OK, guys (and gals), here 'tis ..

6-lb. stewing hen
2 stalks celery w/ leaves
1 large onion
2 scraped carrots
Salt & pepper to taste

1. Buy the biggest and oldest stewing hen you can find. Around 6 lbs. Where
to find one: Ask your butcher to get one for you, or alternatively, look for
one either in a grocery store that serves a large ethnic population or a
grocery store in a lower-income area.

Or, visit a kosher grocery store/meat market if there is one in your area.
The older and tougher the bird, the better the soup. (You can always go with
a roaster but the flavor won't be as good. Under NO circumstances use a
fryer. Bleah.)

2. Rinse it, remove the giblets and discard (unless you like them; but don't
put them into the soup. They will change the flavor and turn it brown). DO
use the neck; it adds flavor.

3. Put it in a big soup pot. Add just enough cold water to cover the bird.

4. Throw in a peeled an quartered onion, 2 stalks of celery with leaves, a
couple of scraped carrots.

5. Cover and bring to a boil at high heat. With a large spoon or ladle, skim
off out all the schmutz that rises to the top (yucky looking brownish foam).
Getting this stuff out is one of the secrets to getting good soup.

6. Add salt and pepper, recover, lower heat to just below simmering, and
leave for at least 4 hours (until meat literally falls off bones).

7. Remove chicken and strain everything out. (I usually put a big bowl in
the sink with a large colander and dump everything in.). Warning: It will be
greasy and messy.

8. Put the soup in the fridge to cool. Once it cools, it should be thick
enough to gel. The real secret to old-fashioned Jewish chicken soup is the
proportion of meat to water -- lots of meat, not a lot of water -- which is
what gives it the intense flavor. The gelling is caused, as I understand it,
by the gelatin in the bones, which is also what is supposed to give chicken
soup its "curative powers." (We call it Jewish penicillin.)

9. Once it is cool, scrape off the yellow fat that has risen to the top,
reheat and serve. Save the fat to use again -- it is schmalz.

You can skip the cooling-off stage and just serve the soup with the fat
strained off the top, but the flavor improves the second day.

BTW, you can buy schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) in many grocery stores.
It's in the freezer section under "kosher" foods and it keeps indefinitely.

Or make your own (see my grebenes recipe posted earlier today!). It adds
unbelievable flavor to just about anything requiring fat. It was politically
incorrect  to eat for soooo long ("you mean you actually EAT that
artery-clogging, cholesterol-laden stuff!! EWW!) that I gave it up. I am so
glad to be able to add it back! My bubbe (grandmother) would be proud of me!

WHAT TO DO WITH THE CHICKEN: It may or may not be edible, depending on how
old the bird is. (The older the bird, the tougher the meat.) You be the
judge. If deemed edible, it works well in chicken salad.

Zie gezuhnt! (To your good health!)

Robyn