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Meat
Medium
3 Hours
Diets 
These small dumplings, made from flour, water, and eggs, come with a variety of fillings and are traditionally served in chicken soup. Irene’s daughter Carol remembers that in their family the kreplach were a delicacy, but the dough was very time-consuming and took a lot of work. Irene and Olga did not make it often. Olga spent a lot of time with her daughter Debbie teaching her the recipe. According to Debbie, Olga and Irene recreated the original kreplach recipe based on the memory of their mother making it before the war. The recipe was lost during the war, but they worked hard to recreate it. What we have today is as close to the original as they could get. Irene and Olga’s recipes were perfected over the years: Irene, the incredible baker, and Olga, the master chef. Both understood the fine art of taste, texture, and presentation. The sisters brought out the best in each other. It was a contest between the two sisters to see who created the dish that came closest to “the Mama’s.” The two sisters were often found debating the exact ingredients and quantities used in the dish. Carol recalls that it was comical to listen and learn the “art of food dissection.” As their children and grandchildren will attest, they are the “best cookers”—and master chefs could learn a thing or two from Irene and Olga.
2 cups roughly chopped chicken
1 onion, from the soup
1 carrot, from the soup
1 stalk celery, from the soup
1 extra-large egg, beaten
Gefen Salt, to taste
ground black pepper, such as Pereg, to taste
finely minced fresh herbs, such as chives, parsley, or dill (optional)
3 extra-large eggs
1 teaspoon Haddar Kosher Salt
2 cups all-purpose flour, such as Glicks, plus more as needed
Prepare chicken soup based on your favorite recipe. It should include the ingredients you will need for the kreplach filling: chicken, onion, carrot, and celery.
Once the chicken becomes tender, remove all the chicken to a large shallow bowl to let it cool. Remove onion pieces, carrot pieces, and celery pieces from the pot and set them aside to use in the filling. Reserve the broth for serving later with the kreplach. Discard any remaining vegetables.
Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, transfer it to a cutting board. Using your hands or a fork and knife, remove and discard the skin and bones. Roughly chop up the meat and reserve two cups to be used for the kreplach. Save the remaining meat for another purpose, such as chicken salad.
Place the chopped chicken and the reserved vegetable pieces in a food processor. Using the S-shaped blade, chop until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. (Alternatively, you may finely mince the chicken and vegetables with a large chef’s knife on a cutting board.) Stir in the egg and salt and pepper and mix to combine. Set aside.
With a fork, beat together the eggs and salt in a large bowl. Mix in the flour until the dough comes together in a soft ball.
On a clean, floured surface, roll out the dough until it is very thin. You may need to do this in two batches, depending upon your workspace. Cut out disks that are three inches in diameter. Place a scant teaspoon of filling in the center of each disk of dough, pressing the edges firmly to seal.
Carefully drop the kreplach into a large pot of salted boiling water. Cook for about 10 minutes, then add to chicken soup.
Top with the fresh herbs if you like.
Recipe excerpted from “Honey Cake and Latkes: Recipes from the Old World by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Survivors.”
Photography by Ellen Silverman
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