Stephanie Nurenberg’s
Chicken Soup
Interestingly (and most unexpectedly), Stephanie Nurenberg actually doesn’t eat chicken soup at all.
“In my own adult life, I’m vegetarian,” she shared. “So I make it only when I have family company. It’s in my mind and my heart, but it’s not something that is part of my own taste buds any more.”
Chicken soup was an ever-present element of Stephanie’s childhood, until an unfortunate encounter with meat led to forty-six years (and counting!) of abstention from meat.
Because Stephanie’s mother worked full-time, her grandmother, who was from Romania, was her primary caretaker.
“She was the one who both carried out the traditions and the culture and made the food,” Stephanie said. “Funnily, I was never sure if the dishes she cooked were traditionally Jewish, or if she just called them that even though they were Romanian.”
Chicken soup was just one of her grandmother’s specialty offerings, one that Stephanie described as “Jewish penicillin, the traditional cure-all for everything.” So the answering remedy to any ailment, whether stomach pain or headache, was certain to be chicken soup.
“Not only was it good to eat,” Stephanie explained, “but there was also a sense that it was healing. I really think that, as a kid, I believed that soup was what made me better.”
She’s also passed down this recipe to her children, just as her grandmother did for her.
“To this day,” she told me, “my daughter, who lives near me, will ask me to make this soup for her when she doesn’t feel well.” Even though her son also doesn’t eat meat, he still remains partial to the broth and the vegetables.
Although Stephanie has continued to make this family recipe, she doesn’t see the cooking process as rigid—the complete opposite, in fact. Her grandmother never measured anything, and, as she remembers, there was really no need for a measuring spoon at all. To her, much of the appeal of cooking lies in the personal element of it.
“The soup is something that you make organically; you don’t make it through measurements. You just do it, and you do it to taste,” she said firmly.
“There are really no recipes, just guidelines and memories,” she concluded. “There’s a feel for it that I think is important.”
“And somehow, it always comes out tasting the way it’s supposed to.”
INGREDIENTS
Kosher chicken (at least one piece per person, plus a few extras), skin left on
Fresh onion, chopped
Parsnip, chopped
Purple turnip, chopped
Carrots, chopped
Celery, chopped
Parsley, chopped
Black pepper
let’s cook!
Cut up kosher chicken with skin left on.
In a large pot, add the chicken, then add enough water to well cover.
Add onion, parsnip, purple turnip, carrots, celery, and parsley
Add black pepper to taste. There is no need to add salt, Stephanie advises, because kosher chicken is salted.
Cook on medium flame, covered, until boiling.
Once boiling, switch to low flame and simmer for at least two hours. The longer the soup simmers, the more taste and more broth you’ll get, as marrow and collagen will be released from the bones and skin.
Place in refrigerator overnight.
The next day, remove the layer of chicken fat that has hardened on top of the soup. Stephanie recalls that during her childhood, this schmaltz was used on bread instead of butter.
Reheat soup until just above cool.
Remove chicken pieces with slotted spoon and set aside. Remove and discard skin and bones.
Return chicken pieces to soup, continue to heat to taste.
Enjoy!