Problem is: once you sell the gkids that's it. What do you do for the next pot? hmmmmmmm 🧐 But I do remember being able to get capons or a really "large" hen, but not anymore.

Once in a great while I get a pot that dosen't taste like much so I add the dreaded chicken boullion.

Here, getting a non-huge chicken is a problem. They seem to take pride in selling 5-pound puffballs, all tough, tasteless breasts. Luckily, we have at least three growers who have proper sized and properly proportioned, sustaainably and humanely raised, and they really do taste better. And they run from pricey to dear to for-a-chicken? The last one are completely delicious and taste the way chickens should. The grower of the pricey ones also have heirloom birds which have the best proportions and taste very good, but they're still big.

If the keep the grandkids ones are tasty, but just not tasty enough, you can reduce a few quarts to nearly a paste, and return it to the stock pot. That should zhuzh up the flavor.

If you can get chicken feet....paws....they will add a lot to the stock. I find that the way to get a flavorfu l tock with toays "instant" chickens is to add all you can to the pot, remove the meat when it's done and then cook to concentrate......also adding lots of other stuff.

For example, I save the bones and skin and backs when preparing boneless thighs or breasts and freeze....and add to the soup pot....along with onions celery carrots lots of parsleys tems, bay leaf, a parsnip and a sweet potato and a quartered lemon.....remove the meat when done and cook the rest for easily 8 hours....strain and pretend you found an old stewing hen

I try to use mostly dark meat chicken as it has more flavor. I add garlic and some chicken flavored Better Than Boullion.

I get a couple of kilos of chicken legs when they are on sale and roast them in the oven. When they are nice and browned, I strip the meat off half of them and save it for putting back into the soup when I make it, then put the other half plus the bones from the first half and any saved in the freezer roast chicken frames I have, usually two or three, into a slow cooker. Then I put in a carrot, split in half, a couple of celery sticks, a few spring onions (DH can't eat regular onions any more) and about a tablespoon of peppercorns. Then cover all with water and leave it to simmer on low overnight.

When we wake up the house smells great :-) I then drain off the stock and make whatever soup I had in mind, usually chicken and vegetable, sometimes with rice, sometimes without.

Before covid, I had been buying both whole and cut up chickens by the dozen from a Mennonite farm down near our lake cabin. I'm not sure of the breed but they were very flavorful. After covid the demand was so high for their chickens that you had to order them several months in advance and the price went up by $2 per bird. I need to check to see if that is still the case.

I've also used Better than bouillon when making chicken and noodles and it does make it very flavorful but it is also pretty expensive compared to bouillon cubes.

Celery seed adds a good flavor to the soup also, but use it sparingly. It has more of an herb taste than celery like.

You may have a local chicken farm a stones throw away. We have them all over the Hudson Valley. We would stop by one pre-covid. He freaked out during covid and gated his driveway. No website and sold only to city restaurants.

I roast two small pasture raised chickens in my turkey roaster 3 times a year--Fall, Winer,Spring. One we enjoy for that nights dinner and for lunches next day. The other i pick for soups and make a master stock.

I've been using WaldenLocal for a few years now. They have lots of bones and parts cheap. Pasture raised, grass fed.

Like others i roast the bones/parts. Add lots of aromatics and veg. Leek tops, celery, carrots, onion, garlic. Usually makes a half dozen pints, a dozen half pints--plain stock. A dozen pints with chicken for an easy out-of-the-freezer soup.

I never salt my stock or soups. I can do that later. Veg has some natural salts and the broth i may use with salty ingredients like miso.

Not the wings. They tend to be expensive.

We order from Walden maybe 3-4 times a year. Our protein portions are way down for a few years now so it takes us a while to go through it. Easy to postpone the delivery for months.

I've never purchased any bouillon type thing. Full of salt and sugars, and who knows what else. One tiny teaspoon has 680 mg of sodium.

There’s a place near me that always has “FRESH EGGS” for sale. Periodically the sign changes to “STEWING CHICKENS.” I chuckled for years before I finally bought a stewing chicken. Delicious!

Look for chicken feet - they are often available in Chinese markets or in markets in largely Black neighborhoods, but basically just try going to more ethnic markets, and you will probably have better luck. Some markets will sell backs and feet for cheap, and some Chinese markets have live chickens that they will butcher for you, and you can then request that they do no more than pluck it for you.

I mainly buy organic chicken, and occasionally the 'all natural' from Publix. They always have very good flavor. Browning is necessary, if you want the most flavor - so is fat.

And I agree that dark meat is definitely better for soups and stews. Chicken legs are the least expensive and most flavorful, IMPE. The meat holds up better to being boiled too.

Are you just using chicken breasts, or whole chickens?

You can always find Old (soup) chickens in a Chinese store or a Hispanic store.

You can also find chicken bones (with some meat) in a Chinese store. large bag for a dollar.

dcarch

I agree with dcarch, Asian grocery stores often have stewing hens, along with feet (which I know are great but they skeeve me out) and packages of backs and necks for quite reasonable prices. In my mid twenties, I was going to have friends over for dinner. I had decided on baked Lemon Chicken and was delighted to find really cheap chickens. Yup - they were stewing hens (old birds.) The company was grand - the chicken was unchewable. Same friends, 40 years later still kid me about it.

You can also find true free range (not cage free) chicken in an Asian store, if you want flavorful chickens.

Speaking of free range, I find this video funny:

dcarch