Traditional Chicken Noodle Soup and Chicken Salad

Soups are another point of difference between American and European cuisines. Especially in Central Europe, clear brothy soups are very popular, but in the U.S. you can hardly find them. In my home country, Serbia, we call soups (supa) only those clear ones, while for the other soups we have different name - čorba (chorba). If, for example, you say bean soup, people from over there would be confused because it can only be bean čorba.

In Europe, we like to make this soup not only with chicken or even rooster, but with beef or veal too. Some people would make it with especially thin and long noodles or they would add semolina dumplings.

Since my family is not crazy about pouched chicken I would rather make salad of it, so that is why in this post you will get bonus recipe for chicken salad. This way you can make two-course dinner for your family.

Traditional Chicken Noodle Soup

You need for broth that serves 6-8 people:

1 1/2 - 2lb chicken (I like to use chicken breast, but people use very different parts - tights, wings, neck, even legs... if you use meat with skin soup will be fattier)
3 quarts of water
8 black peppercorns
1 medium onion
2 large carrots
3 celery stalks
1 large parsnip
Salt
Handful parsley, reserve some for decoration

Dried egg noodle

Steps:

Half the onion and roast it in toaster oven until it gets some brown spots. Cut carrots, celery and parsnip into big pieces. Pour 3 quarts of water into a large pot, add meat, peppercorns and vegetables. Cook it on medium-high heat. When soup starts to boil decrease the heat to low, cover it with lid and simmer for at least 1 hour - more you cook better the soup. Just before the broth is done, add handful of parsley and salt to taste.

Strain broth and save carrots and chicken. Reheat the broth in medium pot and when it starts to boil again, add noodles - as much as you like. After few minutes of cooking noodles are done. Add back cooked carrots and chicken meat to the soup. Garnish with ground black pepper, chopped parsley or chives. Serve it hot.

Chicken Salad

You need:

Poached chicken meat from the broth
2 scallions, sliced
5 radishes, sliced
Handful parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 lemon juice
Salt and black pepper
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons mayonnaise


Steps:

Chop the chicken. Place the meat in the bowl, add scallions, radishes, parsley, mustard, lemon juice, salt, black pepper, sour cream and mayonnaise. Toss it well. Serve it on toasted or fresh slice of bread with lettuce.