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Rosół (Polish Chicken Soup)

May 19, 2017 by Lois Britton 32 Comments

My first taste of Rosół (Polish Chicken Soup) was on a cold and snowy March Saturday. I had just moved to Poznan. I had spent a good deal of time there in the first 18 months Ed had been working there, but now I was a full-time resident.

We woke up Saturday morning to a few inches of snow. Being from Arizona, I assumed this meant we would cancel all of our plans, stay home, watch the snow come down, and start drinking early in the day. That’s what it would mean in Tucson, on the rare occasions when we get snow, maybe once every 10 years.

Rosół (Polish Chicken Soup)

Ed was quick to point out that life, and daily plans, went on, whether it snowed or not; we had snow tires after all. We made the short drive to IKEA for something and then caught the tram into town, he got his hair cut, we attended the free organ concert at Fara Church (properly called Parish Church of St. Stanislaus).

The church was freezing. I think it was colder inside than outside. The cold wasn’t bad while we were walking around, but just sitting, I was starting to feel chilled to the bone.

After the concert, we walked through the Stary Rynek (Old Market) and stopped at one of our favorite restaurants for a bite to eat. Ed had already sampled their Rosół (pronounced ro soow) and recommended it highly.

It seemed like a great way to warm up. When our waiter brought the soup, he told us that it was very popular for Sunday dinner in Poland when extended family might drop by. Soup does offer that advantage, you can also feed a few more.

polish chicken soup rosol in a bowl with gold trim and veggies in background

The broth is rich with a beautiful deep color; it’s also very clear. A lot goes into making the complex broth, but only a few of the ingredients make it into the soup, a few chunks of chicken and a couple of carrot slices. It’s a elegant looking presentation.

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If you decide to add some noodles to the soup, they are cooked separately, added to the bowl and the soup ladled over. This keeps them noodle-like, they won’t swell up from sitting in the soup overnight or make the broth cloudy.

This may be the most involved simple dish you’ll ever make, but it’s just soup, so how hard can it be? The long list of ingredients gives you the wonderfully rich broth with multiple layers of flavor. Give it a try for Sunday dinner, you’ll be glad you did!

Smacznego!

Lois

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Rosół (Polish Chicken Soup)

★★★★★ 5 from 4 reviews
  • Author: Polish Housewife
  • Category: Soup
  • Cuisine: Polish
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Description

An elegant soup with a wonderfully complex broth


Ingredients

Scale
  • 5 pound chicken (you might go with pieces rather than whole, but you want the bone in)
  • 1 beef soup bone
  • 3 turkey necks (I was pleasantly surprised to find a package of turkey necks at Sprouts)
  • 2 large onions, root end trimmed and halved (leave the yellow skin on, it adds great color)
  • 5 carrots, trimmed and peeled
  • 2 parsnips, trimmed and peeled
  • 1 leek, trimmed, use the white and light green part
  • 1 small – medium celery root, peeled or 3 stalks celery
  • 1/4 small savoy cabbage
  • 1 whole clove
  • 4 allspice berries
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 4 sprigs fresh flat leaf parsley
  • 4 sprigs fresh dill, (optinal: plus some for garnish)
  • 6 peppercorns
  • 1 tablespoon salt (adjust amount to taste)
  • thin noodles (optional)

Instructions

  1. Add chicken, beef bone, and turkey necks to a large Dutch oven or stock pot
  2. Cover with water
  3. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, skimming any impurities off the top to insure a clear broth
  4. If your pot is big enough, add the vegetables and spices for the last hour of the cooking time
  5. My Dutch oven wasn’t big enough to hold everything, just the chicken and other bones filled the pot, so I cooked the meat/bones for the full cooking time, then removed them, and cooked the vegetables and spices separately
  6. Strain everything out of the broth
  7. Bone the chicken, pulling the meat into large chunks
  8. Slice the carrots
  9. Return the chicken and carrots to the broth
  10. Cook noodles according to package instructions if you’re using them
  11. Add noodles to bowl and then top with hot soup

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @PolishHousewife on Instagram and hashtag it #polishhousewife

 

 

 

Lois Britton

An accountant by trade and a food blogger since 2009, Lois Britton fell in love with Polish cuisine during the years she lived in Poznań, Poland. As the creator of PolishHousewife.com,  she loves connecting readers with traditional Polish recipes. Lois has a graduate certificate in Food Writing and Photography from the University of South Florida. She is the author of The Polish Housewife Cookbook, available on Amazon and on her website.

