First, you remove the feathers. They tickle your nose.
My grandmother, would buy a kosher chicken at the kosher butcher. Going by memory, she would use tweezers or a match to burn off the tiny pin bones. The chicken was salt and peppered and placed in a big stock pot with water to cover along with half of the vegetables (roughly chopped carrots, onions and celery) & boiled over medium heat until the chicken almost fell off the bones. The liquid was defatted and drained, and the vegetables discarded. The cooked/boiled chicken was returned to the pot along with the other half of the vegetables. It was returned to a boil to cook through. Sometimes at the end, parsley was added.
Sometimes noodles (luck-shun) were added to the broth at the end, but more often I add matzo balls to the broth before the end of cooking time, or boil them separately in water. I prefer my mother's matzo balls as they are firmer and chewier. Grandma's were light and fluffy. I make up the matzo balls, form them into balls and refrigerate them for several hours. The longer they're refrigerated, in my experience the firmer they are.
In more recent years, I've made chicken soup in a slow cooker using boneless skinless chicken breasts,etc, since I don't care for the skin or like the fat. At serving time or cooking, sometimes I'll add a little lemon juice or zest. Dill is another favorite with chicken soup. I might try adding some herbs to Provence next time.
My grandmother saved the fat for cooking up potato pancakes Etc. As I recall, she cooked the giblets separately. I'm probably forgetting something but that's pretty much the way my grandmother made it and the way I make it.
