can you boil an ordinary chicken from the supermarket to make soup..?

Question

if so for how long?

Answer 1

For it to taste the best roast the chicken first

Chicken Stock
Put the bones from a roast chicken (some meat left on the bones but most taken off) with peppercorns, salt, dill, bay leaf, two carrots chopped in thirds, the tops off a thing of celery, 1/2an onion, 3 garlic cloves (not heads but cloves) in a large pot. Top with cold water. Bring to a slow boil. Simmer for about 3 hours (many people skim but I don't).
Drain using a cheese cloth. Throw everything out (except the liquid) - sometimes I will go through the stuff and pull out the meat.
Let this liquid sit at room temp until cooled, then refrigerate.
All the fat will go to the top and become a solid layer in the fridge - remove the fat.
If I am freezing it I keep the fat on (I find it “protects” the stock) and take the fat off when I thaw it out.
With this low fat chicken stock you can make lots of things now.

chicken soup
Sweat some onions, carrots and celery - but don't brown (in the pot you are making the soup put in the veggies with some butter or for lower fat use some of the stock to cook the veggies).
Add the stock, simmer until the carrots are done.
Add precooked noodles (I like macaroni or Ichiban noodles).
I used to also add potatoes but I don't anymore (I'm not sure why).

Answer 2

You sure can!
It's great for winter time or when you are not feeling well it will warm you and fill you at the same time. It's called the "Jewish penicillin", a quick fix you up if you have a cold or the flu.

To get to your question, I often make chicken with a whole chicken you see wrapped at the meat counter. Just be sure the expiration date is for a couple days from purchase date.

Wash it when you get home and use plastic gloves. There are so many problems with food these days it's best to be careful. I usually soak mine in a solution of salt and ice water for an hour in the refrigerator. This treatment helps pull out any blood.

After you do this rinse it and then take a large deep pot that will hold the chicken plus some extra room so the water can boil and then simmer.

Place some washed veggies in the pot for flavor, I suggest:
celery stalks, carrots, and 1 onion. A handful of fresh parsley and a bay leaf. You can add a clove of garlic too if you wish but not too much. If you have peppercorns they give the soup a nice spice about 6 of them. Now add about 1 tablespoon salt.

Most chickens weigh about 4 pounds. so you should be able to get one for under 5 dollars.

Now put the cold water in the cooking pot along with the veggies and chicken put in enough water to cover the bird and bring to a boil and then lower the heat to simmer and in about 45 minutes to an hour it should be done. You can tell if a fork comes out easy in the breast area or if the leg moves easily.

After it's done let it cool in the pot for about 30 minutes then remove it to a large plate and let it cool so you can remove the meat from the bones. After you do this you can add some bagged noodles or rice to the soup.WARNING USE A SMALL AMOUNT OF NOODLES OR RICE or you will end up with too much that absorbs all the broth... and let it cook in the broth before putting the meat back in the broth. Also some people like corn added to the soup it's a "Pennsylvania dutch" way of making it.

It is hard for me to end a reply..as you can see...lol..I love to cook and soup is such a comforting food I hope you will try it.
Happy new year and good luck in the kitchen
Mama Jazzy Geri

Answer 3

If you are making stock from the chicken, and nothing else, It is best to buy the chicken already roasted, or roast it in the oven yourself....20 minutes per pound. Take most of the meat off the bones after the chicken has cooled, and use it to eat, or add to your soup later. Save the bones and skin and a little meat to boil.

put the chicken bones and skin and a little meat in a pot . Add a scraped carrot, a rib of celery, a couple sprigs of fresh parsley, and half an onion, skin removed. Add about 4 quarts of water to the pot.
(don't worry about chopping the veggies.)

Cover, bring to a boil, then lower heat so that the stock just barely bubbles in the middle and offset the lid a tiny bit, so there is a half inch opening.

Simmer this for 3 hours. Let it cool, then remove the veggies and bones, and boil with the lid OFF for another hour, or until the stock is reduced by half. Put the stock through a fine strainer to remove all the little particles, then cool in the fridge for 24 hours. Pick the hard pieces of fat off the top with a spoon.

Reducing concentrates the meat flavor, and also allows you to package the stock in small containers in your freezer, taking up only half the space that it would normally use up.

When you are ready to make soup, add water to the stock to reconstitute it, and add your other ingredients.

Answer 4

I usually buy a whole chicken out of the meat case at the grocery. I wash the chicken thoroughly, place it in a large pot, and just cover it with water (it will float). Boil on medium heat for about 1 hours. Turn the heat off, remove the chicken carefully and allow to cool for a short period. Bone out the chicken removing all of the skin as you go. Cut up the chicken into chunks and salt the chicken. Strain the broth remaining in the pot removing all bones, skin, etc.. Return the chicken chunks to the broth. In a separate small pan, place a cup of the broth and 1/2 cup chopped celery, and boil for about 4-5 minutes. Pour the resulting mixture into the pot. I usually add chopped carrots and diced potatoes to the pot and cook for at least another 45 minutes- 1 hour. You can also add noodles or let you imagination run wild to end up with a good soup with chunky chicken.

