Every time I make this soup, I am reminded of a common bond with my Jewish friends: chicken soup made with love. Chicken soup made on cold days and on days when I had a cold or flu when I was young. And from my grandmother, who came from Jerusalem, the Christmas entree. It’s still the Christmas entrée at most of my family’s Christmases. This Christmas, we had it on Christmas Eve as the meal itself. Sometimes we also eat it on New Year’s Day or at a dinner with loved ones.
Chicken or turkey is used in this recipe, both are equally good. To make the chicken broth, you need any part of the chicken that has bones. It is the bones and joints that give the soup its special taste and good qualities (it is now generally considered anti-inflammatory). Ideally, use a whole chicken.
Put the chicken or chicken parts in a pan. Add thyme, marjoram, sage, allspice, cinnamon (or a few cinnamon sticks), and salt. Just sprinkle them liberally on the bird as if you were sprinkling salt on French fries, then rub them all over the bird (and inside if using a whole bird). Add as much water as you need to make the soup, plus a little more to allow for evaporation. The water should cover at least all the meat. This is a very versatile recipe, so you can add more water later if needed. Heat until boiling, then simmer with the skillet uncovered. You will get a disgusting foam on top. After 5 minutes, just scrape most of that foam off the top and throw it away. Now you can let the chicken or its parts cook in the water. Leave the pieces for about half an hour. If you are cooking a whole bird, you may want to cook it for half an hour, then place it in the oven and continue cooking at medium heat until crisp. After half an hour, add the rice. Ideally, this should be rice pudding, it comes out round. However, any rice will do. If you don’t have rice, pearl barley will do. Add a volume of rice one-fifth to one-fourth the volume of water, depending on whether you prefer it runny or thicker.
While the rice mixture boils further, you have time to make the meatballs. For the dumplings, use a pound of minced meat for up to four people, multiplying the amount by the number of people present. For a pound, add a pinch of salt as if you were salting your chips, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon allspice, and 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (if not available, skip 1 dry teaspoon) . ). Mix with your hands, forming a uniform paste. Knead it or put it together until it is uniform.
If you prefer your soup without meatballs, that’s fine; just leave them out.
Cook the rice mixture for about 45 minutes or until the rice grains are fully opened, like some popped corn. If you’ve saved the chicken or chunks in it, you can take them out to use in a different dish, such as sandwiches, pies, or casseroles, or you can bone and skin the meat and put it back in the soup. There is too much meat in a whole bird for this, so you may want to, for example, use the breast or the legs and back, reserving the rest for something else.
Then raise the heat until the soup is simmering. And now it works fast. Cut a small meatball (about 2 cm in diameter) from the minced meat mixture and roll it in the palms of your hands. Put it in the soup. Cut another one, roll it up, and place it in a different area of the soup (not directly on top of the first one). Repeat with all of the fine mixture and the entire surface of the soup. You may have to drop a new meatball on top of a partially cooked one, but that’s okay. Just don’t drop it on a still red meatball, so they don’t stick together. After adding the last meatball, reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Then sprinkle parsley all over the surface and stir into the soup.
The soup is already cooked. Sprinkle fresh nutmeg, or spoon it into bowls and then scrape the nutmeg (or sprinkle nutmeg) over the surface. Give each person half a whole fresh lemon to squeeze into their soup. The soup is only complete when lemon juice is added. Enjoy!
