Grandma's easy homemade chicken soup recipe

Here's a quick version of Grandma's easy chicken soup recipe that only requires drumsticks, a cup of soup vegetables and salt as ingredients. Whether you make chicken soup when you have a cold, as a light supper or as a starter for a holiday meal - this simple soup recipe will keep you stress-free!

Jump to:

• Video
• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Which soup garnishes for chicken soup
• Shelf life & Reheating
• How to tell if chicken broth is bad
• Freezing & Defrosting
• 🖨️ RECIPE:
• Grandma's simple chicken soup

Chicken soup is often on my grandma's table. She makes this simple soup both for herself as a main course and for guests as a starter. She doesn't use a whole chicken for the soup (my grandma wouldn't "waste" it for a soup), but cheaper parts of the chicken such as giblets. In principle, however, the recipe works with all parts of the chicken that have bones, skin and fat on them.

This easy chicken broth recipe is best served with garnishes such as soup noodles, pancake strips (for example this fluffy Austrian pancake recipe from grandma), egg drippings, semolina dumplings or Austrian liver dumplings go well with it.

Video

In this short video you can see the most important steps of the recipe. You can find more videos like this on the Vienna Sunday Kitchen YouTube channel - I'd love you to subscribe! 🙂

Ingredients

You will need the following ingredients for this easy chicken broth recipe:

• Chicken parts with bones, meat and fat - you can use a whole soup chicken, soup giblets, but also legs or drumsticks, for example.

• Soup vegetables - carrot, yellow turnip, a piece of celery root, parsley root, a few stalks of parsley, a piece of leek

• Salt to taste - or alternatively soup seasoning

• Chives - to garnish

Instructions

Here are detailed step-by-step instructions with pictures.

Step 1

Peel the carrots, turnips and parsley root. Place in a pan with the rest of the soup vegetables and the chicken. Add water until everything is well covered. (Approx. 4 cups / 1 liter.)

Bring to the boil and simmer gently for approx. 45 minutes with the lid on.

Step 2

Remove the chicken and vegetables from the pan.

Season the soup well with salt or soup seasoning.

Step 3

Optional: if you want to add potatoes, noodles or similar to the soup, add now and cook for about 5-10 minutes until done.

In the meantime, remove the meat from the chicken bones. You can also serve only part of the meat with the soup and use the rest for another dish.

Step 4

Cut the soup meat into small pieces.

Cut the soup vegetables into small pieces or serve whole, optionally.

It is important not to store the vegetables, especially the carrots, in the soup overnight, otherwise it will become too sweet. My grandma even reheats the carrots in an extra pot if she has already prepared the soup the day before.

Step 5

Return the soup meat and vegetables to the soup.

Serve sprinkled with chives.

Which soup garnishes for chicken soup

The following garnishes go well with this easy chicken soup recipe:

• Soup noodles

• Boiled potato cubes

• Pancake strips (for example, according to this fluffy pancake recipe from grandma)

• Egg Drippings

• Semolina dumplings

• Biskuitschöberl

• Liver dumplings

Shelf life & Reheating

How long is chicken soup good for? Chicken soup will keep in the fridge for about 2 days. (A day or two more if you kept it cool right after cooking.) Chicken soup does not keep quite as long as beef soup or vegetable soup.

Leftover chicken soup should be cooled as quickly as possible so that it does not turn sour.

It can be cooled, for example, by pouring it into a cold pot, adding a few ice cubes or, in winter, on the terrace or balcony.

Tip: My grandma always keeps the soup vegetables (especially the carrots) outside the soup so that the soup doesn't become too sweet overnight.

To reheat, simply bring the chicken soup back to the boil on the stove and simmer for approx. 5 minutes without the soup vegetables. Then add the soup vegetables and continue to cook briefly.

How to tell if chicken broth is bad

Chicken broth lasts in the fridge about 2-3 days, if correctly stored, probably one or two days longer. If you are not sure if your homemade chicken broth is still good, do the following 3 steps:

1. How does your chicken broth look? Can you see any mold? (This happens usually only if you stored it for too long outside of the fridge.)
2. How does it smell? Does your chicken broth smell sour?
3. Taste it - does is taste a bit sour? If so, it is not safe to eat anymore.

Before serving, bring to a boil on the stovetop and cook without the soup vegetable for about 5-10 minutes. Add the veggies and cook for another minute until they are hot.

Freezing & Defrosting

Chicken soup can be frozen well, but ideally without the soup vegetables and soup garnish like pasta or potatoes.

Leave in the fridge overnight to defrost and simmer in a pan for about 10 minutes the next day.

🖨️ RECIPE: