Middle Eastern sweets.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 20 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 (2 to 3 pound) whole chicken
- 2 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
- 2 medium yellow onions, quartered
- 1 bunch celery with leaves, cut into pieces
- 1 (16 ounce) package baby carrots
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- ½ teaspoon garlic salt, or to taste
- 5 eggs
- ½ cup water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon parsley flakes
Instructions
- Place chicken in a stock pot, and add enough water to cover. Pour in the chicken broth, and add celery and onions. Season with salt, pepper and garlic salt. Bring to a boil, and cook for about 1 hour to get a good broth.
- When the chicken is cooked through and tender, remove it to a platter and let sit until it is cool enough to handle. Strain broth, and discard celery and onions. Return the broth to the stock pot. Remove chicken meat from the bones, chop or tear into pieces, then return it to the pot also. Bring the broth to a boil, and add carrots.
- In a medium bowl, stir together the eggs, water and salt. Gradually add flour until the dough is firm enough to form a ball. You may need more or less flour. Pat the dough out on a flat plate. Using a butter knife, cut slices of dough off the edge of the plate so they are about 2 to 3 inches long. Allow them to fall directly into the boiling broth.
- Once the carrots are tender, the soup is ready. Sprinkle with parsley flakes and serve.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 562 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 45 g |
| Cholesterol | 223 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Protein | 36 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7 g |
| Sodium | 648 mg |
| Sugars | 5 g |
| Fat | 25 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I used homemade broth, chicken breast remnants equaling about 1 cup, and packaged spaetzle for convenience and it turned out great! The homemade broth makes all the difference.
did not like…..stick to biscuit dumplings
This has become my “go-to” recipe for chicken soup. I have a spaetzle maker and I am glad to have a delicious recipe where I can use it.
I’m 78 yrs old and have been looking for this recipe for years – I thought it died with my Mother – Thank You!!! She called it “Chicken and Dumplings” but every time I looked it up the dumplings with like biscuits. THIS is what my Mothers ‘dumplings’ were like and I love it. I’m so happy.
I grew up calling this “strewhunky”. It’s one of my absolute favorite comfort foods. My”granny” used to make this for us anytime we were sick, she taught my dad how to make it when he was a teenager. I can still hear him telling me about how because she never used a measuring spoon or cup all she told him was a pinch, hand full of, so he told her, “grandy, your hands are smaller than mine” and he would stop her and put the ingredient in the cups or spoons to be able to replicate the recipe later. After losing my dad unexpectedly I was sure our family recipe was lost forever, but now I can make it and just the smell makes my heart smile.
This soup is okay but salty. Use garlic powder or fresh garlic to cut down on the salt. Also, use about 1 tsp. fresh chopped parsley instead of dried. For a change of pace try adding a pinch of ginger instead of garlic. Also, I use 4 cups flour, 3 eggs, 1/2 tsp. salt and about 1/2 – 1 cup of water. Add more or less water a little at a time until the consistency is medium density and gooey. Similar to pancake batter but smoother and elastic.
This soup reminds me of good old fashioned chicken soup. I had never made spaetzle before in my life, but it was so easy I did add 1 tsp oil a tip an old German friend gave me and used a spaetzle maker which you put right over the pot and press the dough thru it came out beautiful. Everyone raved about it and want me to make it again.
I was so excited to see this recipe as it is rather rare to see German recipes. I am from Germany and brought my “Spaetzle Hobler” (grater) with me from there. However, your recipe is just fine. I never made the chicken soup until I saw your recipe and it did not disapoint. 🙂
Used dried Spaetzle noodles from the German butcher and it came out great
Very good recipe. I kept the onions and celery in the soup, though as I like lots of vegetables and even added mushrooms and some fresh spinach. Mmmm, smelled like my grandma’s house.
Needs: Rosemary, sage, thyme and chicken bouillon
I actually cheated a lot and made the herbed dumplings from this site instead of the spaetzle. 😛 The five stars is for the soup itself, which was phenomenal! I used a package of chicken thighs with bones (skin on) and boiled them with the vegetables and seasonings for about an hour. Then I picked all the meat off the bones (and gave some to my dogs, which they loved) and strained the broth. Put the meat and broth back in, and made up the dumplings. Tasted awesome. 🙂
Shortcut on noodles and chicken – For a shortcut on the chicken and a boost of flavor…pick up an already cooked rotisserie chicken at the store, boil in place of raw chicken about 20 minutes. Proceed with recipe. Shortcut on noodles – mix dough in bowl without water, and drop by the teaspoon-full into boiling broth. After dropping each “dumpling” in make sure you dip spoon into broth to dampen it before scooping another “dumpling” out of the mixing bowl. Was stunned to find this recipe. We’ve been making this many years, originally learned from our grandma, and we could eat it daily as well!
Fantastic. I took the advice of another reviewer and looked up how to make spaetzle. I went one step further (like they did on You Tube) and sauteed the spaetzle in a little butter and one slice of bacon. My entire family loved it!
So, my boyfriend loved this recipe! Said the spaetzle was very close to the real thing (he lived in Germany for a few years). I however wasn’t all that impressed with the spaetzle recipe. It wasn’t bad mind you, just not like I’ve had before. The soup however was outstanding! Very flavorful!
We call this Hunky Soup. The spaetzle batter we make is slightly thinner and won’t make a ball but the concept and ingredients are the same. Wonderful addition to soup instead of noodles. Makes for a heartier meal! We also leave the celery in the soup for more vitamins(?).
My grandmother made what we called Fat Noodle soup. The spaetzle dough we used was a bit thinner, and we just dropped it in the soup with a teaspoon. Same concept though.
Great recipe! I had never heard of “Spaetzle” before and watched the video another reviewer posted on youtube so I figured out how to make the noodles. My kids all loved the soup! Thanks for sharing.
This soup was great! We loved the spaetzle. My husband said it reminded him of his mom’s chicken and dumplings which is a good thing. I used 3 chicken thighs and 4 drumsticks and a bag of frozen peas and carrots that was thawed. There are some helpful videos on YouTube on making spaetzle, one that is in German was the most helpful because it showed the person using hot water from the pot to smooth out the spaetzle dough on the cutting board while cutting off thin noodles. This method worked very well for us. I used the amount of flour called for in the original recipe. Thanks for the great treat!
This was delicious! I only gave it 4 stars because I made a few minor changes. I used 4 thighs and 2 split breast pieces, sliced carrots instead of baby carrots (that was what I had on hand) and added more broth after the spaetzle had soaked up most of the broth. I also diced the onion and sauteed it along with the celery and some diced carrot before adding the chicken and the broth. A very tasty soup!
Excellent! My family stuffed themselves. I added string beans to get in some extra veggies for my family, but aside from that the only changes I made were additional spices. I used 3 bone-in chicken breasts and my spaetzle required 4 cups of flour. They were sticky as I dropped them in the soup, but they came out excellent! My first spaetzle attempt and my family was impressed.