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Filed Under: Chicken, Polish, Polish Soups

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Laurel

    May 19, 2017 at 1:40 pm

    Growing up in Chicago we ate this every Sunday without fail. I still make it. It is Polish penicillin! I like to add a few cloves of garlic. My great grandmother prided herself on serving very clear broth. Kluski (noodles) are a natural accompaniment but quite often my mom just cooked Creamettes macaroni for the soup. To get a nice clear broth don’t allow it to boil, just simmer, and be sure to skim skim skim.

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • polishhousewife

      May 19, 2017 at 2:02 pm

      Thanks, Laurel; I love to hear the family stories around comfort foods!

      Reply
  2. Lorene Wedeking

    May 19, 2017 at 5:06 pm

    Finally figured out how the name was for chicken soup. In the old days the only way to store meat was to salt (sol) it. Other soups used to carry part of its name with the word for salt, but now only chicken soup. At Reymontowka this is also called wedding soup, because it is served for the wedding receptions held there.

    Reply
    • polishhousewife

      May 19, 2017 at 8:00 pm

      Interesting! 🙂

      Reply
  3. David

    May 20, 2017 at 1:14 am

    The first thing I thought when I saw the photo was, “Her broth is so clear!” That is work but worth it and a sign of a good chef!

    Reply
    • polishhousewife

      May 20, 2017 at 12:30 pm

      And you’re very accomplished in the kitchen to notice! Thanks, David!

      Reply
  4. Jim Kwasnik

    October 11, 2017 at 10:32 am

    My wife cooks a package (or two) of chicken giblets (gizzards & hearts) separately, rinses them and then adds this to the soup mixture when adding the bones chicken to the soup.

    Reply
    • Bernadine C Bartus

      January 11, 2021 at 2:30 pm

      My favorite, too, added to the soup! Love, love love those “gizzards and livers” !!!! Smacznego!

      Reply
  5. Jim Kwasnik

    October 11, 2017 at 10:35 am

    typo: boned chicken not bones chicken

    Reply
  6. Gosia

    November 27, 2017 at 9:51 am

    Dear Lois, being a Polish housewife I follow your blog with immense pleasure:) A little rosół tip – burn the onion on a hot dry frying pan before adding it to the water, this ensures deep golden color and enhances flavor. All the best !

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • polishhousewife

      November 27, 2017 at 8:10 pm

      Dzięki, Gosia! ❤️❤️❤️

      Reply
  7. Marjorie Goff

    October 18, 2018 at 12:31 pm

    I’ve been looking for a recipe like this for a long time. I’m going to practice & then make it for my daughter & her husband when I visit them in Arizona for Christmas! Thank you!

    Reply
    • polishhousewife

      October 18, 2018 at 1:10 pm

      How thoughtful of you!

      Reply
  8. Katherine

    January 26, 2019 at 2:08 pm

    Hi I am making the soup right now for a Chicken Soup challenge at our Elks Lodge. When do I remove the chicken?

    Reply
    • polishhousewife

      January 27, 2019 at 3:09 pm

      Hi Katherine, The chicken comes out when you strain out all of the other bones. Then you’ll pull the meat off the bone and return the meat to the pot. I hope you and your friends enjoy the soup!

      Reply
  9. Katherine L Venters

    January 28, 2019 at 7:25 am

    Thank you it was great!

    Reply
    • polishhousewife

      January 28, 2019 at 7:38 am

      That makes my day! Thanks for letting me know.

