Chicken Cabbage Soup

Last few weeks of school. The Room 108 crew is starting to understand that the year is ending — they all process this differently. Rosa has been asking daily since Monday how many days of school are left, which I have on the calendar with a visual countdown. T. has been quieter than usual, the different-quiet. Marcus has been saying goodbye to objects in the room, touching each labeled bin and pressing his device button for each one — the aide told me this and I watched it happen on Thursday and wrote it down without saying anything to interrupt it.

Asked Babcia Rose about the recipe book on Sunday. I drove to Oak Lawn after the Saturday market and went to her house directly. She was in the kitchen. I sat down at her table and said "Patty told me you had a recipe book in Poland. That you left it there." A long pause. She sat down. She said "My mother's book." She said it was a handwritten notebook, her mother's recipes and her grandmother's, going back to before the war. She had to leave it when they came to America because they could only bring what they could carry and the book was too fragile.

She was quiet for a long time after that. I did not say anything. Then she said "I have remembered all the recipes. Everything in that book." She said "I have been making them for sixty years." She tapped the side of her head. She said "They are in here." I said: I know. I am writing them all down. She looked at my notebook and said "Show me what you have." I showed her. She read it slowly. She pointed to the pierogi page and said "The water should be a little warmer. Not boiling. Almost." I updated the note. We sat in her kitchen for three hours and I wrote while she talked.

Made kapusniak this week — the Polish sauerkraut soup that is one of Babcia Rose's winter standbys. Sauerkraut, pork shoulder, dried mushrooms, carrots, onion, caraway seeds, bay leaf, chicken broth. Four hours low simmer. The smell fills the whole apartment, sour and deep and like something very old. It is not glamorous food. It is staying-alive food. It is the food you make when you need to feel like you can last through whatever is coming. Under three fifty for a pot of six servings. I ate it for three days and thought about Babcia Rose's mother's book, lost in a house in Poland sixty years ago, still alive in memory in a kitchen in Oak Lawn.

I’ve been making Babcia Rose’s kapusniak all week and thinking about what it means to carry a recipe in your body instead of on paper — to hold it so long it becomes part of you. This chicken cabbage soup is not exactly her recipe, but it lives in the same spirit: cabbage, broth, patience, and the kind of warmth that makes you feel like you can last through whatever is coming. If you’re just starting to find your way into this kind of cooking, this is a good place to begin.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 medium carrots, sliced into rounds
3 stalks celery, sliced
1/2 head green cabbage, roughly chopped (about 4 cups)
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped (for serving)

Instructions

Brown the chicken. Heat olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chicken pieces in a single layer and cook undisturbed for 3–4 minutes until golden. Flip and cook another 2 minutes. Remove to a plate and set aside.
Soften the aromatics. Reduce heat to medium. Add onion, carrots, and celery to the same pot. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5–6 minutes until the onion is translucent and the vegetables begin to soften. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
Build the base. Stir in smoked paprika and caraway seeds, coating the vegetables. Add diced tomatoes with their juices and stir to combine, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
Add broth and cabbage. Pour in the chicken broth. Add the chopped cabbage and bay leaves. Return the browned chicken (and any collected juices) to the pot. Stir to combine.
Simmer low and slow. Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 30–35 minutes, until the cabbage is very tender and the chicken is cooked through and beginning to shred.
Taste and finish. Remove bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls and top with fresh parsley. Serve with crusty bread or rye crackers.

Nutrition (per serving)

Chicken Cabbage Soup — The Recipes That Survive