I grew up having soup with almost every meal. My mom knows how to make many kinds of Chinese soups — some take hours to simmer, and some are soups she can put together in 20 minutes. Chief among these soups is her chicken soup. It's both light yet comforting, the way homemade chicken soup always seems to be. It feels nourishing yet not overly rich. When I'm sick or simply when I miss home, I crave this soup. So eventually I asked my mom for the recipe. It was in the course of learning to make this soup that I learned how to break down a whole chicken, something I'd never tried to do before.