Golden yellow chicken soup

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 600 g chicken thighs
• 3 ½ liters of water or instant chicken broth powder
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 300 g leek (1 medium stalk including the light green leaves)
• 400 g carrot(s) (1 medium carrot = approx. 120 g)
• 100 g celery (approx. 1/2, 1 cm thick slice of celeriac or 1 stalk of celery)
• 50 g onion(s) (1 medium onion)
• 20 g ginger (1 thumb-sized piece)
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tsp allspice berries
• some pepper
• 2 tsp curry
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 bunch of parsley
• 200 g kohlrabi (1 small head)
• 100 fennel (1 small bulb)
• 2 spring onions with green
• Parsley
• 200 g broccoli (1 head of broccoli = approx. 500 g)
• 200 g cauliflower
• 200 g chicory
• some salt, unnecessary when using instant broth

Instructions

Working time approx. 40 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour 40 minutes

The ultimate cold killer

Wash the chicken thighs and season with ground pepper and cayenne pepper. Sear them in a large pot – with a little oil and butter if desired. Then reduce the heat and sauté for about 10 minutes on low to medium heat. Meanwhile, trim the vegetables. Slice the carrots, leeks, garlic, and ginger. Dice the celery and onions. If you want to add the optional vegetables, chop the kohlrabi, slice the fennel, and cut the broccoli and cauliflower into florets. The more vegetables, the more effective the soup will be, but also the thicker its consistency. It will then become more like a stew. If you don’t like that, add more water or broth later. Add the vegetables to the chicken and sauté briefly, stirring occasionally. Season everything again with chili, if desired, sprinkle with curry powder and turmeric, and deglaze with water or instant chicken broth. Add quick-cooking vegetables like leeks, savoy cabbage, or cauliflower a little later if possible so they stay crunchy. Add the bay leaves, peppercorns, and allspice. To easily remove the soup spices later, it’s a good idea to put them in a tea infuser or tea strainer and hang them in the pot. Now add the garlic and ginger. The fresher the ginger, the more flavorful it will be. If necessary, increase the amount of ginger gradually. Let everything simmer over low heat for 30-60 minutes, depending on the size of the thighs and the amount of vegetables. For soup, the chicken should be floating in the liquid. The less liquid, the more flavorful and stew-like it will be. Remove the cooked chicken thighs from the soup, remove the meat from the bones, and cut into pieces. Caution: Small bones can easily come loose. Work carefully and remove any splinters or bones from the meat. Return the meat to the soup. If too much liquid has evaporated, add more stock or water. If you don’t like fat oozing from your soup, you can remove the excess fat with a paper towel. Simply place the towel broadly over the soup while it’s still simmering and then peel it off. People with colds should eat the fat oozing with it. Fever and coughs burn off calories quickly, and the fat provides an extra dose of energy. Sprinkle with finely chopped parsley and strips of spring onion before serving. Enjoy your meal and get well soon! A few additional preparation tips: You can, of course, also use a whole chicken for soup. However, this takes a very long cooking time (at least 90 minutes) and requires a very large pot. Chicken giblets are another alternative that is very inexpensive, has an even more intense flavor, and cooks faster (approx. 30 minutes). However, when removing the meat, small tendons and bones can quickly become detached, which can be dangerous if swallowed. I therefore always make my soup with the bone-in chicken thighs listed here, as I find they have the best cooking properties for this soup. I prefer to use instant chicken stock instead of water because it gives the soup a stronger flavor. Deglazed with white wine, the soup takes on a delicate, elegant taste. The more intensely flavorful vegetables then need to be reduced in proportion to maintain the delicate flavor. The stock, which is added after the wine, should also be much thinner. Using celery instead of celeriac makes the soup even more aromatic. It also doesn’t smell as strong. The spiciness of ginger and chili quickly clears a runny nose when you have the flu. So feel free to go more liberally with cold sufferers. You can also use more garlic here, as it has antiviral properties. Thanks to runny noses, patients can hardly smell it anyway. Speaking of smell: If you have a cold, feel free to sniff every spoonful of soup. The steam moistens the mucous membranes, and the heat helps absorb the essential oils from the spices and vegetables. This soothes mucous membranes and coughs, quickly clears the nose and lungs, and accelerates the healing process.