PREPARATION
Put flanken (or beef short ribs) in a pot with just enough water to cover it. Boil 5 minutes or so until fat/skim comes to top for you to remove all. Set aside to cool.
Clean chicken well. All of it goes into the soup except for the liver. Cut carrots in 3-4″ pieces.
Line bottom of pot with bones, then beef, then chicken, then dill, then parsley, celery, onions, potato, turnip, and carrots. Add cold water (it is a scientific fact that cold water works best, something to do with the collagen in the bones) to cover. Bring to boil and watch so you can remove top fat constantly before covering, then let simmer/slow boil for 3 hours. Add salt and pepper to taste. This is an old Jewish chicken soup recipe, so it calls for kosher chicken, which is salted as part of the koshering process. Regular chicken will require much more salt.
When soup is ready, strain ingredients keeping soup separate. Save carrots separately in container and then eat or discard what you don’t want. I eat it all!
NEXT DAY
Once you refrigerate your soup over night, the fat will rise to the top. Remove it. Soup tastes better on the second day! We eat it with thin egg noodles, luction in Yiddish!
This is Grandma Sophie’s Chicken Soup recipe, handed down for several generations, possibly from her mother, who I used to call Baba!
My grandma passed away in 2001, and I will always miss her, and I will always remember her chicken soup, made with love, just as they say. My mom now makes this recipe, and all her grandchildren are building these same memories, they love this soup! But sorry to say mom, your soup does not come near Grandma Sophie’s! Luckily for my mom they never had my Grandma’s soup to compare.
I now make this recipe as well. My only wish is that someday I will be around to make this for my grandchildren! And, my son has already said, he wants to have the recipe passed down to him. Food is cultural, and this soup is more than a food, it is a bowl of memories. Right Cousin Jason?
looks tasty! gotta try it!
Right, cousin Mitch. Aunt Sandra is delicious, but Grandma Sophie’s was the best. I miss her too.
Aunt Sandra is not delicious, her soup is.
As always, love this! The dill makes a huge difference! Thanks so much for sharing your family recipes!
I love warming, comforting, old fashioned family recipes like this! Grandma Sophie’s Chicken Soup sounds fabulous. Thank you for sharing it with us at the Hearth and Soul hop.