The Start of Something Awesome

When you start out with these ingredients, you know that something awesome is yet to come!

In to the stockpot went one small chicken (less than 4 pounds) a handful of baby carrots, a palmful of black peppercorns, a scant palmful of kosher salt, a medium onion (skin, roots and all) cut into quarters, two ribs of celery cut in to large hunks, and enough water to just cover the ingredients.  This is not my normal set of ingredients for making stock, but it was what was on hand.  I like to use whole celery, and full size carrots, a collection of herbs, and I usually just use chicken bones to make stock, and not a whole chicken.

So what did I end up making (and forgetting to take a picture of)?  Just some simple chicken soup.

Once the stock had simmered on low for about two hours, I removed the chicken, and ran the rest of it through a sieve to remove the solids.

I picked all the chicken off the bones, and tossed it back in to the soup pot, which had been rinsed and was now holding the stock.  I added about 1/2 cup of pasta stars (I do have a 5 year old in the house after all) and a large can of home-style veg-all that had been drained and rinsed.  No, I do not think that Ina would not approve of this ingredient, but we are still getting moved in and I had a hungry kid on my hands who could not wait for "real" veggies to cook.  It was delicious.

Bonus, there were 2 quarts leftover that have found a home in the freezer, plus Hubby was able to take soup for lunch the next day!