Knott's Berry Farm Charleston Chicken Soup
This is a nice sophisticated Chicken Soup. Last time I served it to friends the entire pot of soup was consumed.
This is a nice sophisticated Chicken Soup. Last time I served it to friends the entire pot of soup was consumed.
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- salt pepper
- 2 onions, diced
- 1 teaspoon parsley
- soup
- 10 cups water
- 1 parsnip diced
- mushroom dumplings
- 2 eggs, separated
- 1/2 cup mushroom finely chopped
- 3 lbs chicken cut up
- 6 carrots, diced
- 4 stalks celery with tops sliced
- 5 sprigs parsley cut into fourths
- Carbohydrate 198.798236599504 g
- Cholesterol 1445.21616583002 mg
- Fat 222.163294680921 g
- Fiber 53.6697311777317 g
- Protein 298.387227698411 g
- Saturated Fat 62.9991706147633 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Recipe (7088g)
- Sodium 1965.9352712903 mg
- Sugar 145.128505421772 g
- Trans Fat 21.1453097894884 g
- Calories 3955 calories
Step-by-step
- Combine the flour and baking powder. Beat the egg yolks on high speed until light, 3 minutes.
- Add the parsley, mushrooms, flour mixture, salt and pepper. Mix on medium speed for 1 minute.
- In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites on high speed until they're stiff but not dry, 2 minutes.
- Fold them into the yolk-mushroom mixture. Set the batter aside while you make the soup.
- Place the chicken, onions, carrots, celery, parsnip, parsley and salt and pepper to taste in a Dutch oven or large saucepan. Add enough water to cover the ingredients, about 10 cups, and bring to a boil over high heat. After 15 minutes, skim off the foam, reduce the heat and simmer 1 hour, skimming the soup occasionally as it simmers.
- Remove the chicken pieces and, when they're cool enough to handle, separate the meat from the bones and cut it into small pieces. Return the chicken to the pot and bring the soup back to a simmer.
- Drop the Mushroom Dumpling batter by the tablespoon into the soup. If it joins together let it cook, then separate with a spoon after. Cover the pot and simmer the soup until the dumplings rise to the surface, 10 minutes more.
- Serve the soup in warm bowls with a dumpling or two floating on top of each serving. Add seasoning to taste.
Long-simmered bone broths require strict adherence to liquid-to-solid volume ratios when scaling up or down, because evaporation rates change non-linearly across different pot surface areas. When tripling this recipe to feed a crowd, avoid simply tripling the water volume or the broth will lack the gelatin density needed to achieve proper mouthfeel. Instead, scale the chicken, root vegetables, and aromatics proportionally while measuring the water to just submerge the solids by two inches, allowing the Dutch oven diameter to dictate final reduction.
Dumpling Mechanics and Freezing Behavior
Folding whipped egg whites into a flour and mushroom base requires a gentle hand to preserve the trapped air pockets that make the dumplings rise. Beat the yolks for three full minutes until pale to build a stable emulsion, and whip the whites until stiff peaks form without any visible dryness. Drop the batter directly into simmering liquid rather than a rolling boil, which would dissolve the delicate structure before the baking powder activates. If storing leftovers, freeze the broth and shredded chicken base separately from the dumplings, as fully cooked egg-white dumplings turn spongy and release trapped moisture when thawed.
- If dumplings sink and refuse to rise after ten minutes, the simmering liquid was likely agitated too aggressively or the egg whites were deflated during folding.
- Should the broth reduce too quickly during the initial one-hour simmer, partially cover the Dutch oven to restrict vapor loss without trapping bitter compounds.
