Romanian Chicken Soup

This Romanian chicken soup, also known as Sunday soup, is one of the recipes I grew up eating. My mother is famous for a lot of things, and this soup is definitely one of them. She made it every single Saturday so we could have it for Sunday lunch with her famous Tocăniță.

It has the same cozy comfort as American chicken noodle soup, but the star of the show is the homemade chicken broth. A whole chicken gets simmered with carrots, celery, onions, and parsnip until the broth is rich, golden, and full of flavor.

Everything gets strained out, then the broth goes back on the stove to cook fresh egg noodles. The ingredients are simple, but the flavor comes from taking your time with the broth and letting the chicken and vegetables do their thing.

Ingredients You’ll Need

There are a few specialty ingredients here, but don’t let that scare you off. They make the soup taste more like the one I grew up with, but there are easy swaps if you can’t find them.

Chicken: I use a whole chicken for the best flavor. I’ve tried making this with just bone-in chicken breasts, and it definitely lacked the same richness. If you don’t want to use a whole chicken, make sure to use a good mixture of bone-in white and dark meat.

Tip: I make a giant pot of broth and always use the chicken breast for chicken salad, so I usually throw in a couple extra bone-in chicken breasts along with the whole chicken. That way, I have enough white meat to make a big batch of chicken salad too.

Veggies: I use carrots, sweet onions, parsnip, and celery. You can add more vegetables if you’d like, but this is the base my mom always used.

Spices: Salt and pepper, of course, and Vegeta if you can find it. Vegeta is usually sold at European markets, but if you don’t have it, just add a little extra salt and the soup will still be delicious.

Noodles: You’re just going to need to find yourself a Romanian grandma to make you homemade noodles. Lol I’m kidding — homemade noodles will give you the most traditional texture and flavor, but you can absolutely use store-bought egg noodles.

Look for thin egg noodles or small soup noodles. The angel hair shaped noodles are the most traditional, but my favorite has always been the slightly chunkier homemade-style noodles. I recommend checking European markets, but you can also order similar noodles online. I found some traditional ones at World Market and some of the chunkier ones too. Amazon also has some and I’ve seen them in regular grocery stores too but that’s hit or miss.

Herbs: My mom always uses lovage, also called leuștean, which is an herb that tastes somewhere between celery and parsley. Fresh lovage can be hard to find in regular grocery stores in the U.S., but dried lovage is easier to order online or find at Eastern European markets.

My mom planted lovage in our backyard, and the whole family still comes over to pick their “leuștean,” so if you’re local, hit me up lol. If you can’t find lovage, use parsley and/or celery leaves as the closest substitute.

How To Make It

Making chicken broth is really quite simple, it just requires time and patience.

You’ll need a pot that’s about 16 quarts to make this with a whole chicken. See the notes below for how to make a smaller batch.

1. Clean the vegetables and slice them in half if they’re really large. Skinny carrots can stay whole, but larger carrots and parsnips should be sliced lengthwise so they’re a little thinner. Slice the celery in half lengthwise and remove the leaves. Peel the onion, but leave it whole.
2. Place the vegetables on the bottom of the pot, then place the chicken on top.
3. Fill the pot with water. This can get really heavy, so feel free to fill it only halfway, place it on the stove, and then use another bowl or pitcher to continue adding water until it reaches the top.
4. Add the salt and Vegeta and stir until evenly dispersed.
5. Bring the soup to a boil over high heat. Once it comes to a boil, reduce the heat. There should be an accumulation of foam on top of the soup. Use a spoon to remove as much of this as you can.
6. Once the top is clean, add the peppercorns and stir. I add them after skimming because otherwise you end up removing half the peppercorns with the foam.
7. Allow the soup to simmer for at least 3–4 hours. During this time, stir occasionally and remove any excess fat or foam that rises to the top. The water will reduce a little as it simmers. If you want to get the most broth possible, you can add more water and continue simmering a little longer.
8. When the broth is done, it should be a deep golden yellow color. The carrots should be fork-tender but not mushy, and the meat should easily come off the bones. At this point, taste the broth and add more salt if needed.
9. Cover the pot with a lid and let it cool for an hour or two before straining.
10. Remove the large pieces of chicken and vegetables. I save all the chicken and carrots, then discard the onion, celery, and parsnip.
11. Use a fine mesh sieve to strain the broth into another pot and into any jars you want to store it in.
12. To cook the noodles, bring a pot of broth to a boil. Add the noodles, then reduce the heat to low and cook for just a couple of minutes.
13. Turn the stove off, place a leaf of lovage, also called leuștean, or parsley on top, and cover the pot with a lid. Let it rest for 5–10 minutes.
14. Remove the herb leaf and serve the soup with a sprinkle of cracked black pepper.

*To make this in a smaller batch, you can buy bone in chicken breast and thighs separately instead of a whole chicken and that way they’ll fit better in a smaller pot. I would do 2-4 of each depending on the size of your pot.

Noodle To Soup Ratio

I measured this out because every Romanian mom just adds a “small bowl” of noodles to the pot and hopes for the best lol.

For every 2 cups of broth, I use about 1/4 cup or 40 grams of small egg noodles. The shape of the noodles definitely affects the volume measurement so it’s better to weigh it. This gives you a broth-y soup with enough noodles in every bowl without turning the whole pot into noodles with a splash of broth.

This ratio works for both homemade noodles and store-bought noodles, as long as they’re small egg noodles or thin soup noodles.

If you like a more noodle-heavy soup, you can increase it slightly to about ¾ cup, but remember that noodles continue to absorb broth as the soup sits. If you’re planning for leftovers, I recommend keeping the noodle ratio on the lighter side or storing the noodles separately from the broth.

What To Do With The Chicken & Veggies

As I mentioned earlier, I strain the broth and keep the chicken and carrots. We usually eat the dark meat and carrots right away, either on their own or added to our bowls of soup. If we don’t finish them, I store them in an airtight container in the fridge, but they taste significantly better fresh.

I like to use the white meat for chicken salad. Just remove it from the bones and dice it very small. Since the chicken has simmered for so long, the white meat can be a little dry if you eat it on its own, but it works really well in chicken salad.

Serving & Storing

We generally serve this soup as an appetizer before a meal because it’s really light. My kids would rather have two bowls of this than any other food though so it’s definitely a staple for us.

I use about 1/4 of the broth to make a pot of soup with noodles. For reference, 2 cups of broth is about 1 large individual serving for an adult so if you’re measuring out to serve more people, do about 2 cups per person, depending on how much other food is served. A pot with 8 cups of broth and about 1 cup of noodles is enough for my kids to have it for lunch for two days.

I usually store at least half of the broth in these glass jars in the freezer (those are the largest glass jars I found but plastic containers also work fine). Make sure not to fill the jars all the way to the top — I fill them about ⅞ full because the broth expands as it freezes.

I usually defrost 2-4 of these jars at a time. Just make sure to give them plenty of time to thaw because frozen broth in glass jars take a while.

I keep about ⅓ of the broth fresh and make a pot of soup with noodles right away. If you have leftover soup with noodles in it, it’ll keep in the fridge for about 4 days. You can usually tell when it’s gone bad because it will start to smell sour.

The broth itself lasts a little longer in the fridge without the noodles, so if you’re making this a few days ahead, I recommend storing the broth and noodles separately when possible.

If you have any questions, drop them in the comments below, and let me know what you think of this little family heirloom lol.

If you make this recipe, I’d really appreciate it if you left a star rating or review. It helps so much and means a lot to me.

As always, have a blessed day and happy cooking!

Love, B