Off Topic: Chicken Soup

Chicken_Noodle_SoupWell, the old sniffer is out of commission this week due to a cold. One of the few upsides of this is that I get to indulge in one of my favorite foods: chicken soup. Now, I now I am a food snob (as well as many other kinds of snob..) but I love my chicken soup in almost any form. I will will not turn up my nose at a bowl of Campbell’s especially if I can use enough Saltines to make into a sludge that as a kid I called “Sueychecky” for reasons that are lost to time. Progresso also makes a good canned version, but the real revelation came from chicken soup from the Deli. Here in LA we have Canter’s, Nate’N Al’s and Factor’s in my ‘hood. We used to have Jerry’s, but it sadly closed in WeHo. (I remember going there with my friend Terre on one of our first meals out, and her saying “is that you’re all going to eat?” for a bowl of soup so full of noodles, chicken, vegetable and a matzoh ball the size of a Buick that it practically needed a bucket loader to be delivered.)

Luckily, Both Bristol Farms and Gelson’s here have wonderful chicken soup available at their “comfort bars” so I am never too far from what is called “Jewish Penicillin.” Even when I am not wheezing like a pipe organ with cracked bellows. this stuff makes me want to convert.

Don’t even get me started on chopped liver..

If you have a favorite chicken soup recipe please share n the comments. I’ll be taking notes.

Image: Wikipedia

  • Christos says:

    I am Greek so I am partial about this recipe. It looks simple but the egg and lemon make it creamy and invigorating. I add a large onion roughly chopped but I then I add an onion everywhere

    It doesn’t let me post a link here but Google “Greek chicken soup avgolemono”

  • Ann says:

    Tom, hope you feel better soon. A cold is always such a bummer, isn’t it? But please do be careful and don’t let it develop into bronchitis like mine did last spring — very nasty. Don’t have a chicken soup recipe, but your matzoh ball takeouts sound delish. I used to love getting some from the delis in the city when I worked there. Hang in there!

  • Dina C. says:

    Sorry to hear you’re suffering with a cold. My son has one too, so I’ve made my chicken soup recipe recently. Mine is really basic: chicken stock, egg noodles, chicken, onions, carrots, celery, salt and pepper. The one unusual ingredient that I add that really elevates it is a hearty spoonful of powdered cardamom. That wonderful earthiness makes the soup richer and deeper. I also really like cardamom in scents like Cartier Declaration.