      Reply
  10. Boguslawa

    September 25, 2019 at 10:05 am

    hi
    Very nice recipe but I am pretty sure you meant parsley root no parsnip we don’t use parsnip to make a rosol in Poland.. They look very similar but it is different taste

    Reply
    • Ania

      September 26, 2021 at 3:14 am

      I beg to differ. I was born in Poland and now live in Australia and have always used parsnip when cooking rosół and so did my Mum who was born in Kalisz. I also use all the other vegetables but not beef bone to make sure that rosół is really light colour.

      Reply
    • Rosemary

      January 15, 2022 at 8:15 pm

      Yes. My mother is from Bokiny and father is from Bialystok and they used parsnip too.

      Reply
  11. Mary

    October 7, 2019 at 7:59 pm

    I am 100 percent Polish from Chicago. I now live in Southern California but love my Polish roots. My husband and I just returned from two weeks in Poland. Including a day in Poznan and small villages where my grandparents are from- Sompolno and Kawnice.
    Anyway, we just loved the chicken soup in Poland. I make my grandmas recipe but through the years I nave not been not getting the richness of the broth. This recipe is just perfect and tastes just like Poland and my grandmas soup. Thanks so much!!!!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • polishhousewife

      October 8, 2019 at 8:39 am

      Mary, thanks for taking the time to comment and let me know. I’m so happy to hear this worked out for you! <3

      Reply
  12. Amanda Hanley

    October 28, 2019 at 7:00 pm

    Wow, your rosół is much more complex than mine. The recipe I grew up with was just chopped up chicken, carrot, onion, vinegar, and a few garden herbs all tossed in a stock pot of water and left alone to simmer for 12 hours. I’m eager to try it your way!!! The parsnips sound like a great addition! Thanks for the recipe!

    ★★★★★

    Reply
    • polishhousewife

      October 30, 2019 at 2:44 pm

      Thanks, Amanda. I think that’s the thing with soup. There are so many variations! 🙂

      Reply
  13. Krysia

    November 20, 2019 at 12:41 pm

    Sprig not spring of dill and parsley. Perfect recipe. Just like mom used to make

    Reply
    • polishhousewife

      November 23, 2019 at 8:35 am

      Thanks for catching that!

      Reply
  14. Marcin

    February 19, 2020 at 9:51 am

    add tumeric, just half a spoon, and you get a wow effect of this golden colour 🙂

    Reply
  15. Marie

    January 26, 2021 at 6:14 pm

    I am planning to make this recipe for my family this weekend, and I’m so excited! My grandmother is polish and so we eat Polish food regularly, but I haven’t tried rosół yet. How many servings does this recipe make? My family is large and I want to ensure I make enough and get extra ingredients if necessary :))

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. 7 Best Polish Soup Recipes for your Winter Menus - Polish Housewife says:
    February 15, 2019 at 8:32 am

    […] 7. Chicken Soup or Rosół – I never understood recipes that talk about skimming the foam when making a broth. It seemed like busy work, until I learned to make rosół. It’s the patient skimming of every bit of foam that removes the impurities and gives you a beautiful clear broth. That’s the key feature of rosół. […]

    Reply
  2. Butcher Rzeznik Krakow Restaurant Review -> Lazy Travel Blog says:
    January 3, 2020 at 10:21 pm

    […] you don’t like zurek, you can choose other Polish soups: rosol, goulash or fish soup with crayfish necks. Next time we will go to Butcher we will definitely try […]

    Reply
  3. Baked Cheesecake with Raisins - twimii says:
    June 9, 2021 at 2:46 am

    […] pierogi or these yummy looking potato pancakes. I also was very tempted by this recipe for Chicken Soup which sounds very restorative and healthy. But I’d want to make sure and get an organic […]

    Reply
  4. Polish Drop Noodles - Polish Housewife says:
    October 18, 2021 at 5:19 pm

    […] add to chicken or beef broth, rosół […]

    Reply

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