Chicken soup with kneidlach (matzo balls)
A clear, golden chicken broth, simmered for hours with carrot, celery, and onion, in which float fluffy matzo meal and egg dumplings. Simple, salty, deeply comforting.
A clear, golden chicken broth, simmered for hours with carrot, celery, and onion, in which float fluffy matzo meal and egg dumplings. Simple, salty, deeply comforting.
Look, listen: when you're knackered, your voice is wrecked before a gig, or you're just feeling down, there's only one thing that works. My grandmother Cynthia's chicken broth. You let the chicken bubble for hours with the carrots and celery until the kitchen smells like her house, and you drop your kneidlach in — don't fuss them too much, or they'll go hard as rocks. I like them soft and soaking up all the broth. It's not fancy, it's not glamorous, but mate, it fixes a broken heart better than anything.
- •Whole chicken (with its fat) — 1 good chicken (base of broth)
- •Carrots — a few (sweetness and color)
- •Celery stalks and onion — 1 bunch / 2 onions (aromatics)
- •Matzo meal — a bowl (dumplings)
- •Eggs — a few (bind dumplings)
- •Schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) — a spoonful (dumpling tenderness)
- •Salt, pepper, parsley — to taste (seasoning)
Chicken soup with kneidlach (matzo balls)
A clear, golden chicken broth, simmered for hours with carrot, celery, and onion, in which float fluffy matzo meal and egg dumplings. Simple, salty, deeply comforting.
Why this dish? Amy claimed her Jewish heritage and the cooking of her childhood in Southgate. Golden chicken soup with matzo balls is THE comfort dish of Ashkenazi Jewish families in London: the grandmother's, Friday night's, and the one you ask for when you're feeling under the weather — a comfort that suited her fragility well.
Look, listen: when you're knackered, your voice is wrecked before a gig, or you're just feeling down, there's only one thing that works. My grandmother Cynthia's chicken broth. You let the chicken bubble for hours with the carrots and celery until the kitchen smells like her house, and you drop your kneidlach in — don't fuss them too much, or they'll go hard as rocks. I like them soft and soaking up all the broth. It's not fancy, it's not glamorous, but mate, it fixes a broken heart better than anything.
Ingredients (period version)
- Whole chicken (with its fat) — 1 good chicken (base of broth)
- Carrots — a few (sweetness and color)
- Celery stalks and onion — 1 bunch / 2 onions (aromatics)
- Matzo meal — a bowl (dumplings)
- Eggs — a few (bind dumplings)
- Schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) — a spoonful (dumpling tenderness)
- Salt, pepper, parsley — to taste (seasoning)
Ingredients
- Chicken thighs + carcass — 1.2 kg (broth)
- Carrots — 3 (garnish)
- Celery stalks — 2 ribs (aromatic)
- Onions — 2 (aromatic)
- Matzo meal — 120 g (dumplings)
- Eggs — 3 (binder)
- Chicken fat or neutral oil — 3 tbsp (tenderness)
- Flat-leaf parsley, salt, pepper — to taste (finishing)
Method
- Put the chicken, carrots cut into large chunks, celery, and onions in a large pot, cover with cold water, bring gently to a simmer.
- Skim, then simmer on low heat for 2 to 3 hours. Salt at the end of cooking. Strain the broth (reserve carrots and chicken meat).
- For the kneidlach: beat the eggs with the fat, salt, add the matzo meal and 2 tbsp of broth. Mix without overdoing it, refrigerate for 30 min.
- Shape walnut-sized balls with wet hands (they will expand).
- Poach them for 25-30 min in simmering salted water, covered, without lifting the lid.
- Serve the boiling hot broth with a few carrot rounds, some chicken meat, 2 dumplings per bowl, and parsley.
How it was made : Matzo balls are descended from the unleavened bread of Passover (Pesach), where leavening is forbidden: matzo is ground into meal and transformed into dumplings. Chicken soup became the universal Jewish remedy — affectionately nicknamed 'Jewish penicillin' in the diasporas of Eastern Europe and later London and New York.
The contemporary twist : A pinch of fresh ginger and a squeeze of lemon in the bowl: it wakes up the broth and really feels like 'healing tisane'.
Sources : Claudia Roden, The Book of Jewish Food (1996) · Evelyn Rose, The New Complete International Jewish Cookbook
Amy Winehouse · Charactorium
