Growing up, my mom would always make either a red sauce or chicken soup on Sundays. I find that I love cooking a big batch meal on Sundays so that I have leftovers that I can either eat during the week or freeze. Chicken soup is perfect for this! My mom is Italian and my dad is Jewish so for me, everything was always mixed. This chicken soup is no exception. A traditional “Jewish Chicken Soup” usually contains matzoh balls and has a pale colored broth enhanced by dill. An Italian chicken soup has more of an orange-red color due to the tomatoes in the broth. I love the flavor the tomatoes add so I stuck with the Jewish-Italian combo. I added whole peeled tomatoes and homemade matzoh balls.

Soup always looks so hard to make but it really only takes a few minutes to put together and then the rest of the time is just letting it cook slowly on the stove.

You can either buy a package of soup greens from the supermarket (they sell this at most stores) OR if your store doesn’t have this you can just buy the ingredients individually. I usually do the latter because I really like adding tons of carrots anyway.

I also usually use only chicken breasts in my soup because they don’t break apart as easily so you get big pieces of really delicious chicken.

Anyway, give this recipe a try if you’re looking for a really delicious chicken soup. It’s really the best recipe I’ve ever tried, but I may be biased!

Italian Jewish Chicken Soup

Serves: 8

INGREDIENTS:

• 5 Large Carrots, Peeled

• 1 Large Onion, Cut in half

• 5 celery stalks

• 2 Parsnips

• 1 Large Turnip (or 2 small)

• 1/4 cup Fresh Dill

• 1/4 cup Fresh Parsley

• ~3 lbs Split Chicken Breast (Bone-in, with skin)

• 14 oz Whole Peeled Tomatoes

• Water to Cover

• 2 tsp Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base

• Kosher Salt and Pepper to Taste

• Optional: Matzoh Balls or Soup Pasta

DIRECTIONS:

1. Put carrots, onion, celery, parsnips, turnip, dill and parsley. (Note: I wash and peel my vegetables first and then put everything in whole except the onion. You can cut the carrots smaller if you prefer)

2. Put your chicken into the pot. Leave the skin on and bones in. (You will remove this later)

3.  Add whole peeled tomatoes.

4. Add enough water to the pot to cover all of the ingredients.

5. Add Better Than Bouillon base. You can use 2 chicken bouillon cubes instead but most contain MSG so I avoid them.

6. Bring your soup to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for ~2 hours, covered, stirring occasionally. Taste periodically and add salt and pepper if needed.

7. Once your soup is ready, allow it to cool before separating. Once cooled, spoon the chicken out and let it cool on a separate plate. Once the chicken is cool, remove the skin and bones and put the chicken back into the soup.

8. Get a strainer and strain the broth into tupperware. You should now be left with your vegetables. I personally remove the turnips (I like to use them for flavor but don’t love the taste).

9. Add your favorite soup pasta or matzoh balls before serving!

10. Optional: Sprinkle with parmesan cheese on top to enhance the tomato flavor!

NOTES:

1. This soup freezes very well. I like to separate the soup into separate tupperware and store in the freezer.

2. I usually get ~8 sizable portions out of this recipe.

3. Nutrition Facts do not include pasta or matzoh balls

NUTRITION FACTS (PER 1 SERVING, 1/8 OF RECIPE): 160 CALORIES, 2.5 G FAT, 12 G CARBOHYDRATE, 3 G FIBER, 21 G PROTEIN