Chicken Giblet Soup with Vermicelli – Step-by-Step Recipe

Step-by-step recipe

1. A word of warning up front: chicken giblets each cook quite differently.
2. Gizzards take a long time. Wash them first and remove the yellow inner lining – it's fairly thick and peels off easily. Trim off any remaining membranes and fat. Gizzards take about 30 minutes to cook through.
   
3. Hearts must be washed and any blood clots removed. Also trim off the fat and bits of connective tissue. Hearts take about 20 minutes to cook
4. Feet, heads and necks are washed like a regular chicken: remove any remaining feathers, and take the claws and outer skin off the feet. These parts cook like regular chicken – 15-20 minutes.
5. Liver is the tastiest part of chicken giblets. Be sure to remove any remnants of the gall bladder and large blood vessels. Liver cooks in 10 minutes – no longer, or it will lose its flavour.
6. Bring 1 l of water to the boil in a pot. Add 1-2 bay leaves and cook the chicken drumsticks for about 30 minutes. If the drumsticks are shop-bought, you may find it rather hard to get a clear broth. There are two options here. The first: clarify the broth using one of the well-known methods. The second is simpler and more straightforward. As soon as the water with the drumsticks comes to the boil and a lot of foam (and white cloudiness) appears, take the drumsticks out and pour the water away. Then cook the broth in fresh clean water. I think this works best. At least it turns out pretty well.
   
7. While the broth is cooking (by the way, the broth comes out wonderfully rich and suits any dish, from soups to risotto), peel all the vegetables.
8. Cut the potatoes into large cubes, about the size of a walnut. Chop the carrot coarsely. Leave the garlic cloves whole and unpeeled. Finely chop the dill and parsley.
9. Take the cooked drumsticks out of the finished chicken broth and set aside for now. Add the new potatoes, garlic cloves and chopped onion and carrot to the broth. If you have a little red bell pepper in the fridge, be sure to chop some in. If not, you can add 1 tsp of coarsely ground dried sweet paprika.
   
10. Simmer the vegetables in the chicken broth for 15 minutes.
11. Next, add the chicken gizzards to the soup and cook for 10 minutes. If there are no gizzards in your giblet mix, just skip this step.
12. Add the hearts to the soup and cook for 10 minutes.
    
13. Then add the chicken liver, cut into 2-3 pieces, and cook for 10 minutes.
14. Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.
    
15. By now the potatoes should be fully cooked – their doneness tells you the whole soup is ready. Add fine vermicelli to the soup. It's best to use good, very fine vermicelli, which in Italy is called filini. This vermicelli cooks in just a few minutes, usually 3-4, and it's done. After adding the vermicelli, stir the soup and cook over low heat for the time given on the packet.
    
16. Then immediately add the finely chopped dill and parsley.
    
17. Let it boil for 1-2 minutes and ladle it into bowls straight away.
18. Never let the soup “stand”, or the vermicelli will swell in the liquid and turn the soup into a vermicelli stew. And don't even get me started on “reheating it later”.
19. A hot giblet soup is a worthy first course – do give it a try.