Sour chicken soup (kisela corba)

This Serbian chicken soup is a wonderfully warming dish. Start the recipe a day ahead to ensure the soup base is full of flavour. Egg, cream and lemon juice are added right at the end to ensure your soup is thick, rich and citrusy.

• serves

  8

• prep

  3 hours

• cook

  30 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 1 large carrot, finely chopped
• 1 large potato, finely chopped
• 125 ml (½ cup) pouring cream
• 1 egg yolk
• ½ lemon, juiced
• chopped flat-leaf parsley, to serve

Chicken stock

• ½ bunch flat-leaf parsley
• ½ bunch thyme
• 2 carrots, roughly chopped
• 1 tomato, roughly chopped
• 1 swede, peeled, roughly chopped
• 5 celery stalks, trimmed, roughly chopped
• 1 leek, white part only, trimmed, chopped
• 1 onion, trimmed, skin on, halved
• 1.5 kg chicken wings
• 1 chicken carcass
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp black peppercorns

Start this recipe a day ahead.

Drink match 2011 Pizzini Pinot Grigio ($20) or Zywiec ($5, 500 ml; $16, pack of four).

Instructions

To make chicken stock, tie parsley and thyme together with kitchen string and place in a large saucepan with vegetables, onion, chicken wings, chicken carcass and bay leaves, and cover with 2.5 litres water. Bring to the boil, then skim scum from surface, add peppercorns and reduce heat to low–medium. Cover partially and simmer for 2½ hours. Strain through a fine sieve into a large bowl and discard all solids except chicken wings. Cool slightly, then refrigerate stock and chicken wings overnight.

Skim fat from stock and transfer to a large saucepan. Bring to the boil, then add carrot and potato, and simmer for 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Meanwhile, discard skin and bones from chicken wings and reserve 1 cup meat. Refrigerate remaining meat for another use. Add reserved chicken to soup and simmer until heated through. Remove from heat. Combine cream and egg yolk in a bowl, then stir into soup with lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Scatter over parsley to serve.

Photography by Alan Benson.

As seen in Feast magazine, October 2011, Issue 2. For more recipes and articles, pick up a copy of this month's Feast magazine or check out our great subscriptions offers here.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.