After thumbing our noses at Montclair’s postponing of Halloween (we went out on Monday the 31st anyway), I feel as if some Victorian witch put a curse on our house and has shown us what happens when you ignore Jersey rules.
So what’s a new bride to do?
Or better yet, what are all the newly minted mother-in-laws to do? They send my new husband emails indicating that it’s my wifely duty to make chicken soup. Does it matter that I’m sick, too? Of course not. I am the wife and apparently this is my duty, as it has been for generations of shtetl wives before me.
I drove to the Montclair King’s and bought a big fat 5-pound chicken (I had carrots, celery, onion and herbs at home). I made hubby my New Bride Chicken Soup. And it was delicious. So delicious it was ladled into thermoses and brought to his office (because homemade chicken soup is something you can’t find in Manhattan). We slurped and slurped, yet somehow the 8 quarts of love lasted through the weekend.
And it’s a good thing it did, because after cheering/screaming my head off at the New York City Marathon yesterday, now I’m the one without a voice, and in desperate need of the soup that mends body and soul. Because everyone needs a bowl of chicken soup now and then. And an enthusiastic wife or significant other to make it.
New Bride Chicken Soup
One big fat (5-pound) chicken
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 stalks of celery, sliced
1 big onion, chopped
2 pounds chicken backs and necks, cut into 3-inch pieces
kosher salt
1/4 cup roughly chopped parsley
1 teaspoon fresh thyme sprigs
2 cups leftover cooked rice (wild or white or brown), if desired
1. Put the chicken in a pot. Add water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and simmer for an hour. Remove the bird from the liquid, carefully, and let the bird cool until you can handle it.
2. Meanwhile, add the carrots, celery and onion to the simmering pot. Place chicken necks in a strainer, and lower into the simmering soup pot so that the bones are submerged in the liquid. Continue to simmer for an additional 1-2 hours, seasoning generously with salt.
3. When chicken is cool enough to touch, remove meat from bones, and add bones to the strainer with the necks. Shred the chicken with your fingers.
4. When the chicken soup has reached your desired chickeny-ness, remove the bones and discard. Add the parsley, thyme and rice (if desired) to the soup. Stir in 2 cups of chicken meat; save the rest for chicken salad.
Allison Fishman is the host of Yahoo’s Blue Ribbon Hunter and author of You Can Trust A Skinny Cook . For delicious humor & recipes, visit allisonfishman.com or follow @allisonfishman on Twitter.