Ollie's Old-Fashioned Chicken Soup

Yesterday I made chicken stock for use today in my old-fashioned chicken soup. Last night I separated the liquid stock from the meat and put everything in the fridge.

The nice thing about leaving the stock overnight in the refrigerator is that it separates fat from liquid. The fat rises to the top and is easy to skim off before you start your soup.

Most of the fat is skimmed off the top and the stock is ready to use.

Taking 2 large stalks of celery, I washed and chopped them into small pieces. It's a personal choice, you can cut the celery any size you like.

Next come the carrots. I like carrots so I used 2 - one medium and one large one. I'm fussy about how my carrots are cut so I cut them in the style you see here. You can cut them in rounds which is much easier and faster to do. It's your choice.

Onions are next. I used two. I like my onions chopped fairly small and in uniform pieces so the way I do it is to slice down the onion in one direction. I don't cut all the way to the bottom so the onion is still held together.

Next I turn the onion and slice down across the cuts I made previously. Again, I don't cut to the bottom so the onion is still held together.

Next I turn the onion on its side and slice across the first two directions I cut. This chops the onion into fairly uniform sizes. When I reach the bottom (which is still held together) I chop those on their own.

This is what I end up with. Fast, easy and creates fairly uniform size and shape pieces. Feel free to do your own thing!

Now I'm ready for the chicken I removed from the stock yesterday. I likely won't need it all. You can see in the picture how much there was. I will use about 1/2 to 3/4 of what you see here.

And here's the chupped chicken ready to go. When I'm chopping it up, I am careful to remove skin or fatty bits. Then I go through it with clean hands and make sure there are no bones left.

I toss everything into the crock pot and decide if I need more liquid. I might add apple juice or white wine plus as much water as I need to make the soup the consistency I prefer.

Other ingredients added at this time are 1 or 2 chicken cubes, 1 tsp fine herbes, and salt and pepper to taste. I usually add a finely chopped and mushed up tomato or two but today I did not have any so I added a tablespoon of ketchup for some tomato flavour. It's optional.

Here is my soup simmering in the crock pot. I'll set it on high and leave it for 6 hours, then I'll add 1/2 cup of rice or pasta and simmer for another 2 hours.

Serve it with hot buns or fresh bread and a salad and you've got a super nutritious and yummy meal. As you can see from the first photo I added pasta to this batch. Oh so yummy!