Medium Spicy Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

• Stewing (soup) chicken or pack of necks & backs or leftover chicken (or turkey) frame(s)
• 2 to 2.5 gal water
• 6 carrots, diced
• 3 onions, diced
• 8 to 10 cloves garlic, sliced or minced
• 8 celery stalks (1/4 slices)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 large sweet red pepper, diced
• 8-oz jar of pickled mild pepperoncinis (sliced) with juice OR 8-oz jar of salsa
• 3 cups cooked brown or white rice (You can also experiment with barley, potatoes, wild rice or noodles to build up the soup. If using noodles, cook them separately and do not add to the main soup pot or they will eventually disintegrate. Instead add them to each individual bowl of soup as it is served.)

Simmer chicken with carrots, onions, celery, garlic, bay leaf, salt and pepper in 2 gal on water in a large soup pot for 2 to 2.5 hrs, until the breast is tender when poked with a fork. Remove chicken pieces and set aside to cool.

When the chicken is cooled, remove the meat from the bones, cut into bite-sized pieces and return to the pot. (if you are using an old laying hen (stewing hen or soup chicken), include the breast meat in the soup, but if you use a broiler, the cooked breast can be used for making chicken salad).

Add the sweet pepper, tomatoes, pepperoncini or salsa, cauliflower and cooked rice to the pot of broth and meat.

Simmer on med-low heat for 1 hour. Can be served with chicken salad sandwiches.

Cool the leftover soup and then freeze in covered plastic containers for quick, delicious future meals.

Adapted from the summer 2010 issue of Chickens Magazine (from Hobby Farms)