Best 4 Dutch Oven Chicken Soup Recipes

DUTCH OVEN CHICKEN SOUP

Steps:

• Rinse and clean whole chicken, taking out the giblets. You can cook these with the chicken for flavour if you like.
• Place your chicken into your Dutch oven or a large stock pot. I have "Vintage" Reverware and love it! But you use what you have. A 6 quart size is good.
• Fill the pot with water to cover the chicken, about 1/4 inch more over the chicken if you have room.
• Turn you burner on high with your stockpot centered and bring the water to a boil. Then turn the heat down to a slow boil and add the onion, pepper and powdered garlic. This will flavor you chicken.
• Cook the chicken through, until a fork pierces the main part easily, do not cook it off the bone or you'll have chicken mush, not soup.
• I set a very large Pyrex bowl in my sink, get out my largest stainless steel colander and place it in the bowl, and pour the whole pot of broth and chicken into the colander. Be careful about the steam so it doesn't scald you!
• Set the pot back on the stove (You did turn it off for now, right?).
• Lift the colander out of the bowl, straining the juice through it. Set it on a large plate or cutting board.
• Carefully pour the broth from the bowl to the stock pot. Turn the heat back on and simmer the broth. Add more water if necessary to bring the level up to about an inch from the rim of you pot. Use less liquid if you want less soup.
• Add potatoes, celery, carrots, rice and bouillon cubes to your broth at this point. Cover and simmer at a slow boil to continue to cook.
• On your cutting board: use a fork and knife to pull pieces from the cooked chick, leaving the skin, fat and bones to discard. I don't keep the onion from this either, it's just to flavor the soup. If you like, you can break the leg and thigh bones and add them to the broth so their marrow can continue to flavour the soup. Discard these bones before serving.
• Cut the chicken meat to sizes you like.
• Check your vegetables, if they are almost cooked, add your chicken back into the stockpot. Taste your broth and add seasonings and salt to taste. I have people who are sensitive to salt, so I don't cook with it often, but it's on my table.
• Finish simmering until vegetables are done. Turn off the heat.
• If you are making biscuits, leave the cover on and bake your biscuits now, while the soup "sets". If your family is like mine, this gives you a good excuse for a "breather" while your biscuits bake, and it sound so "secret recipe-ish".

BEST PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH CHICKEN CORN SOUP

Steps:

• In a large pot over medium heat, combine chicken, water, onions, celery, salt, nutmeg and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 2 hours, adding water as needed, until chicken is very tender. Remove the chicken from the soup. Refrigerate chicken and soup.
• When fat solidifies on surface of soup, remove from refrigerator and remove fat. Remaining soup should equal about 2 1/2 quarts.
• Remove corn from cobs by splitting kernels lengthwise with a sharp knife and scraping corn from cob. Combine soup and corn in a large pot over medium heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until corn is tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, place two of the eggs in a small saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Cover and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water, cool, peel and chop. Set aside.
• Chop cooled chicken meat and add to soup.
• In a medium bowl, beat remaining egg until light in color. Beat in flour and milk until smooth. Drop batter by partial spoonfuls into hot broth to make small (1/4 -1/2 inch round) dumplings. Cook, stirring constantly, for 2 to 5 minutes, until dumplings hold their shape and float to the surface. Stir in reserved cooked egg.

CHICKEN SOUP FROM SCRATCH

Steps:

• Place the chicken, celery, carrots, onions, parsnip (if using), parsley, peppercorns, bay leaves and salt in a large soup pot and cover with cold water by 1 inch.
• Bring to a boil over high heat, then immediately reduce the heat to very low. Adjust the heat until the soup is "smiling": barely moving on the surface, with an occasional bubble breaking through. Cook uncovered, until the chicken is very tender and falling off the bone, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
• When cool enough to handle, use tongs to transfer chicken from the pot to a container. Taste the broth and continue to simmer it until it is concentrated and tasty. Strain broth through a fine sieve (or a colander lined with cheesecloth) into a separate container. Discard all the solids from the strainer (or reserve the vegetables, chill and serve with vinaigrette, if you wish).
• Refrigerate chicken pieces and broth separately for at least 8 hours (or up to 3 days), until a thick layer of yellow fat has risen to the top of the broth.
• When ready to finish the soup, use your fingers to separate chicken breast meat from bones and skin. Discard bones and skin. Use two forks to pull the breast meat apart into soft chunks, or use a knife and cut into bite-size pieces. (Reserve dark meat for another use.)
• Skim chicken fat from top of broth and set aside. Place 3 tablespoons of the fat in a soup pot with a lid. Add leeks, stir to coat, and heat over medium heat until leeks begin to fry. Then reduce the heat to a gentle sizzle and cook, stirring often, until slightly softened, about 3 minutes.
• Add carrots, sprinkle with salt, stir, and cover the pot. Cook until vegetables are just tender, about 5 minutes more. (Keep in mind that vegetables will continue to cook in the soup.) Do not brown.
• Pour broth into pot with vegetables and heat to a simmer. Add noodles and simmer until heated through, soft and plumped with chicken broth. Add the breast meat, then taste broth and add salt and pepper to taste. For best flavor, soup should have some golden droplets of fat on top; if needed, add more chicken fat one teaspoon at a time.
• Serve immediately, in a tureen or from the pot, sprinkling each serving with herbs.

HOMEMADE CHICKEN SOUP

Steps:

• Put the chicken, carrots, celery and onion in a large soup pot and cover with cold water. Heat and simmer, uncovered, until the chicken meat falls off of the bones (skim off foam every so often).
• Take everything out of the pot. Strain the broth. Pick the meat off of the bones and chop the carrots, celery and onion. Season the broth with salt, pepper and chicken bouillon to taste, if desired. Return the chicken, carrots, celery and onion to the pot, stir together, and serve.