Yes, you really do need another recipe for chicken soup.
Lemony Chicken Soup is a concentrated, lemony broth with lots of veg and fresh herbs. Oh yes, and some chicken. It’s light and bright and good for what ails you.
If you’re missing carbs, you could serve it with a hunk of sourdough bread or ladle it over a bowl of steamed baby potatoes. If you have the time and feel like something special, you could add Sourdough Dumplings to this Lemony Chicken Soup. You’ve been good. You deserve it!
This soup reminds me of a rich chicken and rice soup that my friend Liz delivered to us when Ron’s brother died. It was exquisite – I could hear the angels sing. The secret to her chicken soup and to this version is the homemade chicken stock. Liz adds chicken parts to her soup pot and commits to a long simmer – it’s heavenly. If I had time, I’d do that too, but usually I add the left-over carcass of a roasted chicken to my instant pot, which produces a stock that’s not exactly heavenly, but it is on its way to earning its wings.
Each of the vegetables add something that makes this soup divine. The green peas and asparagus add a springy, fresh note. The carrot rounds and the celery half moons are so pretty. The chicken is savory and the preserved lemon is bright and tangy. Lemony Chicken Soup wouldn’t be what it is without each of these elements. It’s so good, you’ll remember it vividly after the soup pot is empty.
Lemony Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 8 cups homemade chicken stock
- 1 ¼ pounds boneless, skinless chicken parts
- 2 T butter
- 1 leek
- 2 carrots
- 2 celery stalks
- 4 cloves garlic
- ¼ t cayenne pepper flakes
- 2 wedges preserved lemon
- salt and pepper
- ½ cup frozen peas
- ½ cup asparagus
- chopped dill or other fresh herbs of your choice (optional)
Instructions
- Prep the veg and lemon – Halve the leek lengthwise, rinse out any grit, then thinly slice crosswise. Slice the carrot and celery, about 1/2 inch thick slices. Peel and smash the garlic. Discard the flesh and seeds of the preserved lemon, and finely chop the peels. Cut the asparagus diagonally into one-inch pieces.
- Sauté the leeks and simmer the soup – Set the Instant Pot to the Sauté setting, and soften the leeks in the butter. Cancel the sauté and add the chicken stock, chicken parts, carrots, celery garlic, cayenne, preserved lemon, and salt and pepper to taste. Set the Instant Pot to Slow Cook, and simmer for about four hours.
- Finish and serve – Pull out the chicken pieces, shred them, and return them to the pot. Cancel the Slow Cooker function and return the Instant Pot to Saute mode. Add the peas, asparagus, and cook until just barely tender. Stir in handfuls of fresh herbs if you like, and serve.
INGREDIENT NOTE:
This Lemony Chicken Soup isn’t the same without using preserved lemons. I make my own preserved lemons, following the instructions on the Serious Eats website. What makes the Serious Eats’ process different from others I’ve seen is that they macerate the lemon slices in salt and sugar overnight before packing them into the jars. The lemons give up quite a bit of their juice in the process, so when you pack them in the jar you’ll be storing them in, you’ll be able to submerge the lemons in their own juice without needing to add any water. You don’t want to dilute their lemony essence.
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