For a variation on Amy's recipe - follow her instructions but try this as well if you wish.

You can always get a fresh hen from your local market. It's more expensive but the results are worth it. I also add fresh cracked pepper, a dash of hot sauce for a little zing (I also add carrots and yellow onions to the stock) and some sea salt to taste - if your taste buds are wiped out then have someone else do the tasting - you don't want to oversalt it).

I chop and mix the discarded veggies and "junk meat", skin, etc., left over from the stock and mix it in with the dog food - they love it. The only waste to discard are the bones - do NOT give chicken bones to your dogs. Ziplock and freeze then until the next garbage cycle.

I only use the white meat (dark meat can make it a little greasy and gamey -especially if you do the turkey variation)) and I chop it up into small pieces and vacuum pack several packages - you can get about 10 quarts of soup stock out of this (I use a 12q stock pot). I have a chinois so that makes the filtering process easy for the big stuff. I use a couple of different strainers after that to reduce it to a clear golden broth.

If you use a fresh hen and start in the morning you'll be eating chicken soup that night.

When I get around to making the soup I add sliced zuchinni, carrots, celery, red ("new") potatoes (or noodles or rice) and thinly sliced boiling onions.
Turkey soup is the same process. I use the carcass and make the soup the same night that I cook the turkey. It's a lot of cooking for one day but well worth it.

I you get into making your own stock I would purchase the following items:

-12q stock pot - double clad bottom recommended
-you'll need a secod pot or vessel to pour the filtererd broth into - preferably one that the chinois will fit over. Someimes I use a Pyrex 1/2 gallon "measuring cup" for that
-chinois
-at least three different nesting strainers
-scum remover (looks like a hand held strainer
-vacuum "food savers" are nice to have as well
-food processor or small electric chopper/grater.

You can get this stuff at Macy's cellar or Williams & Sonoma.

Sleep in the next room when your wife has a cold - it's all yoo easy to get pnuemonia with a compromised immune system.