recipes Archives - Hungarian Eats

The only chicken soup recipe you will ever need

The ultimate and easy chicken soup, that can serve as a full family dinner.

Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine Hungarian, Jewish

Keyword chicken, Hungarian, Jewish, recipe, soup

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 2 hours

Total Time 2 hours 30 minutes

Servings 6 people

Author Hungarian Eats

Ingredients

1.5 kg chicken
4-5 medium carrots
2-3 medium parsnips
2-3 garlic cloves
1 whole onion
1 whole tomato
1 bunch Italian parsley
1 medium slice pepper
¼ head savoy cabbage optional
1 head cauliflower optional
½ kohlrabi root optional
1/4 cup green peas optional
10-15 whole peppercorns
1 tsp ground turmeric
3 tsp salt
ground pepper
2-3 L water

Instructions

Separate the chicken (breast, thighs, wings, drumsticks, etc.), remove most of the skin and fat. Wash and prepare the root vegetables (peel the carrots, parsnips, celery root, kohlrabi). Cut the carrots and parsnips lengthwise into spears, cut the celery root and kohlrabi into two or three cubes. Remove the parsley stems.
The tomato, pepper, onion and garlic will go into the soup whole – no need to chop these. Remove the core and leaves from the cauliflower, but keep it in one piece, as it is easier to take it out when finished, and easier to serve.
Put the chicken pieces, all the vegetables, turmeric, pepper corns, salt and pepper into a large pot, and add 2-3 L cold water. Bring to a boil, then cover half way and simmer on low to medium heat for 1.5-2 hours.
Remove any brown foam from the surface with a spoon. Remove and discard the onion, whole tomato and pepper slice. Removing the garlic is optional.
Add more salt and pepper if needed.
Serve it with fine egg noodles or matzo balls.

Notes

Use a whole chicken with bones. The bones will add the real flavour to the soup.

If you don’t want to cut the chicken yourself, ask your butcher to chop it up, and remove the skin for you. I found it a huge time saver.

You can use a little saffron instead of turmeric. The point is to add a nice yellow colour to the soup.

If you don’t have fresh tomato, use a bit of tomato paste; if you don’t have fresh pepper, use a piece of bottled grilled pepper.

Using savoy cabbage, cauliflower or kohlrabi is optional, whatever you have at home, whatever you wish to use just throw it in. You can substitute the celery root with celery, but once you smell, and taste the celery root, there is no going back

To store the soup: filter the soup into containers, putting the meat and the vegetables into separate containers. Before reheating the soup, remove and discard the excess fat from the top of the liquid, then pour the soup into a pot, and place the vegetables and meat in. Always bring the soup to a boil and let simmer for a few minutes before serving.

If you wish to remove more fat from the soup before freezing, place the broth into the fridge for a few hours.

How we serve this soup in Hungary:

A chicken soup is a whole “production”, not only a soup. It makes a whole two-course dinner when we serve it in Hungary.

I serve the broth first, with noodles (boiled separately – don’t boil them in the soup!) and vegetables. I put a spoonful of noodles into an empty bowl, then I add some vegetables (a carrot, a parsnip, a celery root, some parsley, whatever you want), and then I pour on the hot broth.

For the second course, the chicken pieces are served whole with roasted and boiled tarhonya, farfel or Israeli couscous and sour cherry or plum compote on the side. You can usually find these compotes in the European section of any larger supermarket. The farfel can be substituted with any other kind of pasta, or boiled potatoes or skipped entirely.

Heavenly brussels sprout casserole

Course Main Course

Cuisine Hungarian

Keyword brussels sprouts, casserole, Hungarian, sour cream

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Servings 4 people

Author Hungarian Eats

Ingredients

¾ kg brussels sprouts
1 cup Arborio rice
¾ kg minced meat
1 tbsp canola oil
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
pepper
2 tsp red mild paprika
2 tsp dried parsley or 2 tbsp fresh parsley
1 cup sour cream

Instructions

Prepare the rice. In a saucepan over the stove bring 2 cups of water to boil. Add the rice, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the water is absorbed.
Prepare the meat. In a pan on medium heat sauté the diced onions in 1 tbsp oil, until they are soft and golden. Add the meat, and sear it for a few minutes while stirring constantly. Add the minced garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, parsley. Lower the heat, cover and simmer it for about 8-10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 180 °C / 350 F.
Prepare the Brussels sprouts. Wash in cold water, cut the stem, peel off and discard any outer leaves that are old, yellow or dry. Cut the Brussels sprouts in half. Using a steamer basket, steam the Brussels sprouts for about 5 minutes, until they are fork tender.
Butter a large glass or ceramic oven proof dish. Spread first the rice in the bottom of the dish, then the meat, and the Brussels sprouts last.
Spread the sour cream on top, and place the dish in a preheated oven for about 30 minutes. Serve it hot with some pickles on the side. Bon appétit – Jó étvágyat!

Notes

Substitute the arborio rice with a rice of your choice

Use beef, chicken or turkey instead of pork, just pay attention the right cooking time depending on the type of meat

Add a few drops of water to the sour cream if it is too thick to spread

To reach a nice golden top (if it doesn’t have it after 30 min on 180C), broil the dish at the end on high heat for 1-2 minutes