Sometimes I want to cut right to the chase. Instead of roasting a chicken I like to quickly boil a chicken and get right down to business with making soups and chicken salad. When I boil the chicken it is a faster processing time and my chicken soup is half way made at this point.
1 5lb whole chicken
1 tablespoon course ground Celtic sea salt, can add a little at a time so that you don’t over salt
1/2 tsp pepper or to preference
3 large carrots
5 cloves garlic
2 stalks celery
1 large onion
Optional herbs are parsley, thyme, rosemary (remember parsley should not be consumed when breastfeeding)
Clean whole chicken, remove gizzard and heart if in the cavity. Make sure to clean cavity well and remove any brown bits or blood. Place whole chicken in large stock pot. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Let boil for 10-15 minutes. Add the whole onion, carrots and celery then turn the heat down to medium and let simmer for about 45 minutes. Remove chicken and check temperature. If your stove cooks fast you may want to check temperature after 30 minutes. You can pull the whole chicken out and place on a cutting board. Check that the temperature in the fattest part of the bird holds 165 for 10 seconds.
At this point you can pull the bird and process all of the meat for other recipes like chicken salad or chicken soup. For stock, take carcass and return to pot. Follow this recipe for chicken stock just use the liquid that is already in the pot instead of adding more water. Keep vegetables in the pot. For chicken soup follow this recipe for chicken soup.
I pull the vegetables out at this point and chop into smaller pieces. Return to pot. If you like your vegetables to be pretty crisp you can wait to add them to the pot at this point just chop them smaller.
Process chicken, pull meat from carcass and shred. Return to pot. Bring all ingredients to a boil and then let simmer on low for additional 20 minutes.
