Questions about making chicken soup

Do I need to use the whole chicken or can I use breasts only?

Do I need to add chicken broth? My mother never has and the chicken and veggies have flavored the water, but everything I see only says you have to add the broth.

TIA!

Re: Questions about making chicken soup

If you use the whole chicken (the bones (marrow), skin, etc will flavor the water). If you use just chicken breasts - you need to use the broth.

ETA: old school - is whole chicken -
quick and easy - breast + broth

Message edited 2/14/2010 3:40:31 PM.

Re: Questions about making chicken soup

If you use the whole chicken (bones etc) at some point you will have to fish the thing out and remove the meat from the bones and sift through to get all the tiny bones and cartilege out. It is old school and probably tastes better, but IMO, its a pain in the tucas.

Re: Questions about making chicken soup

If you do just breasts (because you like white meat) - use breasts with ribs and skin to get a richer stock. It's much easier to debone and remove skin from just the breasts than from a whole chicken. I am sure you can use plain chicken cutlets to make the stock, but without the bones and skin you would be missing some of the depth of flavor.

Re: Questions about making chicken soup

I agree about using a whole chicken to get the fullest flavor without stock, but expect it to sit all day long, like from early morning to evening, to extract the flavor. Honestly, I use breasts on the bone and thighs, then I do half water, half broth and let it simmer. Then I add the veggies later so they don't mush up.