3 - 4 Generations Chicken Soup

This recipe has been in our family for at least 3 or 4 generations. I have often called it, "nectar of the gods." It's the best chicken soup I've ever tasted. Its best served on cold nights. Give it a try.

Ingredients

• 1 Whole chicken, about 4 lbs
• 8 quart pot (our large pasta sauce pot)
• 28 oz can of Hunts (or equiv) tomato’s (the ones we crush up for sauce) – rinse can, adding rinse to pot
• Fill pot roughly halfway with water and put on high burner (to get boiling) while adding:
• 10 nice sized peeled carrots cut in half
• 1 large peeled (but whole) white or yellow onion
• 1 large potato with eyes plucked but skin on
• 3 nice sized celery stalks cut in half

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Directions/Steps

1. Start by first cutting the whole chicken in half. Then section off wings, drum stick, thighs. Separate breast from back. I try to remove skin and any fat from all pieces except for wings (practically nothing left if you take skin off). Clean and rinse in hot or cold water and immediately add to now boiling soup water. Gently lay a full clump of fresh Italian parsley on top. Fill close to top with hot water and note when it begins to boil again.
2. Reduce heat to a gentle boil for 1½ to 2 hours. Once water level drops about an inch, you can refill with another inch of hot water to make up for not being able to fill pot to the brim and risk boiling over. Only add water only one time. You know when it’s done by tasting.
3. Once you’ve turned it off and it stops boiling, degrease if necessary. You’ll probably find that much of the grease collects around the rim and the parsley. Remove parsley and take out pieces of chicken. We like to debone the chicken at this point. I separate the white and dark meat on a plate. Remove remaining vegetables, separating out the tomatoes for dog food or trash. But first, let them settle because more soup will come out of them before you’ve finished cooking. In fact, you can squeeze them with a big spoon to push out the juices. Then pass it through a strainer and add to big pot.
4. Now it’s time to pour big pot of soup through a strainer into another pot. You should have lots of really lovely golden colored soup now. Put carrots in a blender. Add a little soup to the carrots before grinding. Grind carrots (with a little soup) to a puree. Add this back to the pot of filtered soup. Remove and freeze what you don’t need for future.
5. Bring your soup to a boil and add noodles. Big egg noodles cook in about 10 minutes.