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With Passover on its way, I figured it was about time I got in touch with my cultural roots differently than I usually do. My typical practice often involves a bagel, lox and a nice schmear. This time, my efforts extended beyond wielding a cream-cheese-laden knife and washing that fishy smoked salmon scent off my hands. I went full tilt this time, people, and cooked up a nice batch of Jewish penicillin. That’s right, chicken noodle soup!

Oy vey!

A big boiling pot full of Jewish-y goodness can be a bit intimidating. After all, grandma after grandma after grandma have taken years to perfect this steaming vat, and not only was I trying to make this for the first time, I was making it on my own. And aside from peeling a parsnip into my drain and clogging it until the plumbers were able to come out yesterday (true story), I believe this dish was a resounding success!

One thing you will need to cook up this bad boy is time. You’ll spend a couple of hours boiling and such, so just budget appropriately. The first step: fill a BIG ASS pot with enough water to give you a butt-load of broth with plenty of room to add the literally (yes, literally) zillions of ingredients you will use. Put whatever chicken you have acquired into the cold water and start it on the path to boiling. Most recipes I found said to use a whole chicken, but since I had already bought a few chicken breasts and didn’t want to waste them, I decided to try my luck with those. Success! If you have the balls to rip out those giblets and stick your hands up into the bird’s chicken-y caverns, I say go for it! Even though most people don’t like dark meat, it’s a real staple in chicken soup because it is so moist, and you can’t beat a stock (read: broth) made with bones, says my grandma. So bring your chicken water to a boil, and let it keep bubbling for about half an hour.

While you wait for that to cook, it’s veggie choppin’ time! Assemble the following: about four carrots, a big parsnip (looks like a lumpy, white carrot), around four stalks of celery, a big handful of parsley, two large-ish onions and a clove or two of garlic. Chop everything EXCEPT THE ONIONS into tasty morsel-sized pieces. You might want to seriously dice that parsley into a fine powder, unless you are weird like me and enjoy munching of full stalks of the stuff, and are known for asking people if they are going to eat that parsley garnish on their plate of pasta (another true story). Leave the onions whole, just peel them! Once your half hour of chicken-boiling time is up, toss all the veggie bits in the water and place those big onions in gently – I learned this the hard way after attempting a basketball game with the onions and splashed very very hot water all over my hands. That way you’ll get a really nice flavor without onion chunks floating around in there, getting all slimy. This is also the time when you season to taste. Us Jews enjoy a very salty meal, but as always, you should season to your own unique taste. Remember, you can always taste the broth as it cooks and adjust as needed! I have this great “21 Seasoning Salute” that I got at Trader Joe’s, which has a bunch of different kinds of pepper and such in it, and turned out to be a great addition.

Now, we wait! Most recipes say to let the soup cook for about an hour and a half, but I found that mine took closer to an hour. You want the heat to be somewhere between a boil and a simmer. Basically, you need the water to be moving around enough to keep your ingredients, esp. the chicken, in motion so they don’t burn. You might want to give the thing a good stir everyone once in a while too, just to keep your spices on the go. After an hour or so, take out a bit of chicken, cut into it and see if it’s cooked yet. What the hell, taste it too! Once the chicken seems to be edible, take it out and LET IT COOL while you keep your broth cooking. That way, it retains as much delicious moisture as possible. Once it’s cools, shred it up and stick it back in the broth.

While that all reconvenes, take a packet of noodles of your choice (I used those fun twirly ones) and boil until it’s almost ready. Then transfer the pasta into the still-simmering soup and let it soften up. And guess what? It’s time to eat! If you really want to remember my people’s struggle, try munching on a piece of matzo bread with your meal! Lamb’s blood above the door is optional.

Photos by Jessy, booleansplit and Eli Hodapp

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