Soup:

Take out the bag of parts left in the chicken. Rinse the neck and keep for soup. Save other parts for another dish. Rinse the chicken under cold water. Pat dry. Sprinkle some sea salt inside the large cavity of the chicken.

Add all the vegetables on top of the chicken in the soup pot.

Add 8 cups of cold water to the chicken and vegetables in the soup pot. Add 1 tbsp sea salt to the water.Turn the heat to high, cover the pot, and bring the liquid to a boil. At this point, some people like to remove the scum because it looks scary. I myself am not scared of scum and I dare to leave it in. Do not tell my mother this.

After the soup comes to a boil, turn it down to a simmer, keep it covered and simmer for 1 hour. Check to see if the liquid went down too much. You can then add another 1/2 to 1 cup of water. Keep simmering the soup for another 1/2 hour to 1 hour until the chicken meat is very tender and juicy.

Turn off the heat when the chicken is tender. Remove the chicken from the pot and place on a plate to cool a bit. When the chicken meat is cool enough for you to remove it from the bones, remove all the meat and place in a bowl. Place covered bowl in the fridge if using that day or the next day. Freeze for future use.

Pour the soup into a fine strainer that has been placed over a bowl so that the vegetables go into the strainer and the soup goes into the bowl. I fish out the cooked carrots and place them in the strained soup. Refrigerate the soup covered for several hours or until the fat rises to the top and can be removed. I usually let the soup stay in the fridge all day and I use it that night or the next day. If you don't plan to use the soup right away or the chicken meat , place both soup and chicken meat in plastic containers and freeze until planning to use them.

After the fat has risen to the top of my chicken soup and solidified enough to remove it with a spoon, I remove it. If planning to make matzoh ball soup, I reserve 4 tbsp of the chicken fat to use in the matzoh ball recipe.

Matzoh Ball Directions:

Directions:

Mix blended egg mixture, matzoh meal, melted chicken fat, club soda and salt in a medium bowl. Mixture resembles wet sand, but firms up as it chills. Cover the bowl and chill in fridge for at least two hours. Mixture can be made one day ahead.

On the day of serving matzo ball soup:

Heat up one to two quarts of the chicken soup. I usually add in some of the chicken breast meat and sliced up cooked carrots I saved from making the soup. I turn off the heat and set the soup aside for later, after the matzo balls are done.

Bring 4 quarts of salted water to a boil. While waiting for the water to boil, take the matzo mixture out of the fridge. Scoop out 2 tbsps of matzoh meal mixture at a time and form into nice round balls using wet hands to keep the mixture from sticking to your hands.

When all the balls are rolled, add the matzoh balls to the boiling water and reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. (Don't let them boil or they will break apart.) Cover the pot and simmer the matzo balls until cooked through and starting to sink, 20 - 25 minutes.

Gently remove the matzoh balls from the water and place in soup bowls or in your gently simmering chicken soup. Heat gently until all is hot.

Turn off the heat and ladle both soup and matzo balls into a large individual soup bowls. I sprinkle the soup with parmesan cheese. I hope this is not deemed incorrect by Jewish moms everywhere, but I am, of course, an Italian woman, so I sprinkle parmesan cheese on everything.