Cathy,
That is one great looking bowl of soup! Did you happen to see the article on chicken soups in yesterday's NY Times?
One morning, many years ago, in the basement main kitchen of Dallas' historic Adolphus Hotel, I was busy at work. There was steam everywhere and all cylinders were running on the three huge steam jacket kettles. 400 lbs of chicken bones simmering in one, as well as a large batch of brown veal stock and the soup of the day. I had been working for a few hours and was soaking wet and around the corner came the chef. I continued chopping as we exchanged pleasantries. Kevin, the chef, said, "Ronnie, you love making soup, don't you?" I answered, "Chef, I want to die making soup!" We had a good laugh, but he was so right. There's nothing I enjoy more.
At the club, we serve chicken soup every day of the week. It's a three day process, although you can do it in two if necessary. Here is the recipe for the broth:
Day 1: We put 240# of chicken breast bones in the steam kettle with the spigot left open. Cold water is run over the bones for about thirty minutes to remove any blood. We cover the bones with water and add about 80# of rough cut onion and celery, and finish with Italian parsley, thyme, a few bay leaves, and white peppercorns. We bring to a strong simmer and let cook for two or three hours, skimming constantly. Strain and chill as quickly as possible.
Day 2: Take 24 fresh stewing hens, remove the livers, and place in the pot. Rinse again with cold water. Cover with the chilled chicken stock from day one and again bring to a strong simmer, skimming frequently. Cook for about three hours, or until every drop of flavor has been extracted from the hens. Strain the stock and again chill as quickly as possible. (We us the hen meat in our employee cafeteria for pot pie, enchiladas, a la king, etc...)
Day 3: We grind ten pounds of boneless chicken breast with more mirepoix and lightly whip ninety egg whites. In that same steam kettle, we start with the 40 gallons of chilled double stock, and then add the chicken/veg/egg mixture (the raft), for clarification, whipping constantly as it heats up, and watch carefully that the mixture doesn't boil as it rises to the top of the kettle. We season with salt, white pepper, sugar, and saffron for color, and simmer for about an hour before straining through wet cheesecloth and again chilling quickly in an ice water bath.
This process is reperted twice a week, and yields 40 gallons.