Homemade Chicken Soup

Editor’s Note: If you’ve cooked this beloved recipe before, it might look a little different these days! We recently improved it to make it even easier to follow and more delicious.

This is a soup you can be proud of. No matter how many times you’ve made it before, a pot of this soup on your stove should (and will) result in a self-congratulatory fist pump. And if you’ve somehow made it this far in life without making chicken soup from scratch using a whole chicken, then prepare yourself for something truly special. Dinner is going to be amazing. Serve the soup or even just the broth all on its own, or make it into more of a meal with cooked egg noodles, cooked white or brown rice, or matzo balls. Here’s how to make it.

• So comforting. Not for nothing is this soup is often called “Jewish penicillin” — it’s rich enough to fortify both your spirits and your constitution, but not so much that it would upset a delicate stomach.
• It’s all about the broth. Slowly simmering a whole chicken – skin and all – results in a rich and flavorful golden broth.

• Chicken: You’ll need a 4- to 5-pound whole chicken.
• Carrots: Peel and cut them crosswise into 2-inch pieces.
• Celery: Cut them crosswise into 2-inch pieces.
• Onion: Peel and cut it into 2-inch chunks.
• Black peppercorns and bay leaf: Infuse the broth with whole black peppercorns and an aromatic bay leaf.

1. Simmer the chicken. Skim off any foam as it rises to the top. Add the carrots, celery stalks, onion, garlic, peppercorns, bay leaf, and parsley sprigs around the chicken. Return to a simmer. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Carefully flip the chicken so it is breast-side up. Continue to simmer until the chicken is cooked through and the broth is flavorful, about 30 minutes more.
2. Remove the cooked chicken and strain the broth into a bowl. Transfer the chicken to a clean cutting board or rimmed baking sheet. Pour the broth through a strainer into a large heatproof bowl. Return the broth to the stockpot.
3. Chop the vegetables and shred the chicken. Chop the carrots, onion, and celery into bite-sized pieces. Shred or chop the meat into bite-sized pieces.
4. Return the chicken and vegetables to the broth. Bring back to a simmer over medium heat. Taste and season with more kosher salt and a few grinds of black pepper as needed.

I did not grow up in a household where we made chicken soup from scratch, so the idea of plunking a whole, raw chicken in a pot of water and letting it simmer felt equal parts mystifying and nerve-wracking.

Why the whole chicken? Why not just shred a few cooked chicken thighs, pour in some flavorful bone broth, and call it good? And do you really leave the skin on?

Leah Koenig, author of Modern Jewish Cooking, coached me through my first time making this soup, and I will be eternally grateful. She describes the perfect chicken soup as “clear goldene yoykh, or golden broth, as it is called in Yiddish.”

You only achieve this by slowly simmering the chicken — with the skin on — along with some vegetables until the chicken literally falls off the bone. Strain the broth, chop up the chicken and vegetables, return everything to the pot, and you have the best chicken soup in all the land.

Chicken skin is key to this whole endeavor, Koenig told me. I fretted that it would make the soup greasy and overly rich, but she insisted: “Keep the skin on to maximize your soup’s flavor. All of the savory, full-bodied oomph that you expect from a good chicken soup comes from the skin.”

Indeed, one sip of the finished broth and I was hooked. This soup was richer, more savory, and altogether more awesome than any chicken soup I’d ever made before. Koenig suggested skimming the fat off the top of the cooled soup if I felt the broth was too heavy (the fat solidifies on top), but I didn’t think it was necessary — the soup was perfect as it was.

• Don’t worry if your chicken floats in the liquid as it cooks. Since the pot is partially covered, the top will cook just fine. Koenig says that you can flip the chicken halfway through cooking.
• Skim the foam: You’ll notice some scummy foam collecting on the surface of the liquid in the first half hour or so of cooking. As the foam clumps together, skim it off with a wide, flat spoon — it’s not harmful, but you’ll make a better soup if you skim the foam away.
• Keep the water going at a slow, steady simmer during cooking. Too vigorous and Koenig says you can end up with a thin-tasting broth. Too slow and it can take forever for your chicken to cook. Aim for a slow simmer where you see bubbles percolating regularly up through the liquid.
• Simmer the vegetables in large chunks first, then cut into bite-sized pieces: To avoid mushy vegetables, Koenig recommends simmering the vegetables in large chunks, which cook more slowly. When finishing the soup, just chop the large chunks into bite-sized pieces and return them to the soup.

• Using chicken pieces: If your soup pot is too small for a whole chicken, you can either cut the whole chicken into pieces or buy chicken pieces at the store.
• Browning the chicken: If you have a few extra minutes, you could also sear your chicken on all sides before adding the water. This will give your soup just one more layer of savory goodness, although Koenig says your soup will be incredibly flavorful either way.
• For chicken noodle soup: Cook the noodles separately, add them to each bowl, and ladle the soup over top.

• Storage: Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
• To freeze: This soup can be frozen in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
• To reheat: Warm over low heat on the stovetop or in the microwave before serving.

• Chicken Noodle Soup
• Chicken and Rice Soup
• Classic Matzo Ball Soup
• Lemon Orzo Chicken Soup
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