Roast a whole organic chicken, reserving giblets etc.
When the chicken is cool enough, strip it. Meat goes in the fridge. Pan drippings, skin, bones, fat, raw giblets, all go in the Big Pot. Probably 2 gallons of water.
Then I add about six stalks of celery, a few big carrots, a bunch of parsley, a big onion cut in quarters with the skin left ON (adds color), peppercorns, a half-dozen unpeeled garlic cloves, and whatever else I have lying around like potato or winter squash skins … Don’t bother cutting up anything in small pieces. It all turns to mush anyway.
Do not include starchy vegetables or any cabbage family (broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale etc). Add a dash of vinegar to extract more calcium from the bones. Whatever fresh herbs I have around, usually bay, rosemary, oregano, thyme, added in generous handfuls. Bring to a boil, turn to simmer very low and cover. I simmer my broth all day. Strain into plastic quart containers, let cool, and freeze. When I use the last quart in the freezer, I buy another chicken and do it all over again.
The fat is where the flavor of the chicken resides. You’ll get a puny weak broth without including all the fat.
Raising my children in Louisiana and living in Florida for the past however many years I have often made Hurricane Soup. When the power goes out for a few days if you have a gas stove that is great! Otherwise I have made soup on camp stoves, BBQ grills, even sterno and open flame. Now, with how ubiquitous generators are, the freezer probably stays on instead of the cooler triage we always had to do.
Anyway, chicken soup first since being hollow it thaws first. In goes whatever will go first like tomatoes. My hurricane supplies always included carrots, onions, celery, potatoes because they last, so some of that goes in everyday. Plenty of spices as well.
However when the chops thaw out, they get grilled and anything left in it goes! The roast thaws out next so slice, grill, eat then the est into the soup! Well, you get the idea. In our opinion it just kept getting better, as we fling in more things and keep the soup simmering for days.
By the way we call it Hurricane Soup because we gathered round it and the kids took turns stirring and saying things like "O, it’s a hurricane! There goes a carrot swept into the Eye!’ It cut down on the terror.
I would suggest that you consult some cook books where the title of the book contains the name of the culture.
Here is a recipe from “The Art of Jewish Cooking” by Jennie Grossinger Copyright 1958 by Random House, Inc. - page 23
Chicken Soup
1 soup chicken
Chicken feet
3.5 quarts water
2 onions
1 T salt
2 Carrots
3 stalks celery
1 parsley root
2 sprigs dill
3 sprigs parsley
Clean the chicken and feet thoroughly. The feet add strength to the soup, so use as many as you can get. Combine in a deep saucepan with the water and onions. Bring to a boil and cook over medium heat 1.5 hours. Add remaining ingredients. Cover and cook over low heat 1 hour longer, or until chicken is tender. Remove chicken and strain soup.
Makes about 2-2.5 quarts soup. Use the chicken in other dishes or serve with the soup.
I puzzled for quite a while over the ingredient “1 soup chicken”. Finally, I figured it meant a special kind of chicken that is intended for use in soup. Maybe ask a butcher if he has any?
Most recipes just specify chicken parts like backs and necks.
Means an old chicken, tough, with lots of connective tissue that will melt into gelatin in the heat of the liquid. The closest you can usually get at the grocery store is a “stewing chicken”, or sometimes specifically a “stewing hen”. They’re bigger than most of the chickens there, because they’re full grown adult chickens.
For veg, I usually just dump in a 400g bag of frozen mixed peas, carrots, etc. I simmer two chickens in the same pot to get a nice schmaltzy broth (and save the meat from one for other dishes).
If I use noodles, I always cook them only when I heat up the soup for a serving. Otherwise they get too limp and mushy.
I’ll have to try both baking the bones and the onion marmalade. Sounds yummy! :o
If you want chicken noodle soup, use linguine broken into shorter lengths, it makes noodles just like Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup. I boil them in salted water until tender, then add to the soup.
Jewish chicken soup that my Mum taught me (and I made yesterday):
1 “Boiling chicken” from the kosher butchers (admittedly this may not be easy for everyone to get). It’ll already be cut into quarters with all the giblets removed. Take off skin, boil in water in a big pot. Continually skim off the scum that forms off the top as it goes along. After 30-45 mins chop up 2 or 3 sticks of celery, a couple of carrots, and an onion or two and add to the boiling water. Then 1.5 - 2 cubes of chicken stock (buy a kosher one if you can, it does taste different) you can also use Osem chicken soup powder. Keep on the boil for up to three hours overall periodically adding water to make up for evaporation. Add salt and pepper at some point towards the end. 30 mins before the 3 hours is up add in a few potatoes. That’s it. Done. You’ll probably also want some fine egg noodles which you boil separately and add to each bowl. The ones I got were Manischewitz brand. Yum.
There’s nothing wrong with your basic recipe, but I don’t see any mention of seasoning.
The soup must be properly salted while cooking. I also use plenty of fresh cracked black pepper and thyme. Also, sautéing onions is a very important starting point. These are the things that give it flavor. I second the suggestion of garlic and tomato paste.
Also, never use breast meat. It’s texture doesn’t go with soup. Thigh meat works best.
I came to mention salt. Soups take quite a bit in order to taste like they should. Canned soups, of course, have ghastly levels of salt, and that’s partly to cut costs (salt is cheap/spices are expensive), but even homemade soups, the first few dozen times I made them, took a lot more salt than I expected.
I’m unsure why people skim and throw away the chicken fat from their broth. I always skim it and use it to saute the veggies I’m putting in the soup.
My process is pretty simple and frugal: one chicken provides roast chicken the first night, chicken soup the second night, with some left over broth and meat for other purposes. After we eat chicken, I strip the meat and toss the carcass in a pot with carrots and celery and bay leaves and a bunch of salt as well as pan drippings and any leftover skin and giblets. It cooks for 2-3 hours, by which point it’s delicious.
I chill it, everything included, overnight, and strain out the carcass and veggies the next day. Skim the fat, cook some chopped onions and carrots and celery in the fat, chop up lots of meat, add the broth and meat to the pot, and cook it. I know it’s best to add noodles separately, but I throw them in as well, since I’m cooking for two kids who can’t get enough noodles, and I don’t mind too much if the noodles get super-soggy.
The skimming in the first few minutes after it gets you to a simmer isn’t skimming the fast, it’s skimming small particles of denatured proteins that make the stock cloudy. It’s optional, but if you want that transparent golden broth that Bubbe used to make, you need to skim.