For the Matzo Balls

Step 1

• To a medium bowl, add the matzo meal, baking powder, salt, onion powder, dried dill, and white pepper. Stir to combine.

Step 2

• In another bowl, whisk together the eggs and schmaltz until well combined. You can substitute duck or goose fat, or use vegetable oil—but the poultry fat adds a wonderful flavor and I recommend using it if you can.
  

Step 3

• Add the egg mixture into the matzo meal mixture, using a fork to combine. Do not overwork. Once the eggs have been fully incorporated into the dry ingredients, gently fold in the seltzer using a small silicone spatula.
  
• Cover your bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until ready to use.
  

For the Soup

Step 1

• In a stock sock, or to a piece of cheesecloth, add the onion skins, carrot ends and peels, and any other vegetables scraps you wish to include. If you are using whole peppercorns, add them to the cheesecloth.

  Knot or tie with string, and set aside.

Step 2

• This step can be skipped if you wish—I think it adds a little more depth of flavor. However, you can skip to step 3 if you prefer.

  In your largest, heaviest stockpot, heat butter or olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the chicken, skin-side down, and reduce the heat to medium. Allow to cook for several minutes, enabling some of the fat to render off.
  
• Remove the chicken, setting it aside on a platter. Add the vegetables and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables have begun to soften and brown.

  Return the chicken and its juices to the pot, and add 4-6 quarts cold water, or enough to cover the vegetables and chicken. Add the stock sock or cheesecloth and nudge it down toward the bottom of the pot with a long-handled spoon.
  

Step 3

• If you skipped the sautéeing step, add your vegetables and chicken to a large stockpot and add enough cold water to cover. In my stockpot, this equates to 4-6 quarts.

  Add the stock sock with the vegetable scraps, nudging it down into the broth with a long-handled spoon. Turn the heat up to medium-high until the liquid begins to bubble. Immediately turn the heat down to medium low and watch carefully, ensuring that the liquid only simmers gently, but never boils.
  
• Allow the broth to simmer for at least 4 hours or up to 12 hours, checking regularly to ensure that the liquid remains at a very gentle simmer. Do not cover.

Step 4

• Once the broth has finished simmering, remove it from the heat. Remove and discard the cheesecloth. Using a slotted spoon, carefully remove the chicken, transferring it to a medium bowl and ladling stock over it (this helps ensure that the chicken does not dry out). Set it aside until it is cool enough to handle.

Step 5

• Remove and discard the skin and bones, shredding the chicken into medium chunks with a fork. Return the chicken to the stockpot, along with any juices that have accumulated.
  

Step 6

• If you are ready to cook your matzo balls, proceed to Cooking the Matzo Balls below.

  If you want to wait until another day, cool your stock, then refrigerate your soup. I usually facilitate this process by placing my stockpot in a sink filled with lots of ice and cold water, up to ¾ of the way to the top of my stockpot. This will cool the stock down more quickly; you do not want to refrigerate steaming-hot stock.

  However, because I make so much stock at a time and it takes awhile to cool down and heat up again, not to mention the real estate the stockpot takes up in the refrigerator, I generally prefer to do everything all at once on the day I intend to serve it, or, to make the soup several weeks ahead and freeze it.

Cooking the Matzo Balls

Step 1

• Gently form your chilled matzo ball mix into balls, taking care not to overwork the dough. This recipe yields about 12 large matzo balls.
  

Step 2

• Heat your soup to a gentle boil and add the matzo balls quickly one at a time, stirring briefly with a long-handled spoon to ensure that none stick to the bottom of the pot.
• Immediately cover the pot, turning the heat down if it threatens to boil over and doing your best to ensure a consistent simmer (a translarent lid helps here, but isn’t strictly necessary). Do not uncover while the matzo balls are cooking.

  Allow the matzo balls to simmer for 45-50 minutes—less for smaller matzo balls, more for larger ones. If you cut a cooked matzo ball open, it should be even in color throughout. A darker center indicates an uncooked matzo ball.

Step 3

• Add 1-2 cooked matzo balls to each serving bowl and ladle the soup over the matzo balls. Garnish with fresh herbs, if desired, and serve immediately.
  
• *Whenever I make vegetables, I save the parts I don’t use for stock—the skins and ends of onions or shallots; carrot peels, the ends of leeks, and so forth. I store them in a large Ziplock bag in the freezer, and make stock anytime I have a few handfuls of vegetable ends and some bones on hand. I do not keep vegetables that would not add a good flavor to stock (e.g., broccoli or potato peels).