Nanny Fela’s Epic Chicken Soup With Matzoh Balls For Passover

Nothing says the holidays like a big pot of my mom’s epic chicken soup–AKA Nanny Fela‘s Epic Chicken Soup with Matzo Balls.  Here’s my Passover friendly version of Nanny Fela‘s Soup, along with some scrumptious Passover noodles. Chag Sameach!

To make chicken soup:

Wash and dry the chicken leg quarters and flanken.  Place in a large stock pot and fill with water to cover by 1 to 2 inches.  Bring the water to a boil, skim off the foamy solids that rise to the top.

Reduce the heat to a simmer and add the carrots, parsnips, turnip, celery, onion, garlic cloves, parsley and bullion cube.

Once all the ingredients are at a simmer, partially cover the stockpot and cook the soup for about 2 hours.

Place a cheesecloth in a large sieve and strain the soup.  Discard most of the vegetables, but save the carrots and slice them into rounds to put into the soup.  Also, make sure to save the chicken and the flanken.  You can cut the chicken into chunks and serve it in the soup, or you can make chicken salad with it.  The boiled chicken freezes well, so you can freeze and save it for future use.

I like to place the strained chicken stock into a gravy strainer to remove the fat from the stock.  Or, you can refrigerate or freeze the stock and remove the fat the rises to the top and solidifies when cold.

The boiled flanken is very tasty and tender.  You can serve it in the soup.  Nanny used to serve it to Poppy David as part of a main course.

Place the chicken stock in the fridge or freezer.  Skim off the fat that forms at the top before heating and serving.

Nanny served this chicken stock with her famous matzoh balls.

To make matzah balls:

In a mixing bowl, beat well the 2 eggs and the vegetable oil.

Slowly stir in the contents of 1 packet of matzoh ball mix.

Add 1 tablespoon of matzoh meal to the mixture.

Chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

While the mixture is chilling, fill a large pot with water.  The water should come to within an inch or two of the top of the pot.  Bring the water to a boil.

Remove the chilled mixture from the refrigerator and form 1-inch balls, rolling them with your hands.

Drop the matzoh balls into the boiling water.

Cover tightly, reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Place matzo meal, cake meal and salt into a large mixing bowl and whisk together.  Add 1 ¾  cups cold water and whisk together.  Beat the 4 eggs, then add to the large mixing bowl along with the herbs and whisk all together.

Place in refrigerator for at least a ½ hour.  Have ready a 6 to 8 inch Teflon coated crepe pan or skillet.  Spray with vegetable spray.  Preheat the pan.  It should be hot to the touch, but not too hot or the batter will not spread.  Pour in enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan, by quickly tilting in all directions. If the crepe is too thick, you may have to add some more water to thin the batter. Cook for about 1 to 2 minutes, then flip the crepe to the other side and cook for about another minute.  It may take one or two tries before you get the right consistency for the crepe—it should be very thin and cooked through in the middle.  Roll the crepes, then slice into ¼ noodles.

You can make this recipe a couple of days ahead and refrigerate.  When ready to use, heat up your chicken broth and place the noodles in the broth for a couple of minutes before serving.