Whole Chicken Soup

This is a great recipe to work with as your base
for your own chicken noodle soup.
I usually follow the general idea
of it to make my stock,
adding a bunch of garlic
and a couple other spices.
Then I add my own veggies to the soup.

Ingredients:
1 (3 pound) whole chicken
4 carrots, halved
4 stalks celery, halved
1 large onion, halved
water to cover
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Put the chicken, carrots, celery and onion
in a large soup pot and cover with cold water.
Heat and simmer, uncovered, until the chicken
meat falls off of the bones,skim off foam.
Take everything out of the pot.
Strain the broth. Pick the meat off of the bones
and chop the carrots, celery and onion.
Season the broth with salt,
pepper and chicken bouillon to taste, if desired.
Return the chicken, carrots, celery
and onion to the pot, stir together,
and serve along with cooked egg noodles.