I was at the store one morning and they had a bin full of boneless skinless chicken breast marked down since it was on it's last sell by date... So I bought 4 HUGE packages and decided to can it, not freeze it since I just butchered 26 chickens and the freezer is full. My Caity was sick the week before and didn't ask, and didn't tell me until it was too late that she had wanted some chicken soup...well just ask and ye shall receive.... chicken soup ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden ) So I went to work dicing the chicken meat up, added some chopped celery, garlic and carrots and filled the jar with water. put on the lid and put it in the pressure canner for 90 minutes at 10# pressure...all I do is open it drain off the broth, add a little more water and bouillon bring to a boil and add some noodles (or rice if preferred) and add the meat and vegetables at the end of cooking the noodles. Easy Chicken soup and not soooo much salt as a store bought variety.
Carolyn, your soup would cure anything--the blues, a cold, and the wobbles! It looks delicious. I freeze my soup, since my hens are walking around the coop and won't be in the freezer. Do you ever add diced potatoes to your soup to give it some body? I've found that adds texture to the broth and yet one more vegetable to the soup.
Jane, I hadn't thought to add potatoes to the soup, but that would be very filling...mmmm mmmm mmmm. I don't butcher the laying hens... Those go visit the Amish farm and they can do that or feed them for the few eggs they will lay, but I suspect they make chicken soup out of them, too.
carolyn keiper, What do you do with the feet back and neck of the chickens you butchered? I use that to make broth. I can that in pints. You can do so much with it throughout the year.
Barb, the last thing I wanted to do and really didn't have time to do was butcher the broilers...that said, I tossed all the parts except the gizzards and carcass.... I know, I know it was wasteful, but I let the guts, feet, organs etc.. all "brew" into maggots for the chickens to eat...sounds really gross, but they were/are molting and need a lot of protein to make feathers and since I am feeding them and they are not laying any eggs while they are molting they are a burden financially, so I made the "parts" help refeather the girls.
The reason I asked was that I just recently learned that chicken feet make the very best broth. I don't need to make any at the moment but when I do I found this place that sell feet only for about 5 cents a pound. I would try about 20 pounds just to make broth and see if it is really "betterest". I usually use all the bones and back, neck, everything. I do let it sit and take off the fat. It is very very good.
