Friday, February 24, 2006

Matzo Ball Soup

Last week I roasted a chicken for dinner. Once we were done I set aside the remaining wing and legs for my husband to take to work for lunch and I saved the rest of the carcass in a large plastic bag. It took up a fair amount of space in the fridge and it sat there mocking me for a few days. Tuesday I was finally motivated enough to make soup.

I have a large stock pot with a nice stainless steel colander. I left the colander inside the pot and plopped the carcass inside of it. I then added some baby peeled carrots and a roughly chopped onion. (I would have added celery but, alas I was out and I didn’t feel like trekking out to get it.) I then filled the pot with a mixture of water and few cans of chicken broth I had on hand (there wasn’t quite enough meat on the carcass to get the volume of soup I wanted so I had to pad it out a bit) until the carcass was covered. I add a little salt and pepper and let it simmer for a couple of hours.

In the mean time I made the matzo balls. I admit I cheat and use the mix (I use the plain mix without the soup packet). For a very funny run down on how to make matzo ball soup you have to check out this site. (But don’t click on this, tri-color matzo balls is just plain wrong.) Once the mix is properly chilled I make the little matzo balls and place them on a plate. Then just before I cook the matzo balls I pull out the colander that contains the carcass and vegetables and put the whole thing in a large bowl. The matzo balls then get plopped into the simmering soup and the lid gets slapped on top. The matzo balls need to be simmered for 20 minutes with the lid on, do not peek.

While the matzo balls are doing their thing I pull out all the bones and carefully clean off all of the remaining bits and pieces of chicken meat. The meat, along with the carrots and onions will go back into the soup. The skin and bones all get tossed.

Once the matzo balls are done I put back the meat and vegetables. Here is the final product:

matzaball
Originally uploaded by Teckelcar.


It is not a traditional matzo ball soup, but it is very tasty.

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