Want to take four hours to make chicken soup, as opposed to the customary five minutes? Read on.
The following is an illustrated guide to the chicken soup recipe from Ad Hoc at Home, by Thomas Keller.
Start by saving up chicken carcasses for a few months so that you can make some chicken stock (see Ad Hoc for recipe). Allow several hours for preparation. Or, if you’re exceedingly lazy, buy some chicken stock from the store.
To begin the actual recipe, melt 4 tbsp of unsalted butter in a large pot.
Next, thinly slice 1 cup of carrots:
Coarsely chop 1 cup of celery:
Coarsely chop 1 cup of leeks. To chop the leeks, first cut off the green leaves. Then, slice the remaining whitish stalk in half, and wash between the layers thoroughly. Once clean, it can be chopped.
And chop 1 cup of onions (pro tip: stick the onion in the freezer for awhile prior to chopping to avoid horrible eye water).
Once everything is chopped, toss it in the pot with the melted butter (in reality, the chopping will take awhile, so you probably don’t want to start melting the butter until you’re ready). Season with a little bit of kosher salt.
Reduce the heat on the pot to low, and cook for 30-35 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Stir once in awhile.
While the vegetables are cooking, start boiling a chicken breast in a small pot of lightly salted water. Once the chicken is fully cooked through, take it out of the pot and let it sit for a few minutes to avoid damaging your hands. Once it’s cool enough to handle, start tearing it apart into strips, and set aside.
To make the dumplings, fill another large pot with salted water, and bring it to a simmer. Measure out and prepare your ingredients:
- 1/2 cup water
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1.5 tsp kosher salt
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tbsp and 1 tsp minced chives
In a medium saucepan, combine the water, butter and 1tsp of salt and bring it to a simmer over medium high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and add the flour, then stir rapidly until the dough is no longer sticking to the pan. Continue stirring for 4-5 minutes, until steam rises from the dough and there is a “nutty aroma” of cooked flour.
Transfer the dough to a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and add the mustard and remaining 1/2 tsp of salt and mix for a few seconds. With the mixer on the lowest speed, add the eggs one at a time and then add the chives.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and use two soup spoons to begin forming the dumplings. Use one spoon to scoop up a portion of dough, then scrape the dough from the first spoon into the second, forming one long smooth side. Repeat this process several times until the dough forms a pleasing shape. Then, drop the dough into the simmering water (don’t do too many at a time).
As with gnocchi, once the dumplings rise to the surface they are done. Use a slotted spoon to transfer them to the baking sheet, and allow them to cool.
Once the vegetables have finished cooking and are nice and soft, add 4 quarts of chicken stock to that pot. Simmer the vegetables in the chicken stock for 30 minutes to extract their flavour, then strain the liquid through a mesh strainer, and discard the vegetables (aren’t you glad you spent so long chopping them?)
Now for the vegetables you’ll actually eat. Take 5 stalks of celery, and peel them with a vegetables peeler. Cut each stalk crosswise on the diagonal into thin slices, until you have around 1.5 cups of chopped celery.
Cook the celery in a large pot of boiling salted water (I hope you have a lot of pots and burners) until it’s tender. Then, drain it and cool it quickly in an ice bath (to preserve a nice green colour), and drain again.
Take three large carrots, and chop them lengthwise into quarters. Then, cut them crosswise into bite sized pieces (you need about 1.5 cups again).
Once the carrots are chopped, toss them in a pot along with a bay leaf, 1 tsp of honey, 2 thyme sprigs, 1 large garlic clove which has been crushed with the skin left on, and a little bit of salt and pepper. Cover with cold water, bring to a simmer, and cook for 4-5 minutes, until the carrots are just starting to get tender. Drain and dry on a paper towel.
Bring the soup base (which you had previously strained the vegetables out of) to a simmer. While that’s happening, make a quick roux. Melt approx. 5 tbsp butter in a pan, then slowly add 1/3 cup of flour, stirring frequently. Once the soup base is simmering, whisk in the roux a little bit at a time. Simmer the soup base for 30 minutes.
While it’s simmering, mince 1/4 cup of chives.
Finally, add the dumplings, chicken, carrots, celery and chives to the soup, and heat everything back up. Season with salt and pepper and vinegar if you have the energy, then serve and enjoy (or pass out and go to sleep).
You may have noticed the tasty whole wheat baguette in the picture above. Rather than being a chump and buying it from the store like some sort of peasant, make one yourself in parallel with the soup. Here’s how:
Combine the following ingredients (in the following order) in your bread machine:
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp white sugar
- 1 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour
- 1/8 cup of vital wheat gluten (will make it much less rock like)
- 3/4 tsp bread machine yeast
Set your bread machine to the dough setting, and start it up. Once the dough is ready, stretch it out into an oval shape. Fold in half and seal the edges, flatten it a bit, and then fold and seal again. Then, roll the dough into a log shape.
If you want a crustier bread, paint the outside with an egg white and water mixture. Cover the loaf with a cloth, and let it rise for about half an hour. Cut some slashes in the top of the loaf, then toss in the oven at around 400 for 20 minutes (or until it looks done). 
