This One is Sweet: Behind The Counter With Valerie Zweig and Taryn Pellicone of Prescription Chicken
Everyone knows that chicken soup is more or less liquid gold…and chicken soup (*that you don’t have to make yourself*) can practically cure anything that ails you. That’s what Prescription Chicken is all about. They are dedicated to making delish chicken soup for anyone in need. Cousins Val Zweig and Taryn Pellicone started the business in 2016 and are celebrating their 7th anniversary on Sept 1. With the soup weather ahead of us (and the Jewish Holidays) who better to chat with about their brilliant business idea and their commitment to the delicious finished product. TheList has a little convo with Val Zweig and Taryn Pellicone of Prescription Chicken:
We have to ask, what made you go into the soup business?
When Valerie was suffering from a second round of laryngitis and couldn’t find decent chicken soup, we saw the opportunity for a brand of clean label, better-than-homemade chicken soups. We launched our chicken soup delivery business in September of 2016 in Washington, DC and 7 years later, our soups can also be found at grocery stores across the country!
You offer a variety of chicken soup styles. How did you come up with them?
We started with the basics of chicken soup, drawing inspiration from comfort, memory, connection and, of course, deliciousness to make soups that trigger taste memories for people. Next, we found inspiration to expand our line from how WE ate soup – we sip on broth in the morning, so we created a rich and roasty, protein-packed chicken bone broth that mimics our morning meal; we love to eat spicy broth and soup when we aren’t feeling well or dragging, so we created our Hangover soup, a spicy chicken noodle soup filled with curative ingredients. Lastly, we draw inspiration from the iterations of chicken soup around the world and apply our Rx twist. We offer Pho-in-One which is a fully garnished version of a pho; we make a ramen that comes with a matzah ball; we most recently took the delicious flavors found in Ethiopian fried chicken from our pals at Doro Soul Food and built a chicken soup around the doro wat condiment.
Can we talk matzah balls? What is it about matzah balls, and how do you go about making one that is the perfect density? (Because as anyone who's made them before knows, sometimes...they're too hard and sometimes...they're too soft!)
We LOVE to talk Matzah Balls! Matzah Balls are one of our all time favorite bites and are the perfect item to float in soup. The thing about matzah balls is that even if you aren’t Jewish, and didn’t grow up eating Matzah Ball soup, you understand the almost mythical curative properties a great Matzah Ball soup can offer, and we’re happy to be the purveyors of that liquid gold. We are very specific with our matzah ball process. We are Streits Matzah meal lovers; we add in olive oil, water, baking powder, salt, pepper and eggs to create the perfect mix. We make sure not to over handle the dough – it’s VERY delicate so you want to just mix to combine, let it rest, gently roll and cook to ensure you don’t get super dense matzah balls. This approach allows for balls that have the perfect blend between sinker and floater. We like there to be some bite and heft so the balls don’t break apart in the soup, but we also want pockets of air for the soup to seep into.
Before Prescription Chicken launched, there weren't a lot of matzah ball soup choices on the grocery store shelves. How were you able to create a product that still tastes great?
Our philosophy is that soup in the grocery store CAN (and should) taste like soup you make at home. So, that’s how we make our soup -- we simmer together whole ingredients – that’s chicken bones, vegetables, salt, pepper and herbs – until we get a delicious and comforting broth (no preservatives or base or boxed stock here). We then add in sauteed veggies, poached chicken breast and noodles or matzah balls (made, again, without any physical or ingredient manipulation) to get a delicious soup that tastes like one you might have made yourself.
The High Holidays are almost upon us. Do you have any special offerings to help make the celebrations sweet?
We are offering a sweet little New Year package that is the perfect start to start any Rosh Hashannah meal. Our package offers 2 quarts of Matzah Ball soup, 2 mini challah, 2 apples, and a jar of honey from our friends at Petworth Honey. The package is $36 and will be available starting 9/13/23.
We love to hear about people supporting our bees. Can you tell us more about the honey and where you are sourcing it?
A dear friend of ours raises bees in Petworth. We use his honey in our Rosh Hashannah package, and supporting our friends AND the bees that pollinate the plants in our direct neighborhood just helps make the New Year even sweeter!
We have to ask, what made you go into the soup business?
When Valerie was suffering from a second round of laryngitis and couldn’t find decent chicken soup, we saw the opportunity for a brand of clean label, better-than-homemade chicken soups. We launched our chicken soup delivery business in September of 2016 in Washington, DC and 7 years later, our soups can also be found at grocery stores across the country!
You offer a variety of chicken soup styles. How did you come up with them?
We started with the basics of chicken soup, drawing inspiration from comfort, memory, connection and, of course, deliciousness to make soups that trigger taste memories for people. Next, we found inspiration to expand our line from how WE ate soup – we sip on broth in the morning, so we created a rich and roasty, protein-packed chicken bone broth that mimics our morning meal; we love to eat spicy broth and soup when we aren’t feeling well or dragging, so we created our Hangover soup, a spicy chicken noodle soup filled with curative ingredients. Lastly, we draw inspiration from the iterations of chicken soup around the world and apply our Rx twist. We offer Pho-in-One which is a fully garnished version of a pho; we make a ramen that comes with a matzah ball; we most recently took the delicious flavors found in Ethiopian fried chicken from our pals at Doro Soul Food and built a chicken soup around the doro wat condiment.
Can we talk matzah balls? What is it about matzah balls, and how do you go about making one that is the perfect density? (Because as anyone who's made them before knows, sometimes...they're too hard and sometimes...they're too soft!)
We LOVE to talk Matzah Balls! Matzah Balls are one of our all time favorite bites and are the perfect item to float in soup. The thing about matzah balls is that even if you aren’t Jewish, and didn’t grow up eating Matzah Ball soup, you understand the almost mythical curative properties a great Matzah Ball soup can offer, and we’re happy to be the purveyors of that liquid gold. We are very specific with our matzah ball process. We are Streits Matzah meal lovers; we add in olive oil, water, baking powder, salt, pepper and eggs to create the perfect mix. We make sure not to over handle the dough – it’s VERY delicate so you want to just mix to combine, let it rest, gently roll and cook to ensure you don’t get super dense matzah balls. This approach allows for balls that have the perfect blend between sinker and floater. We like there to be some bite and heft so the balls don’t break apart in the soup, but we also want pockets of air for the soup to seep into.
Before Prescription Chicken launched, there weren't a lot of matzah ball soup choices on the grocery store shelves. How were you able to create a product that still tastes great?
Our philosophy is that soup in the grocery store CAN (and should) taste like soup you make at home. So, that’s how we make our soup -- we simmer together whole ingredients – that’s chicken bones, vegetables, salt, pepper and herbs – until we get a delicious and comforting broth (no preservatives or base or boxed stock here). We then add in sauteed veggies, poached chicken breast and noodles or matzah balls (made, again, without any physical or ingredient manipulation) to get a delicious soup that tastes like one you might have made yourself.
The High Holidays are almost upon us. Do you have any special offerings to help make the celebrations sweet?
We are offering a sweet little New Year package that is the perfect start to start any Rosh Hashannah meal. Our package offers 2 quarts of Matzah Ball soup, 2 mini challah, 2 apples, and a jar of honey from our friends at Petworth Honey. The package is $36 and will be available starting 9/13/23.
We love to hear about people supporting our bees. Can you tell us more about the honey and where you are sourcing it?
A dear friend of ours raises bees in Petworth. We use his honey in our Rosh Hashannah package, and supporting our friends AND the bees that pollinate the plants in our direct neighborhood just helps make the New Year even sweeter!
