Think i'll give that a go, apart from the occasional cheeseburger i don't really eat meat, chicken is poultry so i eat that
Neat. It's all pretty straight-forward. Just get a good sized stock pot, fill with water, chop a large onion into 1/4s, maybe cut a stalk of celery into finger-sized lengths, cut a carrot or two in half (all just to help flavor the broth as it cooks), add a good bit of salt and black pepper (you're flavoring a whole chicken submerged in a LOT of water, so it will take more than you think); then just place a whole fresh unfrozen chicken into the water. Be sure you have removed any prepackaged parts that may still be in the cavity such as the neck, or bag of innards. Either toss those to the bin or use them however you may already use them if you do.
Bring to a boil for an hour or more. For us country folk, we usually boil it until it starts to fall apart, then strain out the bits that fell off. Place all of the chicken into a bowl or platter to cool. Scoop out any remaining veggies or chicken bits, strain the broth from one pot to another to remove all the gritty bits of material that has fallen to the base of the stock pot.
Once the meat has cooled down, you can start pulling meat from the bone. Shred the meat with your fingers into smaller bite-sized bits of varying sizes, tossing the white and dark meat together into a large bowl or platter to keep separate from the icky bits that remain. Be very careful with the two legs as each has a very thin, long, and sharp fibula bone that you can easily snip off and mistakenly add it to your meat collection. This bone is about the size of a toothpick and runs parallel to the leg of the chicken. Once cooked it becomes very brittle, so be extra cautious when deboning the legs. There are two to look out for.
Once I have my dark and white meat all shredded, mixed, and cooled, I will portion the meat into smaller freezer bags for freezing. Same with the now-cooled broth. I usually grab a measuring cup to partially fill several quart-sized (or larger) freezer bags for freezing.
Usually when I go through all of this effort, I'll just use it all for a large pot of chicken and dumplings. But you can just stock up and pull it from your freezer as you need it for whatever recipe you may have.
It is a messy process. Chicken bits and fat everywhere. So don't go in blind
Be ready for a shower after.
When cooking for family events, half of my broth will go to dumplings, while the other half will go to a cornbread-based dressing. Of course chicken broth is used in most anything you can think of so do with it as you will. Mostly this boiled chicken thing is just preparation to be part of some other dish, but it's convenient to have stock of broth and meat for several different meals when you need it. I'm not cooking it to just eat boiled chicken by itself. You could always use the meat as a beef substitute.
blah. it's the end of a work day, so I'm just rambling. Have fun making a mess if you ever try it
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