There are always ideas in my mind that to perform some cooking task or conquer an ingredient will make me A Real Cook. Creating a recipe entirely from scratch, cooking whole fish, or using terms like ‘mirepoix’ or ‘stone fruits’ immediate comes to mind. Of course as soon as I accomplish these tasks or add these words to my vocabulary, they no longer seem momentous and simply something everyone does. So is the case with making your own chicken stock. I heard “6 to 8 hours” and bulked, assuming a level of mastery I did not have. I resisted for years, insisting that the cartons of chicken stock purchased from Kroger’s was not only inexpensive, but also convenient.
What changed? Money and ethics. Allow me to explain. I read a wonderful book called The Omnivore’s Dilemma which essentially is about eating locally, but also touches on ethical treatment of animals raised for consumption. I decided to start getting as much of my meat locally as possible. This impacts the food budget, so to offset the cost as much as possible, I tried to use the meat completely. This meant that when I got a whole roaster chicken, I would roast it for dinner one night, pick off the excess meat and use it in a stew, soup, or pasta, and then I would make chicken stock from the bones and whatever meat I had failed to get off the bones. This way I’d get the most bang for my buck.
Chicken stock is beyond easy and didn’t deserve to be on my list of Things A Real Cook Does That I Can’t Manage. Here’s the short version. After using as much meat as you can from the chicken carcass, dump the chicken in a freezer bag and freeze until you are ready to make stock. Dump the frozen chicken carcass into a stock pot; add a couple carrots, some onion, celery, peppercorns, salt, parsley, and thyme. Cover with water. Simmer uncovered 6-8 hours skimming off the white scummy stuff every hour or so, and add water as needed to keep the chicken just covered. Drain stock and refrigerate overnight. Skim fat off of the top of the stock. Tag, bag, and freeze.
Here is the detailed version, but I will tell you, this stuff doesn’t have to be exact.
Ingredients
1-2 chicken carcasses
3 medium carrots
2 small onions or 1 large onion
3 celery stalks
1 Teaspoon whole peppercorns
5-8 sprigs fresh thyme or 2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/3 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley or 2 teaspoons dried parsley
Large pinch of salt
What changed? Money and ethics. Allow me to explain. I read a wonderful book called The Omnivore’s Dilemma which essentially is about eating locally, but also touches on ethical treatment of animals raised for consumption. I decided to start getting as much of my meat locally as possible. This impacts the food budget, so to offset the cost as much as possible, I tried to use the meat completely. This meant that when I got a whole roaster chicken, I would roast it for dinner one night, pick off the excess meat and use it in a stew, soup, or pasta, and then I would make chicken stock from the bones and whatever meat I had failed to get off the bones. This way I’d get the most bang for my buck.
Chicken stock is beyond easy and didn’t deserve to be on my list of Things A Real Cook Does That I Can’t Manage. Here’s the short version. After using as much meat as you can from the chicken carcass, dump the chicken in a freezer bag and freeze until you are ready to make stock. Dump the frozen chicken carcass into a stock pot; add a couple carrots, some onion, celery, peppercorns, salt, parsley, and thyme. Cover with water. Simmer uncovered 6-8 hours skimming off the white scummy stuff every hour or so, and add water as needed to keep the chicken just covered. Drain stock and refrigerate overnight. Skim fat off of the top of the stock. Tag, bag, and freeze.
Here is the detailed version, but I will tell you, this stuff doesn’t have to be exact.
Ingredients
1-2 chicken carcasses
3 medium carrots
2 small onions or 1 large onion
3 celery stalks
1 Teaspoon whole peppercorns
5-8 sprigs fresh thyme or 2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/3 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley or 2 teaspoons dried parsley
Large pinch of salt
Quarter the onions, celery and carrots and add all of the ingredients into a large stockpot. Cover with water. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer uncovered for 6-8 hours. A grey foam will form on top of the stock occasionally, simply skim off and discard every hour or so. After hour 6 or so, start tasting the stock to check for seasoning and the desired amount of chickenyness. When stock tastes good and chickeny, turn off the heat and drain it, removing the stock of all of the chicken, veggies, and herbs.
I use a mesh strainer or else you get tiny pieces of chicken or herbs in the finished stock, which is okay but I like it clean. Refrigerate stock overnight. In the morning, all of the fat will have floated to the top. Skim off the fat and discard. I store my stock in plastic baggies that I freeze. I write on the outside of the baggies how much stock they contain. I usually get around 10 cups of stock from one batch and I store them in 4 cup, 2 cup, 1 cup, and ½ cup measurements. I freeze the bags flat so they are stackable once frozen. I’m sure there is a better way of storing/measuring stock but I haven’t figured it out yet.When you are sick, there is nothing better than a cup of homemade chicken stock to sip on. Plus, one of those cartons cost around $2.50 and holds around 4 cups. I just saved myself $7.00, which does a lot to offset the cost of locally and humanely grown organic chicken. It takes around, oh, 15 minutes of hands on cooking time for me, and it’s a great thing to do with your aging not-so-fresh veggies because it doesn’t matter if your carrot is limp or your onion has been in your refrigerator a week. Plus I feel so productive on a chicken stock day even if all I do is sit on the couch while the stock simmers.
Now on to the stone fruits and whole fish!
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