Thursday, March 29, 2012

.Homemade Chicken Stock.

Yesterday I posted about cooking the best damn whole roasted chicken.
Bones and All.
Well, today we're going to do something with those bones. See the great thing about cooking a whole chicken or turkey is that leftover carcass. It enables you to actually make two{!} meals out of one.
So here is my mother's recipe for Homemade Chicken Stock {which can then turn into Homemade Chicken Noodle or Rice Soup.....so does that make it 3 or 4 meals out of 1?! Anyways, I digress.....}
Homemade Chicken Stock
Ingredients:
1 Chicken {or turkey} Carcass
6 Carrots, grated
2 Onions
1 Bay Leaf
2 - 3 tbsp Dried Chicken Stock Powder
 3 Celery Sticks, chopped into bite size pieces
Pepper, Freshly ground
2 - 3 sprigs Fresh Sage, chopped
2 - 3 Sprigs Fresh Thyme, chopped {without the stem}
Fresh Parsley, chopped. About 1/2 a cup
Directions:
one] Place your chicken carcass in a very large pot. Add enough water so that it's a couple inches above the chicken bones. Cut up 1 onion into really big chunks. Chop up 3 carrots into large pieces {I usually just cut each carrot into 3 big pieces} and add the onions and carrots to the pot. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a boiling simmer for 2 Hours.
[note: the reason you want the veggies in big pieces is because you'll be fishing them out and the bigger the pieces, the easier it is to collect them. We'll be adding fresh veggies later]. 
two] After the 2 hours, give the broth mixture a stir. Collect as many of the carrot and onion pieces as you can and throw away. Scrape as much of the meat off of the carcass as you can and throw away any fat chunks. Once you've cleaned the carcass of it's meat, you can throw that away too.
three] Now to make it taste good! Add a couple more cups of water to the pot as the previous cooking time will lower the water level quite a bit. Then add the dried chicken stock powder to help those freshly added cups of water have some flavor {fyi: I like to add 3 tbsp, as I like saltier soups}. Add the bay leaf to the pot. Cut up the last onion into small chunks and add to the pot. Cut up the last 3 carrots into thin slices and add those to the pot too. Same for the chopped celery. Give it all a good stir. Now add freshly ground pepper, and lots of it! Taste as you go. You probably won't need any salt as the chicken stock powder can sometimes be a little salty. Now add your fresh herbs, Sage, Parsley and Thyme. Give that all a good stir and let simmer for another hour.
To make Chicken Noodle Soup: Cook your desired noodles in a separate pot as per the instructions. Drain and run under cold water to get rid of the starchy water. Add cooked noodles to your chicken broth. You can also add some frozen peas if you desire, and cook for 15 minutes. Serve warm.
Note: If you want to freeze your chicken noodle soup, make sure the chicken broth is cold when you add the cooked noodles as this stops the cooking process and the noodles don't get all mushy. Then add to a freezer container and freeze.
To make Chicken Rice Soup: Cook your rice (I like to use wild grain rice) in a separate pot as per the directions. Add cooked rice to your chicken broth. Serve warm. 

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