Thursday, February 16, 2006

Easy Chicken Stock

Okay, so you've roasted a chicken (hopefully you tried the recipe below), and now you have all of these buttery onions and a lovely carcass. Time to make stock!

I buy boxes of organic chicken stock every week at the grocery store, so when I get the chance to make it for myself I'm usually very pleased. It should go without saying that homemade stock is really an entirely different animal from even the best packaged stuff.

Easy Chicken Stock

1 roasted chicken carcass, including lemons stuffed inside
onions and drippings from baking pan
handful of baby carrots
2-3 celery stalks, broken in half
4-5 garlic cloves, unpeeled and chopped in half
several handfuls fresh parsley
dried (or fresh) thyme
sea salt
whole peppercorns
roughly 8 cups of water


Dump everything in a stockpot and just cover with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 3-4 hours, skimming if necessary. Strain stock well and chill overnight. Skim the fat off in the morning and now you've got some seriously good stock! Use in the next 4-5 days or freeze for 3 months.

2 comments:

blus said...

I have just started making homemade stock-starting with Thansgiving Turkey-and am thrilled with the results! Does your chicken stock turn out all gelatinous and jiggly as well? I have read that that is the sign of true stock!?

MKing said...

Thanks Unemployed Cook! What a great way to reduce, reuse, and re-eat!