Chicken, seafood and vegetable stocks are liquid gold. Not only are they essential for soups, but for a wide variety of sauces, they’re indispensable. I’m somewhat surprised I never managed to post a recipe for chicken stock, so here it is.
For an added roasty flavor, I bake the chicken carcass beforehand in a 375ºF degree oven until, well, browned a bit. Usually for about 20 to 30 minutes, until you smell roasted chicken in the air. This extra step also eases the removal of skin and meat, which shouldn’t go into the broth anyhow.
In addition, a tip from one of my favorite television chef-teachers, Jacques Pépin: Initially simmer the chicken with the water, without the other ingredients added (yet). This helps out with skimming away rendered fat and scum before adding the other goodies — without accidentally removing small aromatic floatables like herbs and spices.
When you use the stock, you’ll need to season it with salt, since none is added while making it.
Ingredients
- 1 chicken carcass, optionally roasted, with as much meat and skin removed as possible
- 4 to 5 quarts filtered water
- 1 medium to large onion, quartered
- 1 large leek, rinsed of sand and grit; cut in half lengthwise, then chopped into large (3 to 5 inches) pieces
- 2 to 3 fennel stalks, chopped into large pieces
- 3 to 4 medium carrots, chopped into large pieces
- 4 to 6 garlic cloves
- 1 apple, quartered
- 4 to 5 whole cloves
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme, or a small handful of fresh thyme
- zest of 1 lemon; wide strips are fine
- a generous handful of parsley, leaves and stems
Method
- Crack the large bones of the chicken to expose the marrow. Cover the bones with the water in a large stock pot. Once you bring it to a simmer, over the next 30 or so minutes, skim off and discard any fat or scum that rises to the surface.
- Insert the spice cloves into the onion quarters. Add them and the remaining ingredients to the pot. Bring back to a gentle boil.
- Cover and simmer for 2 to 3 hours.
- Cool until easy to handle. In fact, if you let the stock chill in the ‘fridge overnight, you can later skim off any solidified fat you had missed earlier.
- Strain through cheesecloth. I recommend a finely woven cheesecloth that has strength, i.e., can be twisted and squeezed without tearing. New England Cheesemaking Supply sells butter muslin which works quite nicely.
- Refrigerate and use within a few days. Or freeze and use later on.
One comment
I agree that homemade chicken stock is wonderful, but I do it very differently… We’ve concluded that adding spices to the stock just makes it less generally applicable, so we don’t cook it with anything other than onions. We don’t make any attempt to remove the fat – for most things I think it makes the final product more flavorful to have some of the chicken fat. I freeze 1 or 2 cup portions in ziplock bags.
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