Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 kg chicken pieces, preferably thighs or whole legs
  • 1 large onion, peeled
  • 1 sprig fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, with the stems reserved (optional)
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 4 -6 medium boiling potatoes or 1 1/2 cups very fine noodles (soup noodles)
  • 4 carrots, peeled if you like and cut in 5 cm lengths
  • 2 stalks celery & tops, sliced (optional)
  • 6 -8 cups water
  • salt & freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 pale green squash or 4 zucchini, cut in 5 cm lengths
  • 225 g mushrooms, quartered
  • 4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
  • 1 -2 teaspoon ground cumin, to taste (optional)
  • 3 -4 tablespoons chopped fresh dill or 1 tablespoon dried dill

Method

  • Put chicken pieces in a large stew pan or soup pot.
  • Leave the onion whole for easy removal or cut it in large dice if you want to eat it in the soup.
  • If you like, tie the thyme sprigs, parsley stems and bay leaves together with kitchen twine or wrap them in cheesecloth for easy removal.
  • Peel potatoes and add to pan.
  • Add onion, carrots, celery, thyme, parsley stems and bay leaves.
  • Pour in enough water to cover the ingredients by a couple of centimeters and add salt.
  • Bring to a boil.
  • With a large spoon, remove the foam that collects on top.
  • Cover and cook over low heat for 45 mins.
  • ,occasionally skimming off the foam and fat that collects.
  • Add squash, mushrooms, garlic, cumin and pepper and bring to a simmer.
  • Cover and cook over low heat for 15 minsutes or until chicken and vegetables are tender and soup is well flavored.
  • Remove herb bundle or loose herbs.
  • Cook noodles in a large pan of boiling salted water about 7 minutes or until just tender.
  • Drain well.
  • Keep the noodles in a separate container if you plan to reheat the soup; otherwise they soften too much as they sit in the soup.
  • Before serving the soup, thoroughly skim the fat from the broth.
  • The cooler the broth is, the easier this will be.
  • The simplest way is to refrigerate the soup so the fat solidifies on top and can be easily removed.
  • Otherwise, skim the fat from the soup's surface several times with a large spoon.
  • Remove chicken pieces and discard their skin.
  • Leave pieces whole or pull or cut meat from bones; return chicken to soup.
  • For a lighter dish, you can reserve part of the meat for other uses.
  • Reheat soup if necessary.
  • If noodles are cold, bring them to room temperature or reheat them in a covered dish in the microwave.
  • Add dill and chopped parsley to soup.
  • Taste and adjust seasoning.
  • Serve the soup in fairly shallow bowls.
  • Add noodles to each bowl when serving.