Moldovan Chicken Noodle Soup

Warm and soothing, the bold flavor of this Moldovan classic will change what you think chicken noodle soup should be.

Chicken soup is something that crosses boundaries and cultures. It’s a classic in so many different cuisines. And yet, each one has variations that make it unique to that culture.

My husband is a transplant from the Old Country, and while he loves American food and has made himself at home with all the food on offer here, he still gets nostalgic about those dishes that make him “feel like home.”

I don’t attempt too many Moldovan dishes, as most of them are time consuming and complicated, but one of the ones that I have mastered (at least he claims it tastes like home) is the Moldovan chicken noodle soup (zeama).

Even so, I take a few short cuts to make the recipe fit with the ingredients on hand and to shorten the process, so I’m not sure my mother-in-law would consider it authentic. Next time she’s in town I’ll test it out on her and report back.

Let’s Talk Ingredients

The veggies are pretty standard as chicken soup goes.

Veggies

Onion of any variety will work fine. I’ve been using red onions, because that’s what I grew in my garden last summer.

Carrots – use baby carrots chopped in rounds to save yourself the peeling step, or peel and chop standard carrots.

Celery is essential if you don’t have lovage. I like to chop the pieces quite small because I don’t like big chunks of celery in my soup. Use the celery tops and leaves, but save them to put in until close to the end of the cooking time.

Tomatoes add a delicious umami note to the soup and are one of the deviations from your classic American chicken noodle soup.

I use home-canned diced tomatoes, but you can use a 15-oz can of diced tomatoes, or even 2 large tomatoes freshly chopped. Garden tomatoes have the brightest, tomatoey-est flavor.

Here’s where things get a little wild.

Lovage

What in the world is lovage? I had never heard of it before either. Even after my mother-in-law planted a root of this plant in my yard, I still had no idea what it was or what to do with it. Then I saw it on a British gardening show; someone mentioned this plant commonly used in Southern and Eastern European cooking.

I finally figured out what it was called in English (in Romanian it’s called leustean), and that it’s a main flavoring for soups!

Lovage looks a lot like celery, but doesn’t have the same thick stalks. It has a bit of celery flavor, with some parsley added in. The smell and flavor is much more pungent and intense than celery.

It has quite a strong flavor raw and I don’t like to eat it on its own. But in soup, it’s the star of the show. You could also add it sparingly to salads as you would parsley. It purportedly has great health benefits as well!

If you don’t have lovage (and you’re probably not going to find it in the grocery store – maybe as a novelty in a farmer’s market), you can still make this soup! Go a little heavier on the celery, and add in some fresh or dried parsley.

Here’s another surprising addition to chicken soup.

Dill

Apparently, dill is a staple spice in Moldovan cooking, and it shows up everywhere. For good reason, too. Dill is such a bright, appealing flavor, especially when you can find it fresh.

When dill is in season, it literally grows like a weed, so I love to use it in everything I can, from pickles to salads, to soups, especially this one in particular.

When it’s not in season I settle for dried dill weed, which is almost as good, though not quite.

Chicken Thighs

From what I understand, the traditional way to make Moldovan chicken soup is to boil a whole chicken. I don’t have time for that, and I don’t really need to make soup in that quantity, even though I do feel like I’m feeding a whole village most days.

The benefit of cooking a whole chicken is that the bones boil along with the meat, making rich, nutritious stock. I figure I can get some of that benefit by using chicken thighs with the bone still in. It’s a cheaper cut of meat, which is a bonus.

Putting in the whole chicken thigh with the bone adds the step of removing the pieces from the stock to cut the meat off. So, if you’re really in a hurry or just prefer to work with boneless thighs, you can chop the meat up before adding it to the soup.

You can also use chicken breasts if you prefer white meat or that’s what you have on hand. However, I find that the thigh meat is much more flavorful, which is why I prefer it.

Chicken Stock

If you’re using boneless thighs or chicken breasts, you’ll want to add in some chicken stock for the health benefit, as much as for the flavor. Boiling chicken bones adds minerals and nutrients to the broth that you won’t get with just the meat and vegetables on their own.

Chicken soup as a health remedy is based on the assumption that it’s made with this nutritious and healthful bone broth.

If you use bone-in chicken thighs, you’ll get some of this benefit, although you’re not really boiling the whole chicken thigh long enough to get all the bone broth benefits out of those bones. In this case, you can use chicken stock or water to fill up your stock pot.

Whatever you do, don’t use bullion cubes. No health benefit whatsoever. Negative health points. Ok, I’ll get off my soap box.

Egg Noodles

The traditional Moldovan chicken soup uses very small noodles, homemade-style noodles. I like to use the classic spiral egg noodles. You can feel free to use whatever variety of soup noodles you like best.

Lemon Juice

In addition to the sourness from the tomatoes (especially home-canned tomatoes), the squeeze of lemon juice in this soup gives a distinctive and pleasant bit of sour undertone. It also brightens the soup with that unbeatable citrus note.

If you’re not convinced, or you think other partakers of your soup might not be partial to the flavor, you can offer lemon wedges as an optional garnish to add to individual servings of soup.

Cooking Instructions

There are two basic approaches to making this soup. One is quicker, and yields a perfectly satisfactory result. The other is slower, and theoretically leads to a more nutrition-packed soup, though I can’t prove it on any quantifiable level.

If I have an afternoon at home, I go with the slower method, as I do like the flavor/texture result marginally better.

Quick Method

This method will get soup on the table in about half an hour.

1. Chop the onion, celery and carrots, and saute them in olive oil in a large stock pot, until they’re beginning to soften.
2. Chop the boneless chicken thighs, and add to the stockpot to cook in the olive oil with the veggies.
3. Add 2 quarts of chicken bone broth or other stock, and cover pot to bring up to a boil.
4. Add the tomatoes, egg noodles, chopped lovage, dill, salt and pepper. Simmer for 5-6 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and add the freshly squeezed lemon juice.
6. Ladle into serving bowls and allow to cool for 5 minutes before eating.

Slow and Savory Method

This method takes at least an hour, but results in more tender chicken pieces and fuller flavor.

1. Chop onion, celery, and carrots.
2. Warm a drizzle of olive oil in the bottom of a large saucepan or stock pot.
3. Saute the onions for 2-3 minutes until they’re beginning to soften.
4. Add the celery and carrots, and saute for another 2-3 minutes.
5. Add 2 quarts of chicken stock or water to the stock pot. (The stock is not necessary if you’re using bone-in chicken thighs; just use water.)
6. Add the diced tomatoes.
7. Bring the water up to a boil, then add the chicken thighs. If you’re using bone-in thighs, just put them in whole – you’ll cut the meat off the bone later. If using boneless thighs, chop the chicken before putting it in the boiling water.
8. Return the water to a boil, then turn down the heat so that it’s just simmering.
9. Simmer for 30-40 minutes until chicken is cooked through. If you used bone-in thighs, remove the chicken pieces with tongs or a slotted spoon and allow to cool for a few minutes on a plate before cutting the meat off the bones and chopping it into bite-size pieces.
10. Return the chopped chicken to the stockpot.
11. Add the roughly chopped lovage or celery tops, fresh or dried dill, and salt and pepper to taste.
12. Add the egg noodles to the stockpot and simmer for 5-6 minutes.
13. Remove from heat and add the freshly squeezed lemon juice.
14. Ladle into serving bowls and allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving.