Chicken Soup!

After I posted yesterday, I realized that I left out a good part! What are you going to do with that chicken carcass after you've made either chicken enchiladas or baked chicken? How about some good old fashioned chicken soup?! It's not as hard as it sounds. Just take as much skin and fat off of the carcass as possible, put it in a large pot and cover with water. Put it on high to boil. While it is heating, chop an onion and throw it in the water along with some black pepper and a whole bay leaf. Don't clean up the knife and cutting board yet. Now a very important part: chicken boullion. I used to use those cubes, but Costco has a wonderful product called Better Than Boullion. It's in the spices section and it comes in a short glass jar. They have chicken and beef. I always have both in my fridge and an extra in the pantry. So, take a couple of tablespoons of this wonderfull boullion and add it to your soup pot. Once the water boils, turn it down to low or simmer and put the lid on. Simmer it for at least 2 or 3 hours. Meanwhile, chop up some carrots and celery so they are ready to go in the pot later. When you are close to eating time, you will want to take the bay leaf and the carcass out of the water . It will be in many pieces by now, so really fish around for all of the bones. All of the meat probably will fall off the bones by now so there is not much to do to the bones but throw them away. If you don't think that there is enough chicken in the soup, hopefully you had leftover meat from the chicken dinner and you can throw some in the pot. While you are doing this, make your noodles or rice and add the carrots and celery to the pot and turn up the heat. You want it boling again until the veggies are soft. After the veggies are soft, add the noodles or rice and enjoy!
There are many variations to this recipe, so go for it! Add different or more veggies, and fun pasta - whatever you think would be good! Also, this soup freezes well so if you want to prepare for your next cold evening or sick day in bed just freeze some!