CHICKEN RAGU SOUP - CSIRKE RAGULEVES

Starts as a chicken ragu and ends as a soup. My grandmother called ragu soup 'becsinált leves', Designed to use up gizzards, backs and necks of the chicken with the skin attached. Herein lays my problem. I only eat crispy chicken skin. Since the skin slips off thighs easily, I make my raguleves from chicken thighs. A variation of raguleves is milk soup. All very flavourful and satisfying.

CHICKEN RAGU SOUP
3 Tbsp olive oil
3 chicken thighs
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, diced
salt and pepper to taste
3 carrots, chopped
2 parsnip, chopped
1/2 celery root, chopped
2 sprigs of celery leaves
1/4 yellow bell pepper, diced
2 sprigs of parsley
1 heaping Tbsp flour
2 pinch Hungarian paprika
6 cups of cold water
ground pepper to taste

• Heat the olive oil in a large pot.
• Turn heat down to medium and add the chicken thighs.
• Add the chopped onions and the garlic.
• Sprinkle with the salt and pepper.
• Keep stirring and sauté for 5 minutes. There will be some brown bits in the bottom of the pot, from the meat, but its all good.
• Begin to add the chopped vegetables, lightly salting them as you add them to the pot.
• Keep stirring after each addition.
• Add the flour and the Hungarian paprika and stir.
• Add the cold water.
• Bring soup to a very slow simmer.
• Maintain the slow simmer; do not let soup come to rolling boil. Do not cover pot.
• Cook until meat is soft.
• Adjust the salt and the ground pepper and serve.