When the temperature is hovering at around 15° outside and snow is piled all around, no one in their right mind would venture outside if they didn’t have to. Grand plans to run errands get shafted in favor of staying wrapped-up in the Snuggie and watching back-to-back episodes of “Law & Order”.
It’s also
the perfect time to make some chicken stock.
Liquid love. Jewish Penicillin. The culinary mother ship, the source all savory delights. Any stock, but chicken stock in particular, is the culinary building block for great cuisine found in the best restaurants around the world.
Make this and you can once and for all do without the canned or boxed high-sodium stuff from the supermarket.
What makes a good stock? No special tricks or skills really, just a pile of bones. You need bones to make a proper stock. A great way to have a bunch of bones on hand is to save the carcass (gross word, but that’s what it is) of the picked-over roast chicken you got at the supermarket and freeze it. If you make your own roast chicken, save the bones from that too along with the neck. When you get a large storage bag or two filled-up up with bones you’ll have enough to make a good stock.
Ingredients:
Chicken
bones – bones left over from about 3-4 roast chickens should do it.
Cold
water
1 yellow
onion, peeled and cut in half
1 large
carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
1 celery
stalk, cleaned and roughly chopped
1-2
cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
A few
sprigs of fresh thyme
A bay
leaf
A bunch
of parsley stems
Leek
greens (if you have any handy; optional)
A pinch
of whole black peppercorns
NO SALT
(it’s best to keep the stock neutral and add the salt to-taste within the
context of a recipe)
The
How-To:
Place the
bones into a large pot and cover with cold water.
Bring to
a boil and skim off the foam that comes to the surface.
Reduce to
a simmer and add onion, carrot, celery, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, parsley stems,
leek greens and black peppercorns. Let it simmer for about 2 hours, frequently
skimming off the foam and fat that floats to the top.
Place a clean pot into a sink filled with ice water. Pour the stock through a strainer lined with cheesecloth into the pot. Discard the solids. Stir the stock rapidly until it cools down. Once cool, remove it from the sink and place in the fridge and let it cool completely overnight. A layer of fat will form on the surface – just remove and discard it and voilà, you’ve got stock!
So
I’ve made a huge pot of chicken stock.
Now what?
Portion
out the stock into 1 cup containers and freeze to use as-needed. Also, pour some into ice cube trays and
freeze. Once frozen, empty the cubes into storage bags and stash in the
freezer. Then grab and go!
Stock suggestions:
* Use as
a base for countless soups. In
this photo I’ve added a pinch of salt & fresh cracked pepper to taste, a
squeeze of lemon and a heaping mound of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Mmmmmm….
* Use instead of water when making rice (or any savory grain dish).
* Make gravy.
* Use instead of oil to “sauté” vegetables for a lighter dish.
* Use instead of butter to make “lite” mashed potatoes.
* Use your imagination!
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