Answer 5

A supermarket chicken is just fine -- you need not go to a special meat market.

I wouldn't boil it, I'd simmer it, but I'm sure some professional chefs will be answering you as well. I'm a country cook, so I simmer :) When the meat is white and falling off the bone, it's done. You don't want to see any pinkness with chicken. I've never timed it, but I know it's not a terribly long process. Also depends on size of chicken you're cooking.

Overboiling will toughen chicken.

Good luck, homemade soup is yummy!

Answer 6

Uh, yes... what kind of chicken do you think you use?

It's not going to be very good if you just throw it in a pot and boil away, though. The best, fastest, and easiest way I know to make chicken broth for soup is to start with about a 5 lb chicken. Cut it into pieces--breasts, thighs, legs, wings, back. Set the breasts and thighs aside, chop everything else into 2" pieces with a cleaver. Chop up an onion.

Heat some oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes, until softened. Brown the chicken pieces (not breasts/thighs) in two batches, about 5 minutes each.

Add all the chicken pieces and onion back to pot. Reduce heat to low, cover, cook about 20 minutes to sweat out the juices. Add 2 quarts hot water, some salt, two bay leaves, and the breasts and thighs. Bring to a boil, then simmer slowly, covered, about 20 minutes.

Save the meat from the breast and thighs, and strain out the rest of the solids. Refrigerate broth overnight until fat hardens, and remove it.

Actually if you could find a stewing hen (an old, tough bird) that would be better, but good luck finding one. It's not a special chicken, though, just older.

Answer 7

If you want to make a really good soup, roast the chicken first and you can then boil the roasted carcase without the meat for two hours with chopped stick of celery, 1carrot, 1onion and a few pepper corns. This is chicken stock!
Strain and this can be frozen if needed for another time.

For the soup you need about a pint of stock per 2-4 persons (depending how hungry they are).
For every pint of stock you need about 500g of chopped veg whatever you have: leeks,celery, carrots and onions.
Sweat the veg with plenty of butter in a large pan with lid on about 10mins will do.
Now add the stock and leave to simmer for about 1 hour and a half.Remove from heat
Season to taste and blend with a hand blender till smooth.
Ready to serve .

Italians make a chicken broth by boiling a fresh chicken with celery, parsley, carrots, potato, tomatoe, onions, olive oil, peppercorns and salt. Top with fresh cold water and boil gentily for a couple of hours. Strain then add a small type pasta to it. When pasta is cooked it is ready to serve.

Answer 8

absolutely! its the best way. put the whole chicken in water and boil about an hour or so. remove the chicken and then add to the water some carrots and onions, oregano, celery, salt, pepper, dried parsley and boil again until vegies are soft. add some meunster cheese to the pot stir until all melted and blended and add your chicken by this time it should have cooled enough to take it off the bone add noodle if you want chicken noodle and cook until noodles are done. yummy the cheese is my own secret ingredient. it gives the broth a thicker creamier texture. any soft cheese will do.

Answer 9

An ordinary chicken will work just fine. Try this recipe for chicken soup-it's awesome!

1½ hours 25 min prep


Stock
2 1/2-3 lbs broiler-fryer chickens, cut up
3 1/2 quarts water
1 onion, peeled and diced
2 teaspoons italian seasoning
1 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning
3 garlic cloves, minced
4 bay leaves
3 chicken bouillon cubes
kosher salt, to taste
fresh ground black pepper

Soup
2 cups sliced carrots
2 cups sliced celery, leaves as well
2 1/2 cups uncooked egg noodles
1 cup sliced mushrooms
3 tablespoons parsley, chopped
1/3 cup cooking sherry
seasoning salt, to taste
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
crusty French bread, for serving

For the stock:.
Add all ingredients to a soup pot.
Cook until chicken is tender, about 35-45 minutes.
Remove chicken from pot and set aside to cool.
Remove and discard bay leaves and onion.
You should have approximately 3 quarts of stock.
When chicken is cool enough to touch, pick bones clean, discarding bone, skin and cartilage.
Set chicken aside.

For the Soup:.
Bring stock back to a boil.
Add carrots, and cook for 3 minutes,.
Add celery and continue to cook for 5-10 minutes.
Add egg noodles and cook accroding to package instructions.
When noodles are done; add chicken, mushrooms, parsley, & sherry.

Cook for another 2 minutes.

Adjust seasoning, if needed, by adding seasoning salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

Answer 10

I would guess so but a boiling hen would be better with of course other things like herbs and vegetables, as for how long, I would say that if you cut up and chicken and boil it until the meat falls off the bone, then it is done!