Homemade Chicken Stock

Make this the day before so fat can be easily removed. It makes about 8-10 cups of stock.

1 whole chicken, cut into pieces, reserve chicken breasts for soup or something else

1 onion, chopped into quarters

1-2 carrots, cut into 1-2" chunks

2-4 stalks celery, cut into 2" chunks

about 10 peppercorns

2-3 bay leaves

1. Remove pieces from inside the chicken and reserve them.
2. Clean the inside of the chicken. This involves reaching in and removing any extra blood vessels that might be in the back of the cavity or organ goop that is in the front bottom of the cavity. It sounds kind of gross, but hey, it's better than eating them later.
3. Cut the legs off. Cut the wings off. Carefully cut and remove the breast meat, which you will save for later. Cut the back of the chicken in half. Put all the pieces, except the reserved breast meat, in a large stock pot. Put the breast meat in the fridge.
4. Fill the stock pot with water to about 2" above the chicken pieces. Add the carrots, celery, peppercorns and bay leaves. 
5. Bring the stock to a boil and then reduce heat so that it is at a low simmer. Ideally you will see one small bubble appear every 15 seconds or so. Leave the lid off. Let it simmer for a couple hours or so.
6. Pour the stock and bones through a sieve or fine colander into a clean container. At this point you can just let it sit and drain into the clean container until the chicken meat cools off. Once chicken is cool enough, remove the chicken meat from the bone and reserve for a soup or for a lucky dog.
7. Since I usually make the stock the day before, I keep the chicken breasts in the fridge overnight. The next day, saute onions, celery, and carrots. Add the chicken stock and then the breasts to the stock to cook. Once they have cooked, remove the breasts, let them cool, and shred them back into the stock. Add noodles or rice into the soup (pre-cook them 80% of the way if you don't want the noodles/rice to absorb the stock.