Chef Joost
Aspergesoep (Dutch White Asparagus Soup)
White asparagus is Limburg's spring clock, and this soup uses every pale stem and peeling to make wit goud, white gold, taste like the season it refuses to outlive.
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Ouderwetse Hollandse Kippensoep
Created by
A clear Dutch chicken soup is not grand cooking. It is the family table doing its quiet work: broth, kip, vermicelli, and the patience to make something plain taste true.
Soups & Stews
Dutch
Weeknight
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
20 min
Active Time
1 hr 30 min cook•1 hr 50 min total
Yield6 servings
In my grandmother's second notebook, the page for kippensoep is almost rude in its brevity. Kip. Water. Wortel. Prei. Selderijblad. Vermicelli. Salt at the end. That was all she needed to write, because the rest belonged to the hand, the nose, and the household memory that knew when someone upstairs was ill before the thermometer admitted it.
But let me tell you a secret: the Dutch pot for the sick is not weak soup. It is careful soup. The name doesn't need a grand excavation, kip is chicken and soep is soup, but the dish tells you something better than etymology. It tells you how a frugal kitchen made tenderness visible: one bird stretched into broth, meat, and tomorrow's lunch, with leek and carrot sweetening the water until it tasted less like thrift and more like care.
The trick is restraint. Don't boil the chicken hard, or the broth turns cloudy and the meat goes stringy, for obvious reasons, chicken is not improved by punishment. Let it murmur gently, skim early, salt late, and add the vermicelli only at the end so it stays lively instead of swelling into paste. Hou het altijd simpel. A clear bowl, a few coins of carrot, pale threads of leek, soft chicken, and enough celery leaf to make the room smell like a Dutch kitchen on a wet Tuesday.
Chicken soup appears throughout Dutch household cookery as ziekenkost, food for the sick, because a clear broth could be nourishing, digestible, and economical when meat was too dear to serve in large portions. In the twentieth century, Dutch domestic science cookbooks such as the Wannée Kookboek helped standardize the familiar home version: clear poultry broth with fine vegetables, chicken meat, and vermicelli. Its place is less regional than domestic, belonging to the everyday Dutch table where soup often opened the meal and leftovers were expected to earn their keep.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
whole chicken or bone-in chicken pieces
Quantity
1 whole chicken, about 1.3kg, or 1.2kg pieces
cold water
Quantity
2.2 liters
carrots
Quantity
2
1 roughly chopped, 1 finely diced
leeks
Quantity
2
1 roughly chopped, 1 finely sliced
celery stalks
Quantity
2
roughly chopped
onion
Quantity
1
halved
bay leaves
Quantity
2
black peppercorns
Quantity
6
celery leaf or flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
1 small bunch
chopped
vermicelli
Quantity
80g
salt
Quantity
to taste
white or black pepper
Quantity
to taste
freshly ground
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| whole chicken or bone-in chicken pieces | 1 whole chicken, about 1.3kg, or 1.2kg pieces |
| cold water | 2.2 liters |
| carrots1 roughly chopped, 1 finely diced | 2 |
| leeks1 roughly chopped, 1 finely sliced | 2 |
| celery stalksroughly chopped | 2 |
| onionhalved | 1 |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| black peppercorns | 6 |
| celery leaf or flat-leaf parsleychopped | 1 small bunch |
| vermicelli | 80g |
| salt | to taste |
| white or black pepperfreshly ground | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Large heavy-bottomed pot, 5-liter or larger
- •Fine sieve
- •Ladle or wide spoon for skimming
Instructions
- 1
Start the broth
Put the chicken in a large pot with the cold water, the roughly chopped carrot, roughly chopped leek, celery stalks, onion, bay leaves, and peppercorns. Bring it slowly to a bare simmer. The slow start matters: cold water draws flavour from bone and meat before heat tightens everything up.
- 2
Skim and simmer
As grey foam rises, skim it off with a spoon. Once the surface is clean, keep the broth at a gentle murmur for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and loosens easily at the joints. Do not let it boil hard. A clear soup is made by patience, not volume.
If the broth does boil and turns cloudy, don't panic. It will still taste good. Dutch grandmothers did not throw away soup because it failed to look like a restaurant photograph. - 3
Strain and shred
Lift the chicken onto a plate and strain the broth through a fine sieve into a clean pot. Discard the spent vegetables and spices; they have done their duty. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, pull the meat from the bones and shred it into bite-size pieces.
- 4
Finish the vegetables
Return the clear broth to a gentle simmer. Add the finely diced carrot and finely sliced leek and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until the carrot is tender but still has its shape. Now add salt to taste. Salting late keeps you from over-seasoning a broth that reduces while it cooks.
- 5
Add vermicelli
Add the vermicelli and shredded chicken and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes, just until the noodles are tender. Stir once or twice so the threads don't gather into one stubborn little nest at the bottom of the pot.
- 6
Serve clear
Stir in the chopped celery leaf or parsley and a little freshly ground pepper. Serve in deep bowls while the broth is bright and clear, with the chicken, carrot, leek, and vermicelli visible in every spoonful. This is not a soup to decorate. It has already said what it came to say.
Chef Tips
- •Use bone-in chicken. Boneless breast makes water with chicken floating in it; bones give the broth its body and quiet sweetness.
- •Wash leeks well. Sand hides between the layers, and grit in kippensoep is the sort of historical detail nobody asked for.
- •Cook vermicelli only in the soup you plan to serve. For make-ahead soup, keep the broth and chicken ready, then add noodles when reheating so they don't swell and drink the pot dry.
Advance Preparation
- •The broth and shredded chicken can be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated separately; remove any set fat from the surface before reheating if you want a clearer bowl.
- •For freezing, leave out the vermicelli and fresh herbs. Freeze the broth with the chicken for up to 3 months, then add fresh noodles and celery leaf when serving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 430g)
Calories
270 calories
Total Fat
10 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
7 g
Cholesterol
90 mg
Sodium
850 mg
Total Carbohydrates
16 g
Dietary Fiber
1 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
28 g
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