Bubbacillin

"The schmalz is the life" Deuteronomy 12:23

In our extended family, the men seem to be at the stove as much or perhaps more than the women. All of us love to cook and know our way around a kitchen. We also know how to clean up if needed but the person who cooks usually gets a pass on clean up. We share the load. Preparing meals is a wonderful time to gather around the kitchen and talk and laugh and we’ve spent some wonderful times together over shared meals.

My wife is a wonderful cook. No nonsense, get it done kind of cooking. Chicken parm (chicken parmesan), chicken piccata, lasagna. She makes a fabulous spaghetti sauce magically out of thin air. I go to the restroom come back and it’s bubbling away on the stove. How she do that? A great baker also. Pies (ricotta!) cakes (Italian rum cake!) and cookies (her name is Cookie) around the the holidays. So much good food! But she is renowned for her chicken soup, the Elixir of Healing for friends and family when they are sick. She calls it Bubbacillin.

Having grown up in Roslindale, Massachusetts her best friend was Jewish and her friend’s parents loved Cookie and she loved them. She basically couch surfed most of her latter high school years when her parents up and moved to New Hampshire an hour away to be near her older sister rehabbing from a serious motorcycle accident Cookie said, “I’m not going.” So she slept on friends and relatives couches taking buses and trains and the T to and from school and work every day for several years. Not an easy life. Her best friend’s parents were very good to her. They loved her and she them. She picked up some Yiddish from them that pops into her everyday conversation to this day. Italian, Jewish married to an Irishman. God bless America. When we were dating I was introduced to verklempt,schlep, nosh and Bubbe among others. I also spent a memorable seder supper one Passover with them. Pass the prunes please.
The first time I heard about Bubbacillin, I of course asked what it was and figured out that it was the chicken soup the Bubbe (grandmother) would make when someone was sick. I have witnessed its amazing healing properties in myself and others firsthand. Cookie would always have the ingredients in the cupboard to pull a batch together in an emergency with homemade chicken stock in the freezer and would have it simmering on the stove in minutes and delivered if necessary within a few hours to friends, relatives and even strangers who were in need of salvation from the cold and flu. Steaming in a bowl the chicken along with carrots and onion and celery and some kind of greens in a rich savory broth would fix you right up and make you feel that you were loved and cared for. You were on your way to better health.

This week the Nonni, Cookie herself, was laid low with some mutant daycare bug and I the caregiver was tasked with making Bubbacillin for her. No pressure! Sure I saw her do it plenty of times but I didn’t know I had to fly solo so quickly.
All I had to do was go to the freezer, pull out some frozen chicken stock which she always has on hand and pull it all together for her.
But, there was no chicken stock to be had in the freezer! I was forced to come up with an acceptable soup all on my own. Like now.

So here it is, cooked up by this guy who never measures or cooks the same way twice. If you’re that kind of cook who requires precise measurements then perhaps this recipe isn’t for you. But know that after I made it, herself blessed it as ‘good” which is very high praise and I can already see the healing going on in her as I write.

If you are squeamish about fat this also is not gonna make you happy. But to misquote Deuteronomy 12:23 “The fat is the life.” or to more closely translate it from the Torah “The schmalz is the life”

This does not make a big pot of soup. It is quick and simple and gets the medicine to the patient in under an hour.

Makes about a quart (more if you add in some chicken stock at the end.)

Tim’s Bubbacillin
1- 16 ounce jar of Chicken bone broth. Bone broth, not chicken stock. You’ll know it’s a good bone broth when the top ingredient on the label is chicken feet.
16 ounces of water
4 carrots sliced, chopped, diced whatever you do well with a knife.
2- stalks of celery ditto
1/2- large onion, again with it cut up. You do you.
2- bone in chicken thighs with the skin on
2-tablespoons of chopped garlic (I used the garlic in the jar)
1 cup or more of greens. I used kale and Swiss chard chopped as I had some on hand in the freezer. Spinach also works great.
Salt and pepper for the chicken thighs and to taste. I used pink Himalayan. Kosher salt is great also.

Salt and pepper the chicken thighs on both sides. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan on medium high heat. When the oil is hot gently place the thighs skins side down and cook for a couple of minutes (2-5 minutes) then reduce the heat to low and cover and simmer the chicken, rendering the fat in the skin for about 15-20 minutes.
In a big enough pot pour in the bone broth and water. Add the chicken with the skin on and all the chopped vegetables as well the rendered fat that was left in the pan.
Bring to a low boil.
Then reduce the heat, cover and simmer on low,slowly for 1 hour or so, coaxing the goodness out of all the ingredients, then shut off the heat and let cool.

When you are ready to eat, bring the soup back up to a boil, reduce the heat right away and cook for another 30 minutes on a gentle low simmer. If you need more liquid, you can add some chicken broth.

At this point the soup is ready. Salt and pepper to taste.
I needed this soup STAT so I didn’t let it cool much before I reheated it. But know that soups and sauces always seem taste their best when allowed to cool and then are reheated.

I hope you feel better.