of the pan.
3. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on low until the mixture is cool with no more steam, about 5 minutes.
4. Continue to beat on low and add the eggs one at a time.  Fully incorporate an egg before adding the next one.

To freeze:

Transfer the mixture to a gallon-sized, Ziploc, freezer bag.  I don't usually specify a container for freezing, but I do have a specific reason this time.  Also I usually flatten my food in bags so that I can stack it easier in the freezer and so it will take less time to thaw.  Don't do that here.  Keep the mixture together in a big blob.

To serve:

6 cups chicken or vegetable stock

5 stalks celery, sliced

1. Thaw a container of soup and the dumpling mixture in the refrigerator overnight.  
2. Bring the soup, stock and celery to a simmer over medium heat.
3. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Cut a hole about the size of a quarter in the corner of the bag containing the dumpling mixture. This is why you specifically need a bag instead of another container.  Squeeze about an inch of the dumpling dough through the hole and snip the dough off with kitchen shears so it lands in the soup.  Repeat with the rest of the dough.
5. Cover the pot with a lid and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes until the dumplings are cooked through.

Matzo Balls

Adapted from: Smitten Kitchen

Difficulty:  Moderate

Category: Some Assembly Required
Column: DK

1/2 cup matzo meal (grind about 1/6 lb matzos in a food processor to a coarse powder)

2 eggs

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 tbsp seltzer water (or you can use chicken stock if you don't want to open a whole container of seltzer)

1. Combine all the ingredients.  Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Shape the dough into 1 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

To freeze:

Freeze the matzo balls on the cookie sheet until solid.  Transfer them to a bag or other container for storage.

To serve:

6 cups chicken or vegetable stock

5 stalks celery, sliced

1. Thaw the soup in the refrigerator overnight.  Do not thaw the matzo balls.
2. Bring the stock to a simmer over medium heat.  Add the frozen matzo balls.
3. Cover the pot and continue to simmer the matzo balls for about 45 minutes,  Keep an eye on them so the stock doesn't boil, but make sure that the frozen matzo balls don't keep the temperature down either.
4. Add the celery and continue to simmer for about 15 more minutes.  Add the soup and heat through.
5. Season to taste with salt and pepper.