Apr 22, 2011
This is basically the chicken soup I have been making for years and love. The vegetables and fresh herbs listed in the recipe are usually what is in supermarket "soup mix vegetables" packages here in the U.S. northeast. To reduce the fat I do use skin-on, bone-in split chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken. There is still some fat under the skin necessary to hold the flavors. To keep the vegetables from becoming flavorless mush, I cut them bite-sized but don't add them until ~20 minutes before the soup is done and don't puree them. I add the herbs in the last few minutes. My experience is that the split breasts are done and tender after 40 minutes of simmering. So I start the breasts around 20 minutes before the vegetables in lightly salted boiling water w/ a couple of teaspoons of cider vinegar to draw some of the calcium and gelatin from the bones and skin into the broth which enriches it, then sprinkle in the black pepper. Personally while I love all the other vegetables in this recipe, especially the parsnip, I find turnip tends to overwhelm the other flavors so I don't use it. The turnip that comes in the soup vegetable package is delicious mashed into mashed potatoes, though.
—Little Old Lady
