It’s 20 degrees outside, Hanukkah is upon us and it’s the perfect time for chicken soup.
My theory is, the only thing better than soup is soup you don’t have to make yourself. Luckily, there’s a Woburn business that actually specializes in such things. It’s called Grandma’s Chicken Soup, it’s been around since 2004 and they ship all over the country—kids far away at college, friends who need a lift, you get the idea.
Brother-sister duo Betsy Poritzy Maselek and David Poritzky run the business. Poritzky is a longtime bar mitzvah caterer and chef, known for the now-closed, demurely named David’s World Famous restaurant in Woburn. This is a true family affair: The siblings’ 85-year-old mom, Janice—the grandma behind the recipes—also helps out in the kitchen, alongside her 89-year-old sister.
Maselek says that business really took off during the pandemic, prime time for sickness and housebound soup-slurping.
“Basically, from 2020 to 2023, it was complete insanity,” Maselek says. (Tell me about it. I had two kids trying to Zoom-school.) “We went from selling 150 packages one Monday to 650.”
Chicken soup is their specialty: chicken noodle, gluten-free chicken and rice, chicken pot pie stew. There’s also vegetarian gluten-free tomato and matzo ball.
“Aside from our soup being the most delicious you’ve ever had, which is the case, we also put a lot of time and effort into everything we source, and we taste it all ourselves,” Maselek says.
She attributes the popularity of the chicken soup in particular to a sense of familiarity. You won’t detect any unusual spices or even dill in this concoction.
“It’s a very traditional chicken soup. That’s why people like it. When you’re sick, you don’t want something super spicy. You want something very plain and very delicious. What I say to people is, if someone is sick, they’re not really interested in trying something new. I usually recommend the noodle soup, because that’s the most basic one,” she says, laughing.
(In Jewish tradition, the owners definitely have a sense of humor: Among their list of reasons for shipping someone soup, outlined on their cheeky website: Is your daughter spending the holidays with her mother-in-law’s chicken soup? Eek!)
Grandma’s sells more than soup, too. They recently partnered with New York’s iconic Carnegie Deli to ship sandwich-making kits: rye, corned beef, pickles, pastrami, mustard, the works. There are also knishes, latkes, black-and-white cookies and even baby gifts.
Treat your Hanukkah list—or yourself—at grandmaschickensoup.com.