The deep belief in the healing power of chicken soup may well be one of the most universal concepts in the world’s cuisines.
No matter where on this globe one happens to be, if there are chickens in the barnyard and sick people in the house, there will be chicken soup in the pot. The details and flavorings that go into that pot will vary, depending on the culture and the cook, but the faith in chicken soup as a curative power really has no territorial boundary.
And is there any better time than in the winter to have a pot of chicken soup simmering on the stove?
(READ MORE: Homemade chicken soup when there’s no time for homemade)
The really interesting thing is how completely our strong emotional preferences with this soup give away our cultural background, a fact brought home by a recent conversation with a couple of friends in Nashville — a husband and wife — who have lived around the world and love to cook foods from the various countries in which they’ve lived. But when the conversation turned to chicken soup, a line in the culinary sand was drawn as her usual tolerance for his curious cooking experimentation ran dry.