response 1 of 23:

Mar 11 04:09 UTC 2002

Prelude: The author is going through a divorce, has separated from his 
wife, and had never cooked anything in his life (aside from chili, 
pancakes, and things cooked under direct supervision by someone who 
knows how).

Today I purchased 4 pounds of chicken parts; pre-cut leg, thigh and 
breast pieces.  I recently bought a stock pot at K-Mart.  I'm mystified 
by the stock pot, at least by the strainer thing, but anyway.

I boiled my chicken parts for an hour or so, then separated out the 
meat/bones from the broth, separated the edible chicken parts from the 
bones (burning the bejasus out of my left index finger in the process), 
and threw the meat back into the pot.

There's nothing else in that pot.  I tossed in a bay leaf since I was 
forever picking them out of anything Andrea cooked, but other than 
water and chicken, there's nothing else.  I won't add salt; Andrea 
always put in too much.  I haven't a clue as to what else to do to that 
pot of what I hope will be reasonable chicken soup, except to boil it 
for a while longer and stir it if it boils over.

It tastes not unlike chicken soup right now.

I have some frozen "vegetables for soup" which I should probably toss 
in there, too.  But maybe I won't.  I want *chicken* soup, not 
vegetable soup with chicken guest appearance.

Rice, that's it.  I'll put some rice in there.  I don't know whether to 
cook the rice or just put it in.  I've got maybe 8 cookbooks, and not 
one of them says how to make chicken soup with rice.

Brand me a bonehead.  I'm on the Internet.  Several sources say at this 
point (up until which I've done more or less fine, except the bay leaf 
should have gone in from the start) to toss in a half-cup of rice and 
boil the soup until it's tender.  I'll bet I can do that.  I wasn't 
sure whether to cook it first, but I guess that's not necessary.

It canNOT be that easy to make good chicken soup.  Probably tomorrow 
I'll be hospitalized for chicken soup poisoning.

It's a weird time of day to be making chicken soup anyway, except I 
could never do it starting at 6:30 when I get home from work.  This way 
I can have soup to warm up when I get home, assuming nothing terrible 
happens such as it exploding.

(Item #63 in the general conference is about the divorce.)
#923 of 925 by C. S. McGee (cmcgee) on Sun Mar 10 22:26:07 2002: 

Chicken soup stock might taste more like chicken soup to you if you
boiled an onion or two in it, and 1/4 C celery with leaves, and maybe a
sprinkle of black pepper.  Not much else though.
  
#924 of 925 by John Ellis Perry Jr. (jep) on Sun Mar 10 22:28:36 2002: 

Onion.  Okay, I trust I can put that in there now.  Thanks!  I don't 
have any celery.  I have some black pepper, I'll toss a little in, I 
guess.
   
#925 of 925 by John Ellis Perry Jr. (jep) on Sun Mar 10 23:02:32 2002: 

It did start smelling better immediately after I put in the onions.  
And from the first taste, anyway, it tastes great.  I'll take some for 
lunch tomorrow.  Thanks!

This is a big breakthrough for me, as I had thought I'd never be happy 
with any chicken soup again.  To have it come out at least edible on my 
first try is encouraging.

response 3 of 23:

Mar 11 14:19 UTC 2002

John, let the chicken cool longer before attempting to separate it from the
bones.  Personally, I'd want a little salt, but if you've found other soup
too salty, maybe you don't need it.  (OTOH, the proper amount of salt doesn't
taste *salty*; it just brings out the other flavors.)

response 5 of 23:

Mar 11 17:14 UTC 2002

Bay leaf adds an extra layer of flavor.  It would only be missed if you are
used to having it there.  It does need to be added at the beginning.

response 7 of 23:

Mar 11 21:41 UTC 2002

It has been my experience that chicken soup tastes best when cooked for 
a long time over a low heat. This is why I am glad I have a crock pot. 
I also hate all the fat in it so here is how I make chicken soup.

chicken + water + carrots, celery and onions into the crock pot for all 
day. Then I remove everything solid and put it in a seperate container 
and I put the pot with the soup part into the fridge over night. In the 
morning, I remove all the fat from the top. When I get home from work, 
I microwave it to warm it up. (sometimes I cheat and put a soup cube 
in.)

Ok, sometimes when I am sick and I dont have the energy to make real 
chicken soup, I boil carrots and some onion in canned chicken broth and 
it is a pretty close approximation to the real thing. 

response 9 of 23:

May 27 16:28 UTC 2003

It's a year later.  I gave up on chicken soup for a long time because 
it really wasn't that good, but over the weekend I had an urge, and so 
I made some chicken soup.

This time, it came out a *lot* better.  The reason: I put celery in 
it.  And carrots, onions, chicken bouillon cubes... I more or less 
followed a recipe I found somewhere on the Internet, instead of winging 
it on my own.  I used their ingredients, but made up my own proportions.

I'm eating some right now.  This chicken soup is very much edible.  I'd 
go so far as to say it's good.  Other than chili, I'd have to say it's 
the best thing I've ever made.

It's not perfect.  I didn't know I should take out the skin, and had 
chunks of flavorless fatty chicken skin floating around in my soup.  
(It was easily corrected; I pick them out with a spoon and throw them 
away.)  Also, there are small bones in there.  I'll have to try again 
some time when it's not after midnight, and when I have more attention 
and more patience.

But gee!  I made something *good*!  I am pretty proud of myself.  I'll 
have to put it on my calendar:

John Perry
age 42
May, 2003
"Made good chicken soup"

response 11 of 23:

May 27 20:43 UTC 2003

Why don't you tell us what you and your son like to eat and then 
those of us who have a foolproof recipe to suggest could enter it 
here.  Most of us have been where you are and understand.

But congratulations on the soup.