Food Friday: Chicken Soup

This is very good for cold season - or any time of the year!

Ingredients

• chicken (a whole chicken cut into pieces, or a bunch of legs or wings, or a bunch of chicken feet, or the carcass that's left over after you've carved up a whole chicken and cooked the meaty parts, or if you've roasted a whole chicken the bones and bits that are left over after you've eaten all the meat, or a bunch of hearts, livers, and gizzards, or...)
• water
• salt
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 4-6 star anise (this is essential to give this soup its unique flavour)
• parsley (dried or fresh)

Directions

1. Put all ingredients into a large stock pot. (Salt to taste; enough parsly to cover the surface of the broth.) Bring to a boil and simmer for an hour or two (or three).
2. If your chicken included bones (in otherwords, if you're using anything other than a package of hearts, gizzards and livers), remove meat from broth and take all the bits of edible meat from the bones. Discard the bones, skin, and gristle and return meat to the broth.
3. Serve with cooked noodles.
4. Optional: serve with a shaker full of hot chili peppers on the side so people can add a few to their soup to spice it up a bit.

(You can also make this with turkey, such as the remains of the Christmas or Thanksgiving turkey carcass after you've carved it up.)