Feel Better Chicken Soup with Matzo Balls

Having been fighting off the death pollen after relocating to Chicago from Florida, I decided yesterday that I would make my old tried and true classic, Matzo Ball Soup. I've never been a fan of the watery broth, laden with MSG, from the envelope of soup mix that one sees at every holiday table. While this soup isn't bad, particularly as an appetizer for a huge holiday meal,  it is not full of healing chicken soupy goodness.

This is a rather large endeavor, and one needs multiple/days or hours to complete the soup making process from start to finish. I got impatient about midway through, and instead of simmering the broth for an hour or two as typical, I used my pressure cooker on high pressure for ~ 15.

As an aside, I keep a "bone bag" in the freezer. I predominately purchase bone in, skin on thighs, and then debone and deskin them, throw the remnants into a gallon sized bag that I keep in the freezer. When I want soup or stock, I take out the bone bag and make what I want with it, and start a fresh bag the next time I cut up chicken. I didn't have a full bag this time, so I supplemented with a whole roaster chicken, which I think was really useful for this soup. Typically, I use the bones to make stock for butternut squash soup, or this smoked cheddar with bacon and potato mixture I've come up with..

The recipe is fairly simple and the ingredients are nothing spectacular, but there are some specific steps that ought to be followed.

Ingredients
1 large onion (or two small) medium dice
2 cups of baby carrots (cube one cup for the stock, leave the rest whole)
3 stalks of medium celery, cut crosswise in 1/8 strips.
1 whole roaster chicken, any misc. bones
1 lemon, halved
salt
pepper
thyme (fresh or dried)
rosemary (fresh or dried)
1 tsp poultry seasoning
fresh parsley
olive oil

Matzo Balls
2 eggs
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 cup matzo meal
spare water or broth if mixture is too dry

Roasting the Chicken 

Place chicken pieces in a 9X13 pan. Season liberally with salt, pepper, thyme, and rosemary, and a few drizzles of olive oil. Squeeze both halves of the lemon over the chicken, and then put the lemon halves into the pan. Roast, covered with aluminum foil for as long as it takes the chicken to reach 160 degrees internal temp. Approx 90 minutes or so. Remove the aluminum foil for the last half hour of cooking.

Once finished, set aside to cool. (This can be done the night before if you so desire.) Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, peel the skin and meat off the bones. Set the bones and skin aside with the lemon halves, and put the meat into a bowl, cover, and store refridgerated. Keep the roasting juices as well. If doing this the night before, store in a covered bowl. (I left mine in the roasting pan because I was incorporating it immediately.)

Place the meat and skin, along with any additional bones/meat/trimmings, into a shallow pan, and roast at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or so. This helps concentrate the flavor a little better, creating a richer stock. This step can be skipped. 

Making the stock

In a large stock pot, put a dollop (1-2 tbs) of olive oil. Add diced carrots, celery, and half of the diced onion. Add salt, pepper, thyme, and rosemary to taste. Add poultry seasoning. (if using dried herbs).

Cook at medium low until the vegetables have turned translucent.

 Add the bones, skin, lemon, and reserved roasting juices into the pot, and fill with enough water to liberally cover the bones. Add in 6-8 sprigs of fresh parsley. If doing without a pressure cooker, bring to a low boil/high simmer for a few hours. (Anywhere from 1-2 based on your patience). If you are making Matzo Balls to go with your soup, now is a good time to make them, since the mixture needs to chill for about 20 minutes.

I threw up my hands because it was getting on towards dinner (and I'm not always the best planner) and threw the whole mixture into my pressure cooker. I cooked it at full pressure for about 15 minutes, and it came out perfect.

Once your stock is finished, strain through a fine mesh strain. I promise. You want to do this step. All of the flavors have been extracted from the bones and vegetables. It will taste like cardboard if you leave it in your soup - and the only cardboard I like in my soup is Matzo.

Soup
Once your stock has been strained, you've mostly got soup! Congratulations!

Before you have a full pot of soup, take your whole baby carrots and the rest of the chopped onion. Cook with 1 tbs of oil until the vegetables are translucent. (approx 5-10 minutes) Add your strained stock. Get out your chilled matzo mixture, and go ahead and add gently formed balls to your soup. Let them cook at a low simmer until they are done. The box says this takes 30-40 minutes. (Or, do like I do. Throw them into a roiling boil and cook them for about 15 minutes. I didn't even know they took that long until I checked the box this time.)

While the matzo balls are cooking, take some of the chilled chicken and chop it. Do whatever kind of chop you want. Or shred it. Or whatever gets it into spoon sized pieces. Add these bits back into the soup stock.

There you have it! Feel better chicken soup with Matzo Balls. I serve it with Matzo Farfel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matzo_farfel) and topped with some finely chopped fresh parsley.