Glad to hear I'm not the only one on "yuck patrol." I am always looking for suspicious stuff in my food. If I don't recognize it or don't like its looks, it gets pushed to the side. I'm always amazed at people who really eat every single thing on their plate. Here 's the recipe. I found it on Allrecipes. Really pretty simple and straightforward, but the lemon juice and wine add a nice taste. Creamy Chicken Rice Soup INGREDIENTS: 1/2 cup chopped carrot 1/3 cup finely chopped onion 1/3 cup chopped celery 2 tablespoons butter or stick margarine 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 2 (14.5 ounce) cans reduced sodium chicken broth 2 cups cooked long-grain rice 1 cup cubed cooked chicken 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder 1 cup 2% milk 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 tablespoon white wine DIRECTIONS: 1. In a large saucepan, saute the carrot, onion and celery in butter until tender. Stir in flour until blended. Gradually stir in broth. Add the rice, chicken, salt, pepper and garlic powder; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Reduce heat to low. Stir in the milk, lemon juice and wine if desired. Cook and stir for 5 minutes or until heated through.

Oh, a side firebox smoker. We have that one and have been smoking chickens a half dozen times a year for well over 10. If it has a temp gauge on the lid it is not that reliable unfortunately. Nice to have a stem on wire thermometer. It smokes much higher temp close to the firebox. I use timber splits and soaked slices of fruitwood so a bit different in method and heat regulating, but the process is the same...avoid opening! But you know that. Put the larger bird closest to the firebox. Not sure if i would stuff them. Your call. It adds density to the bird and may not cook/smoke evenly. We sometimes 'stuff' in half a lemon, couple apple slices, onion and some herbs. But most often nothing. Not really an issue about safety and un-cooked stuffing, as ours is always a cooked stuffing/dressing also, but not much of a cavity in a chicken. But it just might be soo much smoke flavor. It will slow down the cooking time. Make enough stuffing to have a side casserole baked in the oven? (i make my stuffing the night before and chill in the fridge as a 'kit'. All the saute veg, sausage, and wet ingredients in a bowl, the cubed toasted bread (dry ingredients) in a ziplock on top as a lid,...toss together with stock just before 'stuffing' to prevent getting soggy...and i do a casserole also) You mentioned you have smoked chicken before? So you are aware the meat of the bird is often very pink, especially close to the bones. The chicken is cooked, the juices run clear, the temp is correct...but we still have had guests think the meat is raw. Smart to point that out ahead of time. I successfully smoked a few weeks ago, snowing and windy. The worst conditions. (coulda noodle-whipped the weather man)...rolled and tucked the smoker to the less windy side of the barn and had the firebox into the wind to help with the heat draw. I did spatchock one chicken on a fat bed of wild thyme on foil closest to the firebox. Just to make sure we would have a meal in time. A double stacked sirloin, a whole chicken, 4 pork tips, smashed potato packet and a veg packet at the far end. We ate on time, all went as planned, but tricky. The spatchock and the sirloin can off well ahead of the rest. I smoke chicken at a higher temp, 275ish, rather than low and slow like ribs. The pork tips i wrap in a parchment, then foil, packet, with small opening at top. They slow braise for a couple hours, then i open wide and get lots of smoke and still have the juices. At the far end, away from the firebox, the temp is much lower. (especially when it is snowing). I smoked a turkey a few years ago, along with a traditional one in the oven. Worked out nicely with just fruit, garlic and onion in the cavity loosely. Also at a higher temp. I've read that low and slow smoked birds can dry out close to jerky but i have never had that happen even when i used to smoke them at a lower temp. Just a bit dry.

You can use any part of a chicken that you find on sale for making chicken broth. I buy packages of chicken necks & backs just for making broth. Not a whole lot of meat, but it really doesn't matter if you simmer the broth for several hours. By the time you're done, the meat has pretty much given up all its flavor. If your goal is to make broth & use the meat for soup, I think legs, and especially thighs, are a good choice. They are more flavorful than breasts and hold up to long cooking. As far as too much broth, you don't need to fill your dutch oven. Just make the amount of water equal to what you want to finally end up with. Or, you could make a larger amount and freeze the extra broth. However, there's absolutely no reason why you can't use a smaller saucepan with just a few pieces of chicken. I think browning the chicken pieces either in the stock pot or in the oven adds a richer flavor to the chicken broth. I always include a chunked up carrot, onion, and celery stalk, along with a bay leaf, some whole black peppercorns, and a couple of whole allspice. The longer you simmer the broth, the deeper and fuller the flavor. I usually strain the broth using a strainer lined with some cheesecloth & toss all the solids. However, if I have used some really meaty chicken pieces, I remove the bones & skin and set the meat aside for use later. Then I refrigerate the broth overnight & scrape off the congealed fat. If I'm making soup with the strained & de-fatted broth, I'll use fresh vegetables.

My big complaint is big breasted, big birds. The heritage hens (which are still white, so how heritage-y are they?) have normal pelvises, at least, rather than the tiny ones that even the normal free range birds we get do. I won't buy big chickens, however, and the heritage ones run huge, and I don't want a five pound chicken! When I was young, they were mostly in the 3.5 pound range, and were labelled 8 weeks. Now, finding a decent (i.e., local free range, organic feed (i.e., allowed to eat bugs but the food they're given is organic) chicken under 4.5 pounds is hard! When I find one that's under 4 lbs., I celebrate. There's one grower, whose birds I'd have to go well out of my way to get, who sells them without giblets or wingtips to get them under three pounds. If they came complete, they'd still be even smaller than my ideal, but I might go out of my way to get them. And even if I wanted to raise my own, I don't have enough land (city code). Agmss, Kudos to your sister for raising happier chickens.