Babcia Chicken Noodle Soup
Babcia's kurczak Kluski Zupy (Grandma's Chicken Noodle Soup)
a.k.a. egg dumpling chicken soup
This is a simple and economical traditional Polish recipe for chicken soup that has a dumpling like noodle. The noodles are made by dropping a flour and egg batter in to boiling water. The noodles or dumplings are served in a clear chicken broth with some carrots and onions and garnished with dill.
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to make the broth:
aka: Chichen Stock
Ingredients:
Leftover chicken bones and skin
Onion
Carrots
Celery root
Parsley root
Garlic clove
Salt & pepper
Water
(optional: bay leaf, sprigs of celery, leek, sweet cabbage)
(option: Saute onion halves to carmalize, broth will be less clear)
- In a large stock pot add the chicken leftovers, vegetables, salt and pepper if desired, and cover with cold water.
- Bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to bring to barely a simmer.
- Simmer uncovered for at least 3 hours, occasionally skimming off the foam that comes to the surface. Do not let broth boil as this may lead to the broth becomming cloudy.
- Remove the bones and vegetables and strain to store broth.
Soup: make noodles in seperate pot of boiling water, ladle broth from stock pot into serving bowle with a few of the carrots cut into smaller pieces, then ladle noodles with slotted spoon into bowl, garnish with dill, serve.
(the broth may be cooled and then the fat skimmed from top)
to make the noodles:
aka: Egg Dumplings for soup
Ingredients:
1 egg (*plus egg yoke, if surplus of)
1/2 tsp. salt (pinch)
1 cup flour
Broth (water or liquid from the broth, about 1 Tbsp.)
- Blend flour, salt, and egg with enough broth until the consistency is of a smooth but thick paste with an almost "pour-able" consistency. May take some practice before you get the feel for this.
- Spoon the thick batter into boiling salted water that has reached a rapid "rolling boil" ("drop" from the tip of a tablespoon)
- Cook for about 2 minutes or until noodles form to desired texture.
- Ladle noodles into bowls of hot broth using a slotted spoon, just before serving.
to make the soup:
- Serve noodles in hot broth with a few cooked pieces of carrots and onion.
- Garnish with fresh chopped dill.
This soup always brings back memories of Babcia (my Grandma) She would always be in the kitchen to serve and after soup was the next course and you never knew when the courses would end! I rarely ever saw here actually sit down at the table herself to eat, only on a rare occasion, maybe a Holiday.
I believe the reason she would add the
*extra egg yoke was because she worked at a bakery part time and there was a surplus of extra yokes left over.
She would use two pots, one to reheat (or make) the broth, with just a few carrot slices and onion added. Her broth was always clear. The second pot was to make the noodles, which was ladled into the bowl of broth just before serving. She never added much salt to the broth or soup; this was “to be done at the table” as she would say. The noodles do absorb a lot of salt, so it is best to salt just prior to eating.
She alway had a huge dill plants growing outside the kitchen window, possibly enough dill for a hundred people. I can't believe I actually buy dill to use today.
The recipe doesn't take many ingredients to make, just the broth: chicken carcass and some vegetables and the noodles: an egg, flour, and salt. The broth makes good use of a chicken carcass that may otherwise be thrown-out in a Western civilization, but not in Poland and not in Old Poland for sure... The Polish People tend to make the most of what is at hand. Thrifty tendencies is apparent in the Polish culture and is understandable since Poland has had to endure so many struggles throughout history.
I hope I explained the recipe well, but if not please comment. Many traditional Polish recipies were passed down form one generation to another by first hand experience and not by reading a recipe.
• Bobci's Meat Pierogi - a Traditional Meat (ground roast) filled Polish dumpling 
