Home made chicken broth (aka BRODO)

For Italians, "brodo" carries more meaning than chicken broth. It is the cure for all illness and a must eat after any surgery. Most of all, it is the reminder of mom's tender loving care during childhood's illnesses. My mother, like most good cooks, prepares everything "by eye". So I am going to share a recipe that I adapted from my Canadian Living cookbook (p 47). My adaptation goes like this.
Fill a stock pot or dutch oven with the following: two peeled carrots, two celery stalks and one whole peeled onion or leek. Remove as much skin as possible from your free range chicken (I have found this really makes a difference), rinse the chicken and place it in the pot. You can then fill the pot with water.
Now many people will use neck bones and other chicken bones to make soups. In the case of free range chicken, some people I have spoken with only use the necks, legs and wings to help cut down on cost, as free range chicken costs considerably more. Personally, one of my favorite meals, derives from the chicken in the "brodo". I will explain later.
Put your pot on medium heat (you should never put your stove on high heat). At this time, you can add some more spices. I like to add these next ones together in cheesecloth so that my broth is clear: peppercorn, parsley (6-8 stems)and a bay leaf (bay leaf should be an ingredient in all meat dishes). I personally use pink peppercorns from Victorian Epicurian Spices. I find it deliver a smoother peppery taste.
You can cover your pot and simmer for 4 hours. This is the TLC I was referring to earlier. Now you can smell that wonderful home cooked broth as it simmers. AHHH....
You will need to peak every so often and add salt to your taste. Those of you who have babies, you can make this without salt and free it in little portions to make those "yucky veggies" taste better.
When this process is completed you can remove the chicken and veggies to a separate plate. Then strain your broth into large containers to be refrigerated. The next morning any remaining fat will have solidified and you can skim it off. After that you can freeze your broth.
**Don't waste the veggies from the soup. I like to take these and mash it up of cut in up and add it to another soup meal. For example, when I make soup, I will boil a bit of water, add pasta or barley, then add the cooked veggies, the chicken broth and then I add the shredded chicken from the broth or homemade chicken meatballs (recipe provided below).
One of my favorite dishes, is to shred the chicken over garden grown radicchio or romaine salad with a homemade vinaigrette. Yum yum.
Chicken meatballs:
One pound ground chicken, 6 stems chopped parsley, crushed garlic (optional, 5 tbls Parmesan cheese, one egg, salt and pepper.Mix the ingredients together, then drop in small spoonfuls into soup.

***variation on this recipe: use veal shanks instead of chicken. The shredded veal can be added to your beef & barley soup.

Most soups require a chicken or beef broth for base. I do not like to buy premade broth (although I have and sometimes am forced to). I always feel like I am buying MSG in a can or tetra pack. We should also consider the garbage we are putting into the environment. It is just not necessary, since this is so easy to make and is obviously the healthier choice. For those of us who don't have much time. I often make this in the evening (around 6:00 turn it off before I go to bed and the pot has cooled by the time I wake up in the morning).