chicken soup??

[Martha27]

I have to admit ive never made chicken soup so I have no idea! I have a whole chicken I am going to bake tonight for supper. How can I make this into soup the next day?

[Gwendolyn's babies]

Take the carcass (save some meat for your soup) and put it in a large crockpot, add enough water to cover it and let it cook in the crockpot overnight. (sometimes I add a carrot or two and some celery..usually I save carrots tops and celery bottoms in my freezer until I am ready to make stock)

In the morning, turn the crockpot off. Drain the juice into mason jars and set in refrigerator (once cool enough to handle). I then skim off the fat that has risen to the top. Some people keep the fat.

My chicken soup is really basic. I saute onions, celery, carrots until the onions are translucent. I add a couple of bay leaves and saute them for a minute more. Then I add the stock and chicken meat.

Sometimes I add rice or noodles.

If I add noodles I boil them in a separate pot, then add them in the bowls as I ladle the soup in.

I add salt, pepper and sweet basil to taste. Sometimes I add a bit of lemon juice (kind of a greek think)

(now you don't have to do the whole refrigerate in mason jar thing. I do this to take out some fat and also to use when I am ready to make the soup or add to other dishes if I need chicken broth)

Nothing beats homemade chicken soup

[Martha27]

thank you! one more question- how long can I keep the leftover chicken before making soup out of it?

[Gwendolyn's babies]

I'd say a week in the refrigerator a month in the freezer.

[Magelet]

If you add some acid (vinegar is good just a sploosh) it pulls calcium out of the bones and into your broth.

You can put anything you want in your chicken soup once you make the stock
( I do the carcass with water, apple cider vinegar, and some onion, celery and carrot trimmigns just a bit so it doesn't taste too vegetably, 12-24 hours at a simmer in a pot), I love sauteed chard or kale and onion, and cook some sweet potato or potato chunks in the broth. Plus some of the chicken fat is healthy (it is what makes chicken soup so particularly good for sick people) and makes the soup taste DELICIOUS. Also, salt your soup slowly, tasting as you go. To taste good, soup must be salted just right, which can be done by salting a tiny bit, stirring, tasting, salting stirring tasting until it tastes great.