Rosół recipe (Polish chicken soup)
Servings: 6 servings (8 cups)
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken about 3 1/2 lbs (1.6kg)
- 1 pound beef meat with a bone 450g
- 1 large onion
- 2 large carrots
- 1 parsley root optional
- 1/2 leek
- a piece of celeriac or 2 celery ribs
- 3 bay leaves
- 3 allspice berries
- 20 black peppercorns do not substitute ground pepper
- 1-2 small pieces dried mushrooms optional
- a couple of twigs parsley
- a couple of twigs lovage optional
- 12 cups water 3 liters
- salt to taste
- 1 pound (450g) thin pasta for serving
Instructions
- First cut up the chicken into individual pieces, you won't need the breasts for this recipe (use them in another recipe). Next, clean the meat - this step is optional but it makes the soup less cloudy. The best way to do it is to pour water into a large pot, add the meat, clean it thoroughly from all the blood residues and debris, then carefully discard the water, leaving the meat in the pot.
- Add herbs and spices to the pot, but they should be under the meat (otherwise they float the surface and make skimming of the 'scum' harder).
- Prepare the vegetables: peel the carrots, celery root, and celeriac, cut in half. Peel the onion and burn it over a flame or place cut-side down in a dry pan and cook until dark brown/black. Cut off the dark green part of the leek, use only the white and light green part, cut in half, clean thoroughly.
- Add the vegetables to the pot.
- Add cold water to the pot. There should be about 2 inches (4-5 cm) of water above the meat and vegetables.
- Bring the soup to a gentle boil over medium heat. When it comes to the boil reduce the heat immediately and cook uncovered over minimum heat for 4 hours or 6 hours if using just chicken. Do not add salt to the soup (we're salting the soup at the end). It's super important that the soup is only SIMMERING - this means you should see a couple of small bubbles on the surface of the water. The soup shouldn't boil because it will make it cloudy. If you've noticed that your soup is boiling it will be cloudy but after some cooking time, it should be clear again.
- When the soup comes to a boil you will see foam form on the surface. This is just coagulated protein and doesn't affect the flavor of the soup but it can make it cloudy so I skim it with a small sieve or a spoon. Skim just the biggest pieces of scum and foam, you don't have to do it very thoroughly. Repeat this a couple of times while the soup is simmering.
- When the time is up, carefully remove any scum and foam that is on the surface of the soup, then strain the soup through a fine-mesh strainer. Discard the vegetables. When the meat is cool enough to handle, pull it off the bones and tear it into shreds with your fingers.
- Season the soup with salt to taste. Place some pasta in bowls and pour in the soup. Season the soup with ground black pepper to taste and enjoy!
Notes
- Instead of a whole chicken, you can use equal amounts of chicken wings and cheap chicken or turkey pieces such as like necks, giblets, carcass, wings, drumsticks (they are sometimes sold as chicken pieces for soup and are super cheap).
- Instant Pot Rosół: IP rosol comes out great! How to do it: use 7-8 cups of water (depending on how many will fit in your IP, we can use less water for the IP because the water won't evaporate like when you cook the soup on the stove), a whole chicken without the breasts (divided into smaller pieces) with neck and giblets, a 1 lb (450g) piece of beef meat with a bone, and the vegetables and spices listed in the recipe. You can use a little bit less vegetables because not all of it will fit in the IP. This recipe was tested in a 6qt (6l) pressure cooker. If you have a larger pressure cooker, you can use more ingredients. You don't need to clean the meat or skim the 'scum'. Cook the soup for 1h and 15 minutes at high pressure, then make a natural release (that means just turn off your Instant Pot and do nothing - wait for the pressure to go down. When the pressure pin is down, you can open your pot and the soup is ready). Now you need to strain the broth and you're good to go.
- How to serve this soup: angel hair pasta (cooked separately al dente) and ground black pepper are a must for me, shredded chicken meat and sliced carrots from the soup (optional), chopped parsley (optional).
- Storage:
- The quickest way to cool the soup: fill your kitchen sink with cold water and place the pot with soup in the water, change the water every 20-30 minutes until the soup is cool. Store the soup in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- Cold soup will turn into jelly - this is how it supposed to be! It will be liquid again when you warm it up.
- You can freeze it for up to 6 months. I usually freeze it in jars. Remember not to fill the jar to the full - frozen liquid increases its volume, so fill the jars about 3/4 full. I also like to freeze it in ice cube trays - it's easy to portion and add to sauces.
- What to do with leftover rosół: make Polish tomato soup (the most traditional way to use up rosol!) or you can also treat it like regular chicken broth and add it to various soups and sauces.
- What to do with leftover meat: you can serve it with the soup, add it to casseroles, various soups and stews, chicken chili, make chicken a la king, chicken pot pie, or make this chicken spread.
- Calories = 1 serving (1/6 of the recipe), without the pasta. This is only an estimate!
Nutrition
Calories: 51kcal