Mica’s Magic Pot – My Mom’s Legendary Recipe of Our Family’s Chicken Soup

My mom owns a Magic Pot. She did not buy it magical at all but turned it that way with her enormous loving intention to nourish everyone around her. If you have been privileged to eat one of my mom’s meals, you know that this soup is just the appetizer of a 1000-course meal. No one leaves my parent’s house hungry! FOR WEEKS AFTER….

And no, my mom’s pot is not the one that may have popped into your mind reading the title of this blog, even though it might be the ultimate answer for your joints….

Beyond the fact that this is probably the best chicken soup you ever ate in your life, my mom can make the soup in this pot last 7 days – regardless to how many people eat it or how many servings they take per day! Just like the Chanukah’s miracle of the little pot of oil that lasted 8 days… Only here we have a nicely sized pot of pure Gold!

I wish I had my mom’s patience to prepare it the way she does, but I don’t. That’s why I will add my altogether-in-the-pot-just-add-water-and-boil version of my mom’s soup.
If you have the pot and the patience – by all means – follow her steps! It will turn out great!! Especially since you will not have the real legend to compare………….

This famous chicken soup has been prepared in my mom’s family for many generations. Living in Romania, the soup survived through wars, famine, communism and many other unimaginable inhumane actions. As kids, in Romania and later in Israel, we ate it every day without having any idea how beneficial it is. Starting my own family, I kept the tradition, again clueless – automatically doing what intuitively felt that I need to do to care for my family.

It took me almost 40 years to appreciate the gift my mom gave me! And for over 10 years now, I have been preaching it in my practice (could there be a better companion to the Castor oil Packs than a chicken soup???). I went through many versions of the soup until I finally reached the one we all love. Truth is that it doesn’t matter how you make it, as long as it contains real ingredients and not artificial flavored powders. Herbs are awesome in any shape. Powdered artificial flavors are not!

There are so many reasons to eat this soup daily! Beginning with its fats which nourish your nervous system – calming down the fight-or-flight response. Continuing with its gelatin which calms digestive disorders, and its collagen which protects your joints (again, the ones that hold you, not the ones you hold), ligaments, skin, and its minerals and its nourishing properties for basically everything you could ever imagine!!

We also cannot ignore our Jewish connection, as Sally Fallon best describes in her book, Nourishing Traditions:

The 12th century physician Moses Maimonides prescribed chicken broth as a treatment for colds and asthma. Modern research has confirmed that broth helps prevent and mitigate infectious diseases. The wise food provider, who uses gelatin-rich broth on a daily or frequent basis, provides continuous protection from many health problems.
Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon

Whoa! If it was me – I would eat and feed everyone around me every day!!! Oh, wait. I already do it!!! All thanks to my mom’s teachings with her own actions.

You can choose to start your own tradition, or you can choose not to. The choice is yours. I can only give you the tools by diving straight to the secret of preparing this magic gold, as revealed by my mom, Marcela (Mica) Haimberg. Picture credits to my mom as well!!

Ingredients:
1 Chicken – cut (preferably organic, free range)
1 bulb of Garlic – peeled
15-20 Carrots – whole. If organic -no need to peel.
1 onion – whole, peeled
1 bell pepper – cut and deseeded
1 celery root (peeled and sliced) + stalks & leaves (if available)
1-2 parsley roots – peeled and cleaned
2-3 celery stalks
1-2 bunches of parsley
1-2 bunces of dill
Salt, pepper to taste
Water to top the pot

Setting everything in the pot in the following order:

Cutting the chicken and placing the pieces at the bottom of the pot

Now that everything is in the pot:
Add salt & pepper, top with water (my mom adds boiling water) and bring to a boil. Spoon any spume that accumulates at the top, lower the heat and simmer for 4 hours.
strain and enjoy!

My version is much less structured:
I use a bigger pot -16 qt, as I cannot replicate my mom’s 7-day magic in a smaller one.
In order to accommodate this change, I use 2 whole chickens (not cut!!). Many times, I will use one chicken and add feet or knuckle bones (grass-fed beef) or chicken backs & throats.
Also, many times I do not have the vegetables at home when I need to make the soup, so I start it with the meats only and add the veggies the next day, spooning any accumulated spume.
I put all the ingredients above in the pot, add some cayenne, salt and pepper (sometimes also nettle, chaga, turmeric root, burdock root) and simmer for 2-3 days – turning the heat off when I sleep or am out of the house and on again when I am back.
This version creates more of a bone broth, rather than a traditional chicken soup.

Last but never least – these are my lovely parents – a rare species of hard-working caring people, who can make everything possible without anyone noticing the long and exhausting labor behind the scenes – Mica and Solo Haimberg: