Verde Chicken Soup Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why do you put lemon juice in chicken soup? ›

Aside from the match-made-in-heaven, the real reason you should be adding lemon to chicken soup is because of its acidic properties. If you look at almost any soup recipe (or most recipes in general), you'll find they all have something in common: some type of acidic ingredient whether it's citrus, vinegar, or tomato.

Cold-poaching the chicken breasts, then removing them until the end of the cooking process, guarantees a perfectly tender and juicy texture. Using stock reinforces the flavor of the broth, creating a more deeply flavorful soup.

Herbs: Fresh chives, thyme, or cilantro stirred in just before serving. Spices: Your soup is probably salty enough, but what about simmering a bay leaf in there for a while (don't forget to remove it before serving)? Depending on the soup's flavor profile, you could shake in some cumin or red pepper flakes.

In an electric pressure cooker combine diced chicken, enchilada sauce, diced tomatoes, black beans, corn, chilies, cumin, and chicken stock. Set for 30 minutes or use the pressure cooker “Soup/Stew” setting. Release pressure, season with salt to taste, and serve.

Whether it's white wine or vinegar, a touch of acid added to the simmering pot will create a richer finished product. That's because acid helps break down the cartilage and other connective tissues in the bones of the chicken, which helps speed up the formation of gelatin in the stock.

Like a vinaigrette on a salad, the pickle on a burger, and the sour cream in a coffee cake, a squeeze of lemon gives chicken soup a game-changing brightness. And in fact, when it comes to soup, the fresh, fruity acid is even more magical and more pronounced, because it's added at the end.

Add flour or cornflour

You can also use flour or cornflour to thicken a soup. Put a tablespoon of either into a small bowl and stir in 2-3 tbsp of the soup until you have a smooth mixture. Stir this back into the soup and bring it to a simmer.

For a deeply flavorful chicken soup, get some boneless, skinless chicken thighs, season them, brown them in a skillet, then finish them in a 375 F oven. You can refrigerate them until you're ready to make the soup, then simply dice them up and add them to the soup at the very end.

Place chicken, carrots, celery, and onion in a large soup pot; add enough cold water to cover. Bring to a boil over medium heat; reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until meat falls off of the bone, about 90 minutes. Skim off foam every so often, as needed.

"If your broth is lacking in savory richness, try adding roasted onion, tomato paste, mushrooms, seaweed, soy sauce, or miso. These ingredients add umami flavor and depth to broth," she says. The choice of ingredient depends on the recipe, though.

What do bay leaves do in soup? ›

Bay leaves don't hit you over the head with intense aromatic flavor presence, but if they're included in a slow simmering soup, stew, or braise, they do add a subtle flavor layer that's going to lend a little more depth to whatever you're cooking."

Perk up a Bland Soup With Simple Pantry Staples

Add a splash of vinegar (any kind!), or a squeeze of citrus. Chances are, you could use a little more salt. Go ahead—it's ok. Salt perks up flat flavors and helps balance out bitter-tasting ingredients.

You turn on the heat, the pot heats up, and it's not long before all that whitish, greyish, or brownish foamy “scum” rises to the top of the pot just as it starts to simmer. What is that stuff, anyway? Broth scum is simply denatured congealed protein. It comes from the meat, not the bones.

The proteins and the fats that come out of boiling chickens into stocks and broth are yellow. Chicken soup is made out of chicken stock (the best way) or chicken broth (not as good), so therefore chicken soup is yellow. I've been making chicken stock (and broths) for chicken soup (and other uses) for years.

That same amount of water, blended with your food to turn it into soup, will be retained in the stomach while the solid nutrients are digested. The stretching of the stomach wall suppresses the production of the hunger hormone ghrelin, so you feel full for longer.

Here's why: Lemon juice helps to tenderize meat, but when left for too long, it will break down the proteins too much, making the meat tough and rubbery… sometimes even mushy. So, if you want tender, juicy, and flavorful chicken, make sure to only marinate the chicken for 2-3 hours.

Many marinades use vinegar as an acid substitute but lemon juice is more effective as it lends a citric flavor. Depending on how tender you want the chicken to be, and how zingy you want it to be, use anywhere from 1 tablespoon to ¼ cup lemon juice for marinades.

Like pickling, smoking, and curing, the practice of rinsing chicken with lemon juice probably started out as a way to neutralize any off-aromas in the meat and cut down on bacteria.