Kippensoep (Dutch Chicken Soup)

Name: Kippensoep (Dutch Chicken Soup)
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 90 min
Total time: 110 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Dutch
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken; 2.5 litres water; 1 onion; 2 carrots; 2 celery sticks; 1 leek; 1 bay leaf; 1 tsp black peppercorns; 60 g vermicelli; 1 handful parsley; to taste salt and pepper

IVSoups

Prep: 20 min
Cook: 90 min
Serves: 6
Level: Beginner

Every food culture has its convalescent soup, the one made when a child is sniffling or a grandparent is off their food, and in the Netherlands it is kippensoep. Homemade, from a whole simmered bird, it is worlds away from the packet version — a clear golden broth, threads of soft chicken, a tangle of vermicelli, and just enough vegetable to make it a meal.

The soup you make for someone

There is a reason chicken soup carries the same tender associations across so many kitchens. It is what you make when you want to look after somebody. In its everyday Dutch form it belongs to the plain, careful cooking of the post-war household, when a single chicken was stretched across a broth, a soup, and often the next day's sandwich too. Nothing was wasted, and the long simmer turned an ordinary bird into something restorative.

A real kippensoep is judged by its broth: clear, golden, and tasting unmistakably of the whole bird.

Cold water, slow heat

The craft is entirely in the stock. Start the chicken in cold water so the flavour is drawn out gradually, skim the foam without impatience, and never let the pot boil hard — a bare simmer is what keeps the broth clear and the meat tender. The vegetables that go into the finished bowl are added late, so they stay bright and firm rather than dissolving into the murk.

Chill the broth overnight if you can and lift the set fat off the top; the soup that results is cleaner, lighter, and every bit as comforting.

From the kitchen

“Make the broth a day ahead and chill it — the fat sets on top and lifts off in a sheet, leaving a cleaner, clearer soup.”

Ingredients

Serves 6

The broth

1whole chicken — about 1.4 kg, or 4 legs
2.5 litreswater
1onion — halved, skin on
2carrots — 1 whole, 1 diced
2celery sticks — 1 whole, 1 diced
1leek — green top for stock, white sliced
1bay leaf
1 tspblack peppercorns

To finish

60 gvermicelli — fine soup noodles
1 handfulparsley — chopped
to tastesalt and pepper

Method

1
Start a cold-water broth
Put the whole chicken in a large pot with the cold water, the onion, the whole carrot and celery, the leek green, bay and peppercorns. Starting in cold water draws flavour and impurities out slowly, which is what gives a clear, savoury broth.
2
Skim and simmer
Bring it up gently and skim off the foam as it gathers. Hold it at the barest simmer — never a rolling boil — for about an hour, until the chicken is falling from the bone and the broth tastes rich and golden.
3
Strip the meat
Lift out the chicken and let it cool enough to handle. Strip the meat from the bones in generous shreds and set aside; discard skin and bones. Strain the broth through a fine sieve into a clean pot.
4
Cook the fresh vegetables
Bring the strained broth back to a simmer and add the diced carrot, celery and sliced leek white. Cook 8 minutes until just tender — added now rather than at the start, they keep their colour and a little bite.
5
Finish and serve
Add the vermicelli and cook 4 minutes, then return the shredded chicken to warm through. Season well, stir in the parsley, and serve very hot. A squeeze of lemon is a good, if untraditional, lift.

In the kitchen

The tools that make this recipe easier.

SpecialistVlaai / tart tin ↗
Wide shallow tin for Limburg vlaai and open fruit tarts.

With the soup

A bowl of snert is a meal — but the trimmings make it Dutch.

Roggebrood met spek — rye bread with a slab of bacon
Katenspek — smoked cured bacon on the side
Mustard — a dab of coarse mustard on the rye

How a Dutch meal is built →

Questions from the kitchen

Whole chicken or just pieces?+

A whole bird, bones and all, gives the best broth — the bones and skin carry the gelatine and flavour. Legs alone work well and are cheaper; breast alone makes a thinner, less savoury stock.

How do I get a clear broth?+

Start in cold water, bring it up slowly, skim patiently, and keep it at a bare simmer. Boiling hard emulsifies the fat and clouds the pot. Chilling and de-fatting overnight makes it clearer still.

Can I freeze it?+

The broth and chicken freeze well; freeze them without the noodles, which go soft. Add fresh vermicelli when you reheat, and the soup tastes newly made.