Chicken Soup with Pancake Strips - Family Sunday Lunch part 2

I grew up in the south west of Germany and this is a traditional soup from the area. In most families this soup is made with beef stock. This recipe is made with chicken stock as I am using the rest of the chicken from the Coq au Vin recipe. If you are vegetarian you can also make it with vegetable stock. This soup is a nice way to use up the left over pancakes from Sunday's breakfast. I have to mention that where I am from we make pancakes without sugar in the dough. This way you can fill them with a topping of your own choice, may it be honey or cheese.

I recommend that you make the chicken stock for this soup a day in advance and store it overnight in the fridge. This way all the fat is forming a hard layer on top of the soup and you can remove it easily before you heat the soup on Sunday. Besides this it is not advisable to store raw chicken meat for a long time. This recipe is for Chicken stock but the same way you can make beef, lamb or fish stock and use it in a variety of recipes.

As I used only the chicken legs and breasts for the Coq au Vin I still have the wings and the rest of the chicken. To get pieces that fit into my pot I cut the rest of the chicken along the spine into half. Than I cut these halves again into half. This is best done with a poultry scissor but you can also use a big sharp kitchen knife for it.

I put the chicken pieces in a big pot (it should hold at least 4 litres) and add to it 25 crushed peppercorns, 1 teaspoon salt as well as 150g carrots, 70g celery, 100g leek, 70g onion all cut into pieces. Further I add 5 crushed corns all spice, 2 cloves garlic cut in half and a few stems parsley. I fill the pot up with water and boil it covered with a lid for a minimum of 2 hours to bring out all the flavours.

After cooking I let the stock cool down a bit. Than I pour it through a strainer to segregate the liquid from the solid parts. I discard the vegetables. Now I carefully remove the meat from the bones and keep it aside until it is time to serve the soup.

I put the stock into a container and keep it in the fridge to let the fat form a solid layer on top of it. This fat layer I remove before re-heating the stock at the time of serving.

For the pancakes I beat 2 eggs (120g) until I have a pale yellow foam. To this I add 100ml soda water and 120g sieved flour. I carefully mix all ingredients together to get a semi-liquid dough. I heat a mid size non-stick pan and bake 6-8 pancakes (20cm in diameter) out of the dough.

It is important to let the pancakes cool down completely before putting them into the soup as they otherwise absorb too much liquid and get very soggy.

Before serving I re-heat the chicken stock and season it with pepper and salt. I take 1 bunch of chives or spring onions and cut it in small rings. Further I cut the cold pancakes first in half and than into 0,5cm wide stripes. For serving I place in each soup bowl first some pancake strips, than some chicken meat and top it with the chives. Now I carefully pour the boiling hot soup over it and serve it immediately.

Enjoy and have fun in the kitchen!

Love

Carola