This is a hearty and delicious soup made from inexpensive chicken legs and thighs. …and don’t worry if you have heard that Pastina is no loner available – it’s not true! In fact my local store even runs sales on Pastina!
You can make this soup using store-bought chicken stock or broth and adding diced boneless chicken breast. You can also use broth made from a cut of chicken that my local ShopRite store calls “Chicken Fat“, but my go-to version uses 3 chicken legs and 3 chicken thighs.
Why Legs and Thighs?
When my Mom lived nearby she would sometimes send me to the store saying, “Get me a package of a whole chicken cut up and a package of chicken backs and necks.”. So off I’d go and nine times out of ten both the cut up chicken and backs and necks were available. My reward for my shopping duties always came on my next visit to Mom’s apartment when she served me a rich and delicious bowl of chicken soup and a container of same to take home with me. Mom knew that the chicken back and neck made a wonderful broth and the whole chicken, cut up provided chicken meat, skin and bones that made the broth even better!
The Good Ol’ Days
Well, my Mom has been gone for a long while now (God rest her soul) and I’ve not seen either “whole chicken cut up” or “backs and necks” available in my local super market for almost as long. I could, of course, pick up a whole chicken and cut it up myself but I have found that using three good sized chicken legs and three large chicken thighs make a fine substitute, They are also cheaper and more convenient so that is what I use in this recipe.
Like All Great Soups This One Starts With A Great Broth
The first step is to make the chicken broth. We do this by simmering the chicken legs and thighs in lightly salted water for about thirty minutes. This will allow for the chicken meat to cook and add some flavor to the broth.
We remove the chicken and allow it to cool for a few minutes so that we can handle it without burning our fingers. Then we remove the skin and fat and pick the chicken meat from the bones. We cut the meat into spoon-sized chunks and set it aside and we return the skin, bones and fat to the simmering pot. There is a lot more flavor hiding in that bunch and we are going to simmer it out of them and into our broth over the next 45 minutes!
While the broth is simmering we cook our Pastina and when it’s done to al dente we rinse, drain it and set it aside for later in the preparation.
After the skin and bones have simmered for 45 minutes we add our seasoning; parsley, thyme, bay leaf, pepper corn, clove and garlic. We also add some frozen vegetable trimmings. These are the otherwise unused ends of celery, carrot and onion that we routinely collect and store in our freezer for just this purpose. If you don’t have a supply of trimmings don’t fret! You can just cut some fresh celery, carrot and onion and use that in its place. Either way, we return the pot to simmer for another 15 minutes and the broth is done! Strain it and set it aside, discarding the vegetable trimmings, skin and bones.
As the broth sits any chicken fat will float up and collect on its surface. This pale yellow fat, called Schmatlz by Jewish cooks is what my Mom considered to be liquid gold. We use it to saute our mirepoix (equal parts of diced celery, carrot and onion) imparting even more chicken flavor into our soup. We do this by skimming the fat from the top of the broth and transferring it to a second pot. We then heat the fat adding the mirepoix and a bit of salt and pepper and saute it over low heat until the onions turn translucent.
The Big Finish
We then pour the broth over the mirepoix and return it to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes to soften the vegetables.
All that is left is to add in the reserved chicken along with some butter for richness and lemon juice to add some brightness, return the soup to boil and sprinkle on your favorite Italian style grated cheese.
If we plan to eat the whole pot of soup in one sitting we add in all of the cooked Pasina and serve it. If we expect to eat the soup over several days then instead of adding the Pastina directly to the soup we add a few spoonfuls of Pastina to the bottom of each bowl and pour the hot soup over it just prior to serving. This ensures that the Pastina remains al dente.
Why don’t you give Chicken Pastina Soup a try and let us know what you think in the, “Leave A Comment” section below. We’d love to hear if you like it or not and if you’ve had it before in a restaurant or if you have made it for your family. Or maybe you have a hack of your own that you’d like to share with us. We love to hear from you!
Chicken Pastina Soup
Ingredients
- 3 Each Chicken Thighs About a pound of legs.
- 3 Each Chicken Legs About a pound of thighs.
- 1 Cup Vegetable Trimmings Or use 1/3 Cup each of celery, carrot & onion can replace the vegetable trimmings.
- 1½ Cup Diced Celery
- 1½ Cup Diced Carrot
- 1½ Cup Diced Onion
- ½ Cup Pastina
- 5 Quarts Water Divided
- ¼ Cup Grated Italian Style Cheese Parmesan, Romano,or a blend of your favorite Italian Style grated cheese .
- 3 Tsp Salt Divided
- ¼ Tsp Ground Black Pepper
- 1 Each Bay Leaf, Clove, Garlic Clove
- 6 Each Pepper Corn
- 1 Tsp Chopped Parsley
- ¼ Tsp Thyme
- 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice Optional
- 2 Tbsp Butter Optional
Instructions
Preparation
- Make a broth by combining the chicken, 4 quarts of water, and 2 teaspoons of the salt in a tall pot. Bring it to boil then lower the heat & simmer for 30 minutes.
- While the broth is simmering, in another pot, add a teaspoon of salt to one quart of water and bring to boil. Sprinkle in the pastina and cook for 5 minutes.
- Drain, rinse and reserve the pastina discarding the water.
- After 30 minutes of simmering, remove the chicken & when cool enough to handle, separate the skin and bones from the chicken meat. Break or cut the chicken meat into bite sized pieces and set it aside. Return the skin and bones to the broth and return to simmer for 45 more minutes.
- Add the vegetable trimmings, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, peppercorn clove and garlic to the broth and return to simmer for 15 more minutes.
- Strain the both, reserving the liquid & discarding the cooked skin, bones spices and vegetables.
- Skim some of the chicken fat from the top of the stock and use it to saute the diced celery, carrot & onion in a tall pot.
- When the onions turn translucent pour in the stock and return to a simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add in the chicken and return to boil then add in the cooked pastina, adjust salt and pepper as needed, add lemon juice butter if you are using it and serve with a sprinkling of grated cheese.