There is no Seder night meal without Jewish chicken soup, especially delicious, which revives souls. And there is no great chicken soup without dumplings. They can be boring and hard balls and they can be especially gentle surprises that upgrade any soup (at any meal by the way). Follow the instructions for success.
And let's move on to the soup. Its position is not a big secret and its mystery is much greater than its rather simple method of preparation. If you have a butcher who is able to sell you a "chicken back", meaning the part that remains from the chicken after all the popular meat parts have been cleaned, buy it. It's a cheap cut that's perfect for soup and will give it a lot of flavor.
Ingredients for 6 dishes:
For the soup:
1 whole chicken (or a pair of legs + chicken bones remaining after disassembly)
½ turkey throat
1 whole onion, peeled
1 whole carrot, peeled
1 whole celery root, peeled
1 whole parsley root, peeled
1 teaspoon of salt (or chicken broth for those who prefer)
3 liters of water
A bunch of dill and parsley
For kneidlach (20 balls):
1 cup matzah flour
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 eggs
4 tablespoons of oil
3/4 cup hot soup or hot water
You can add to the kneidlech mixture (one or more):
a handful of chopped herbs, emphasis on dill,
paprika, cumin and
turmeric a carrot or a piece of pumpkin cooked from the soup, mashed
a handful of ground chicken
Instructions:
1.
Prepare the soup:
place the chicken in a pot full of water and bring to a boil. Cook and remove the foam. Add the rest of the ingredients and continue to cook for another hour, to extract the flavors. Taste and add salt as needed. Strain the soup through a dense strainer.
2.
Prepare the kneidlech:
mix matzah flour, salt and pepper (and other spices if desired) in a bowl. Add hot soup and the fat and mix together until the mixture comes together. Add one egg and mix with a wooden spoon and when it is swallowed, add the second one as well. If there are no eggs, use ground chicken.
3.
Transfer to the refrigerator for an hour or two, maybe more. It is important!
4.
Oil your hands and form small and uniform ping-pong balls. If it is important to you that they are round and beautiful, place them on a tray and put them in the fridge for an hour.
5.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, as when cooking pasta. Add chicken soup powder to the cooking water or if you cook in chicken soup (keep in mind that this may cloud the soup).
6.
Cook the kneidlech in three rounds, 20 minutes each time on medium-low heat, so that the bubbling does not crumble them. Remove with a slotted spoon to a flat dish to cool.
7.
Before serving, heat them in the soup in which they are served.
Orli Plai-Bronstein, in collaboration with olive tree oil