Chicken soup has split. Can it be repaired

Question

Today I made chicken soup. I roasted a chicken until cooked. I then removed the breast and leg meat, boiled the rest. I strained it, added a chicken stock Cube to adjust the flavour, added the saved leg meat and using a hand blender, blitzed. After adding a sprinkle of thyme and salt I brought to the boil to reduce. And then allowed to cool.

To my surprise, it has split.

I did not realise chicken soup could split.

Is there something which makes chicken soup split and can it be rebound (I guess with an emulsifier)

It didn't split you just made a fibrous meat floating in water mixture. — theonlygusti, Nov 10 '21 at 16:24
Yes... I was hoping that it would be similar to other soups, such as vegetable soup where the vegetables are pureed. By having pureed chicken would add to a better thickness and stronger flavor — MyDaftQuestions, Nov 11 '21 at 06:51

score 22 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 09 '21 at 19:03

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Pureed chicken and water is not a stable emulsion, no. There's nothing in there that binds the fat or suspends the meat particles. Most recipes for chicken soup do not call for pureeing the actual meat (they tend to have chunks of chicken in them), so you would normally not see split chicken soup. You could probably return it to its previous texture by adding a starch to thicken and stabilise it somewhat.

answered Nov 09 '21 at 19:03

user141592

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Adding some cream would probably also help with the texture (which I would expect to be somewhat grainy/sandy particularly without an additional source of emulsified fat). – Sneftel Nov 09 '21 at 19:42
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Isn’t egg a commonly used emulsifier? Maybe adding an egg would help. – Michael Nov 10 '21 at 07:36
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@Michael It is, but here you're looking to stabilise a suspension, not really emulsify. The main issue is the chicken particles that are no longer evenly suspended, not the fairly small amount of fat on the surface. – user141592 Nov 10 '21 at 11:14
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@Michael. Adding an egg (white+yolk) and then heating the soup will probably make a slurry. Yolk + cream might work. But starch, for example arrowroot, is probably the best and will keep the soup clear. – md2perpe Nov 10 '21 at 22:53
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Cornstarch fixed it and was able to use a small enough to not affect taste. – MyDaftQuestions Nov 12 '21 at 13:27

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 13 '23 at 18:19

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The best solution to a split chicken soup is to add 1 or 2 tablespoons of chicken gravy granules. It works within seconds. Give it a good mix up and it's split no more! Enjoy!

edited Feb 13 '23 at 18:19

Glorfindel

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answered Feb 02 '23 at 14:59

David Paul

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Chicken soup has split. Can it be repaired

2 Answers2