🇷🇴 Romania · Rădăuți, Suceava County (Bukovina)
Ciorbă rădăuțeanăRomanian sour chicken soup
Sour poultry soup from Rădăuți, first made with turkey breast and now usually with chicken, modelled on tripe soup and finished with a sour-cream, egg-yolk, garlic and vinegar liaison, with hot pickled peppers at the table.
Origin and history
Ciorbă rădăuțeană was created in Rădăuți, in the Bukovina part of Suceava County, by the cook Cornelia Dumitrescu. Her family disliked tripe soup and tripe was hard to come by in the early 1980s, so at her husband's suggestion she made a version with turkey breast from her own poultry. It went onto the menu of the restaurant where she worked, and the recipe was registered in the Suceava County tourism office's recipe book on 14 February 1982. It has since spread across Romania.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 1 h 30 min
- Hands-on
- 35 min
Ingredients
- 1 kg2.2 lb chicken or turkey breast on the bone, skin on, add 3-4 chicken wings for a fuller broth
- 2.5 l10 1/2 cups cold water
- 2 tsp salt, plus more to taste
- 2 carrots, peeled
- 1 parsnip or parsley root, peeled
- 1/2 small celeriac (about 150 g / 5 oz), peeled
- 1 onion, peeled, left whole
- 1 red bell pepper (ardei capia), optional; finely diced
- 3 egg yolks
- 300 g1 1/4 cups sour cream (smântână), at least 20% fat, at room temperature, plus more to serve
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 5-6 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste with a pinch of salt
- 3-4 tbsp wine vinegar, to taste
- freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley
- pickled hot peppers (ardei iuți murați), to serve
Method
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1. Put the chicken or turkey in a large pot with the cold water and salt and bring slowly to the boil. Skim off the foam as it rises so the broth stays clear.
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2. Add the carrots, parsnip, celeriac and onion, lower the heat and simmer, partly covered, for 45-60 minutes, until the meat comes away from the bone.
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3. Lift out the meat and vegetables and strain the broth back into the pot.
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4. When the meat is cool enough to handle, discard the skin and bones and pull the meat into thin strips, the way tripe is cut for ciorbă de burtă.
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5. Dice the carrots and parsnip and return them to the broth with the meat and the bell pepper, if using. Discard the onion and celeriac. Simmer for 10 minutes.
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6. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sour cream and flour until smooth, then stir in the garlic.
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7. Whisk three or four ladles of the hot broth into the bowl, one at a time, so the yolks warm gradually and do not curdle.
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8. Take the pot off the heat and pour in the cream mixture in a thin stream, stirring all the time.
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9. Return the pot to very low heat and warm it for 3-4 minutes, stirring, until the soup thickens slightly and turns silky. Do not let it boil.
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10. Add the vinegar a spoonful at a time until the soup is pleasantly sour, then season with salt and pepper and stir in the parsley.
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11. Serve hot, with an extra spoonful of sour cream, pickled hot peppers and bread, and vinegar and garlic on the table for those who want more.
Notes
- The soup copies ciorbă de burtă, the Romanian tripe soup, using poultry instead of tripe: the same strips of meat, the same sour-cream, egg-yolk, garlic and vinegar finish, the same hot peppers at the table.
- Turkey or chicken: the first version was made with turkey breast; chicken is now the usual choice. Use breast on the bone, not boneless fillet, for the body of the broth.
- Sourness: vinegar is traditional; some cooks use lemon juice. Add either off the heat, after the liaison, and keep adjusting at the table.
- Its creator has complained that later cooks changed the recipe. Home versions with rice, or with lots of extra vegetables, drift away from it; the bell pepper and parsnip are optional.
- Reheating: warm it gently and never let it boil, or the egg and cream will split into flecks.
- Related: ciorbă de burtă, the tripe soup it was modelled on, and the other sour soups of Romania (ciorbe).
Adapted from Newsweek România, "Ciorba rădăuțeană, în topul celor mai bune supe din lume" and Newsweek România, "Cum să faci o ciorbă rădăuțeană ca la mama acasă".
At the festivals
Served at 1 festival in Romania.
Earlier editions
- July 02, 2026