Sour Chicken Soup

Sour Chicken Soup - An old family recipe! Made with chicken, mixed vegetables and ditalini pasta, seasoned with a ton of herbs and fresh lovage.

This is soup that is near and dear to me, so don't fudge it up. Just kidding, it's simple enough to make that you shouldn't have any troubles. Immerse yourself in this traditional Romanian sour chicken soup, and remember - cooking is not an exact science! You have to taste what you are making as often as you can to get it right.

What is sour chicken soup?

A traditional Romanian soup consisting of chicken, ditalini pasta (or any pasta, or potatoes, or rice), mixed vegetables and a sour broth.

There are two ingredients that you might not be able to find in your grocery store, but are necessary for making a traditional sour chicken soup: Borș Magic, which is what makes the soup sour and adds a bunch of other herbaceous flavor as well and the second mandatory item is Lovage, which I personally never found in any store and ended up getting some seeds and planting my own (because I am a master of all trades). There is a third ingredient, Vegeta - but it can be substituted or simply removed. Honestly, the soup came up so tasty that you wouldn't really need any seasoning.

Borș Magic

There isn't really a good translation for this so if you are not around those parts you are out of luck. Traditionally, Romanian soup is turned sour by using 'borș' a liquid ingredient obtained from fermenting wheat or barley bran in water, but good luck finding anything similar in North America! However, you can definitely use lemon juice but not too much as the balance has to be just right or the lemon will over-power the whole damn thing.

Alternatively, you can find 'Borș Magic' in Polish stores, packages made in Romania by Knorr... I think.

Lovage

Lovage is somewhat similar to celery leaves as far as taste and aroma goes, but I found it a tad bit stronger and more flavorful.

Vegeta

Vegeta, because I put that #*%@ on everything! You can find it pretty much anywhere, but if not - use a chicken bouillon cube but only in case you really need it. Use a lot of bones and veggies in your soup and you can skip it.

Ingredients

Scroll down to the printable recipe card for FULL ingredient amounts and instructions, don't ask stupid questions.

• Water
• Chicken - A whole chicken *I did not use the breast or drumsticks, but you can throw pretty much anything else inside the pot, bones are mandatory!!*
• Salt & Pepper - To taste. You can also substitute with VEGETA which is somewhat salty.
• Olive Oil - Substitute vegetable oil, sunflower oil, canola oil or safflower oil.
• Onions - Use your preference, chopped.
• Carrots - Cubed.
• Celery - Stalks, cubed.
• Bell Pepper - Green bell pepper, cubed.
• Tomatoes - Cubed.
• Pasta - Ditalini or egg noodles ftw.
• Bors Magic or Lemon Juice - To make the soup sour! If you can't find Bors Magic, lemon juice will work - Freshly squeezed or store bought is fine.
• Parsley - Finely chopped.

Other:

• *Lovage & Vegeta - See above.

How to make sour chicken soup

1. Prep Pot - Pour about 5qt (approx. 5L) of water into a soup pot and get ready to make your amazing soup! (It's actually my soup).
2. Prep & Cook Chicken - Clean and chop your chicken in pieces (as small as you want them) and add to the pot with water. *I did not use the breast and drumsticks but you can throw inside the pot pretty much anything else, bones are mandatory*. Bring to boil and cook on medium heat for 20 minutes; remove the dark foam from the top with a slotted spoon or your soup will turn out dark and creepy - ew.
3. Prep Veg - Clean and chop all the veggies the way you want and set them aside. In a separate skillet, add a tablespoon of cooking oil of your choice and cook the onion for 5 minutes or until softened.
4. Add Ingredients - Add carrots, celery, peppers and saute for another 5 minutes. When done, add sauteed veggies to the pot with the chicken. Add tomatoes and pasta to the pot and keep cooking for another 15 minutes or until the pasta is done.
5. Make it SOUR! - Five minutes before removing from heat you can add the Bors Magic or lemon juice.
6. Finish - When you are done, check to see if chicken and pasta are properly cooked, remove from heat, add chopped parsley and lovage (if you managed to find it), cover again and let it rest for 10 minutes.

How to serve

Well, it's soup.. I would put it in a bowl and eat it with a spoon, no? Serve it up with a nice crusty bread to soak up all that broth. It is also amazing when hangover.

How to store leftover soup

Store your leftover sour chicken soup in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, or in the freezer for several weeks.

Reheating

Reheat soup in a large saucepan over medium heat until it's hot enough to eat, obviously but don't do the whole pot, only as much as you would need in that moment.