Honsekodssuppe

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Deep stockpot, 6 litres
• •Fine sieve
• •Clean muslin or thin tea towel for straining
• •Wide shallow pot for poaching the dumplings
• •Small saucepan for the melboller dough
• •Wooden spoon
• •Two teaspoons for shaping
• •Slotted spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Start the broth

   Rinse the hen inside and out under cold water. Place it in a deep, heavy pot and cover with the cold water by about two fingers. Set the heat to medium-low. Starting in cold water and raising the temperature slowly is how you draw the impurities up cleanly. Hot water from the start seals them inside the meat and muddies the broth before you've even begun. Be patient. It will take twenty minutes or so for the pot to come to a bare simmer.

   Never let the broth reach a rolling boil at any point. You want the surface to tremble, not churn. A hard boil emulsifies the fat into the liquid and turns the whole soup cloudy. Clarity is the point of this dish.
2. 2

   Skim and aromatize

   As the water heats, grey foam will rise to the surface. Skim it off with a spoon and discard it. This is where clarity comes from, and it only takes a few minutes of attention. Once the foam has mostly stopped rising, add the halved carrots, leek, celery root, onion, parsley stems, bay leaves, peppercorns, and the tablespoon of salt. Lower the heat until the surface barely trembles. Leave it alone for ninety minutes. Don't stir. Don't cover. Let the broth do its slow work.

3. 3

   Strain the broth

   Lift the hen out of the pot carefully with a pair of tongs and set it aside on a plate to cool. You can pick the breast meat off later for a smorrebrod lunch the next day, which is how every Danish kitchen makes the most of a soup hen. Strain the broth through a fine sieve lined with a clean muslin or a thin tea towel into a second clean pot. This second straining is what gives honsekodssuppe its glassy golden clarity. Discard the vegetables, they've given everything they had. Taste the broth and adjust the salt. It should taste round and full, almost sweet at the edges.

4. 4

   Make the kodboller

   Mince the raw chicken breast very finely, or pulse it in a food processor until it forms a smooth, pale paste. Transfer to a bowl. Grate the half onion on the fine side of a box grater directly into the mixture. You want the juice as well as the flesh. Add the egg, the flour, the milk, a good pinch of salt, a grind of white pepper, and a small pinch of nutmeg. Beat the mixture with a wooden spoon for a full minute. This is not optional. Beating develops the protein structure that holds the little meatballs together when they hit the water. Cover and refrigerate for fifteen minutes.

   Test one before shaping them all. Drop a small ball into simmering water. If it holds its shape, the mixture is right. If it falls apart, beat in another spoonful of flour and test again.
5. 5

   Make the melboller

   Melt the butter and milk together in a small saucepan over medium heat. When the mixture reaches a full simmer, tip in the flour all at once. Stir hard with a wooden spoon. The dough will come together quickly into a smooth, glossy ball that pulls away from the sides of the pan. Keep stirring for a minute to cook out the raw flour taste. Take the pan off the heat and let it cool for two minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, working each one in fully before adding the next. Season with salt and a grating of fresh nutmeg. This is a pâte à choux dough, and the steam it traps when it hits the hot water is exactly what makes melboller fluffy.

6. 6

   Poach the kodboller

   Bring a wide pot of lightly salted water to a bare simmer. Use plain water, not the broth. The kodboller and melboller both shed a little flour and protein as they cook, and you want that to happen away from the clear broth you worked so hard to make. Using two wet teaspoons, shape the chilled chicken mixture into small oval meatballs about the size of a walnut. Drop them gently into the simmering water one by one. They'll sink first, then rise to the surface after about four minutes. Let them bob for another two minutes, then lift out with a slotted spoon and set aside in a warm bowl.

7. 7

   Poach the melboller

   In the same simmering water, use two wet teaspoons to shape small quenelles of the choux dough. Slide them gently off the spoons into the water. They'll double in size within a minute, which is the whole trick of them. Poach for three to four minutes until they are firm to the touch and rolling lazily on the surface. Lift out with the slotted spoon and add them to the bowl with the kodboller. You'll know they're right when they feel light in the spoon and look like small pale clouds.

   Dip the teaspoons in the hot water between each dumpling. A clean, wet spoon releases the dough cleanly. A dry spoon makes the dough cling and tear.
8. 8

   Finish and serve

   Bring the strained broth back to a gentle simmer. Tip in the freshly diced carrot and the pale green leek and cook for three minutes, just long enough to take the raw edge off while keeping the vegetables bright. Divide the kodboller and melboller between deep, warmed bowls. Ladle the hot golden broth over them. Scatter snipped chives across the top. Serve immediately with thick slices of rugbrod alongside. This is the Sunday bowl the whole Danish winter points toward. Tak for mad.

Chef Tips

• •Buy a real soup hen if you can find one. Danish butchers sell them as suppehone, and some Turkish and Eastern European markets carry them under names like stewing hen or boiling fowl. An older bird has more collagen, more flavor, and handles a two-hour simmer in a way that a young roasting chicken simply can't. If you must use a regular chicken, use the best free-range one you can afford and cut the simmering time to ninety minutes.
• •Make the broth a day ahead whenever you can. It improves overnight in the fridge. The fat rises and sets on the surface, and you can lift it off cleanly in the morning, leaving a broth so clear you can read the bottom of the pot through it. Save that chicken fat. It's gold, literally and otherwise, and a spoonful stirred into the soup at the end is a Jutland touch.
• •Poach the kodboller and melboller in separate water, never in the broth itself. This is the single piece of discipline that separates a good honsekodssuppe from a cloudy one. A tiny bit of raw flour or loose protein dropping into the clear broth is all it takes to ruin the work you did straining it.
• •The cooked hen is not a byproduct. Pick the breast meat off while it's still warm, shred it, and keep it for smorrebrod the next day. A thin layer of mayonnaise on rugbrod, the shredded chicken, a spoonful of curry-spiced remoulade, and a scatter of cress. That's a Monday lunch that comes free with the soup.

Advance Preparation

• •Make the broth a day ahead. Strain, cool, and refrigerate overnight. Lift the set fat off the surface before reheating. The flavor deepens and the broth clears further as it rests.
• •The kodboller mixture can be made a few hours ahead and kept covered in the fridge. Beat it once more before shaping to bring it back together.
• •The melboller dough should be made close to when you poach it. It loses its lift if it sits too long. Thirty minutes at room temperature is the outside limit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 420g)