Chicken is our family’s favorite dish. Therefore, the question of which soup to cook from chicken is usually not worth it. It all depends on the set of products that is currently available in the house. But since we were born and raised in the south, where Armenians, Georgians, Abkhazians, Moldavians, Ukrainians, and many other peoples live together, in my kitchen there is always a huge supply of spices, and the cookbook is full of recipes for national dishes. Including chicken.
The simplest soup loves my youngest. He is ready to eat it several times a day. The recipe is straightforward. While the chicken stock is being cooked, I finely cut carrots, potatoes, and greens. I don’t cover the saucepan with the broth: the “breathing” broth, cooked over the slowest fire, is more aromatic. I take the chicken out of the finished broth, cut it into portions. And in its place I put potatoes and carrots, cut into strips, and at the end of cooking - greens. Sometimes I add noodles or homemade noodles to this simple chicken soup . Nourishing, tasty, and the products need a minimum.
But the husband and son have different tastes. The elder likes more rich, varied dishes. Therefore, especially for him, I use other recipes for chicken soups that the Armenian neighbors shared with me. Spicy, hearty, aromatic, these soups are in no way inferior to dishes served in expensive restaurants. My husband especially likes the soup with the almost unpronounceable Russian name Chhrtma. At home we call it saffron soup.
To prepare it, you first need to make a saffron infusion. We love strong, so pour a spoonful of saffron with a hill with boiling water, we insist for more than 2 hours. While boiling strong chicken broth, fry the flour in a pan, and finely chopped onion on the other. Armenian recipes for chicken soups are distinguished by a thick consistency, and it is better to achieve it using flour.
Separate the finished chicken from the bones, chop, return to the broth along with flour and onion. Let’s boil again. To prevent the formation of flour lumps, constantly stir. In a glass dish, grind the yolks with cilantro, pepper, wine vinegar or lemon juice. I usually do this in a mixer or, even better, in a blender. Gradually add the cooled broth and strained saffron infusion, and then pour this mixture into the broth, under which the fire was turned off. The first time I could not avoid the lumps, but then I got the hang of simultaneously pouring whipped squirrels and stirring the soup. It is impossible to bring to a boil: proteins can curl. Saffron soup is served immediately. Spicy, fragrant, nourishing, Chhrtma found his fans even among my husband's friends.
We still argue about which people the chicken soup with pumpkin belongs to. But, despite the fact that we have not established the ethnicity of the soup, we cook it quite often. As recommended recipes for chicken soups , cooking begins with the broth. It is cooked with onions, tomatoes, carrots, celery, which will then have to be thrown away. While the broth is being cooked, the cardamom pods with pumpkin are fried in butter. Cardamom should swell and the pumpkin should become soft.
Ready-made chicken meat, taken from the bones, boiled rice, stewed pumpkin, cardamom are mashed with a blender. Mix with broth, blend again, add a glass of thick cream, allow to boil quickly. Salt, pepper - to taste. You can add chopped zest for flavor. Such a soup is very good with whole-bread crackers.
But not all chicken soup recipes in my collection are so exotic and sophisticated. Often I cook simple soups from what is in the refrigerator. For example, you can add potatoes to the finished broth, then put separately boiled rice, a can of canned corn. Also tasty, satisfying, original.