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Harris County Chapter - Czech Heritage Society of Texas


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Recipes

Alena Getvertova’s Recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup [with notes at the bottom as prepared for 2010 SpringFest]

I use only what left from the chicken after I do everything else I can with the chicken. Save chicken legs, necks, livers, everything else that is inside the chicken, keeping the parts nice and clean. I never bought chicken without all the parts that should come with it. That is the key point in what makes good soup great. [note 1]

Wash everything in cold water, Put the parts in a big pot.

Next comes the vegetables... [note 2]

  • Clean carrots 2-3
  • Parsley root 2
  • Celery root 1

Then clean one onion and put it inside the pot.

Add spices

  • Allspice 5
  • Whole black pepper 5
  • Salt, not too much too early. It's better to add more at the end. [note 3]

Soup should cook slowly for 1 hour or maybe more, I never checked the time. You will know when it is ready. Then just sample the soup, add more seasoning if it's needed. In the United States you have a pot call a slow cooker. It is perfect for making good soup. [note 4]

- - -

[note 1] I used 4 chickens for 7 gallons of soup, and ended up with a goodly amount of meat, but adjust to your taste, ½ to 1 chicken per batch. The ‘store bought’ chickens did not come with liver, heart, gizzard (but I know that many people do not care for these organ meats), but I did buy a package of chicken feet to add to the cooking. This was my grandmother’s favorite part of the soup.

[note 2] I tried to use the proportions of carrots, parsley root, celery root, onion and spices in the recipe, but the celery root gave me pause, because I found celery root ranging in size from 6 inches in diameter down to 3 inches diameter. I settled on approximately equal amounts of each vegetable. I chose not to leave the vegetables in after cooking, because I wanted a nice broth with just chicken and noodles. So I grated the vegetables to cook with the chicken. When the chicken was done, I took it out to cool, and strained the broth to remove the grated vegetables, peppercorns and allspice. I pressed the strained vegetables to keep as much of their flavor in the soup.

[note 3] I did not add salt.

[note 4] When the chicken was cool, I removed the bones and chopped the meat into bite-sized pieces (but not the chicken feet) to go back into the broth. I used about a pound of noodles per gallon of soup.

Note: *Kluski egg noodles (i.e. Manischewitz) are closest to Czech-style homemade noodles. These are found in the Jewish section of a well-stocked grocery store.