Basic Chicken Soup

Directions

1. 1
   Clean, trim, and singe chicken (see Notes).
2. 2
   Quarter the chicken if necessary (see Notes).
3. 3
   Place quartered chicken in a close-fitting 5-quart soup pot.
4. 4
   A whole chicken should fit into a 6-to-7 quart pot.
5. 5
   Add 10 cups water if you use broilers or 12 if you use fowl.
6. 6
   Cover pot and bring to a boil.
7. 7
   Reduce to a slow simmer and skim foam as it rises to the surface.
8. 8
   Soup should cook at a smile (see Notes).
9. 9
   When foam subsides, add all remaining ingredients with only 1 teaspoonful of salt.
10. 10
    Cook chicken until it is loosening from the bone.
11. 11
    If chicken is quartered, allow about 1 1/4 hours for cooking broilers and 2 1/2 to 3 hours for a fowl.
12. 12
    If you cook the chickens whole, allow an extra 15 minutes for broilers and 30 minutes for the fowl.
13. 13
    Add more water during cooking if chicken is not seven-eighths covered.
14. 14
    Turn chicken 2 or 3 times during cooking.
15. 15
    Add salt gradually, tasting as the soup progresses.
16. 16
    Remove chicken, giblets, and bones and set aside.
17. 17
    Pour soup through a sieve, rinse pot, and then return soup to pot if it is to be served immediately.
18. 18
    Skim fat from surface of soup if it is to be served without being stored, following directions for skimming (see Notes).
19. 19
    Soup can be prepared in advance up to this point.
20. 20
    If you are going to store the soup, strain it over a bowl but do not skim.
21. 21
    Cool thoroughly, uncovered, then cover and place in refrigerator.
22. 22
    Store wrapped chicken separately in the refrigerator.
23. 23
    Discard (or nibble on) giblets, bones, and soup vegetables.
24. 24
    Chicken can be reheated in soup, either in quarters with bones and skins for a lusty dish, or trimmed of bones and skin and cut into smaller, easily spooned pieces.