Taylor's Table - Chicken Stock

I've been watching the movie Julie & Julia this evening while giving my first go at hand quilting. As for the quilting, I need a lot more practice. Since what I am working on is a real quilt I plan to use on my bed and not just for practice, I took out what I had tried. It just wasn't very pretty. Now, if only I could sew a straight line on my sewing machine! Even with lines drawn! All I have to do is connect the dots, so to speak, and still, I can't manage a straight line! It does look better than the hand quilting attempt though.

Anyway, while watching the movie and after this attempt at hand quilting I was inspired to finally write an entry on making homemade chicken stock. I've been meaning to do this ever since I started "Taylor's Table." Here are some things you might be wondering... Why make homemade chicken stock? Isn't it a lot of work? Is it really worth all the trouble? I once wondered these very same things. After learning the benefits of this scrumptious staple and having worked out an easy way to make it, I rarely, if ever, buy chicken stock from a store. I'm a homemade chicken stock snob. :)

Why make chicken stock at home? Have you ever read the ingredients on store bought broth or bouillon cubes? Here are the first few ingredients in beef cubes - salt, hydrolized vegetable protein, corn syrup, sugar, beef fat, monosodium glutamate. Need I write more? On the other hand, homemade stock is VERY good for you. It has natural ingredients which feed, repair, and calm the small intestines, it heals the nerves, improves digestion, reduces allergies, relaxes and gives strength. For more information on this read Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. Furthermore, making stock at home saves money and is the backbone for many recipes. Not to mention, if you cook the whole chicken in the broth, you have all that cooked chicken you can use in other dishes like chicken pot pie, chicken casseroles, chicken tacos or burritos, pizza, etc. (Stock is made only with the bones of a chicken which makes the broth more clear, whereas, broth is made with the meat as well and is not as refined and more cloudy. Stock is what professionals use to make sauces and other things that Julia Child would make that I haven't venture to try yet. Sometimes I make stock; usually I make broth.)

Isn't it a lot of work? Surprisingly, as you will see below, chicken stock/broth can be very easy to make and store!

Is it really worth all the trouble? Besides all the benefits that I wrote in the response to the first question, homemade broth tastes really good!!! Also, because it makes so much, you almost always have some available. By the time you run out, you need more cooked chicken meat anyway.

So how do you make it?

1. Purchase a good chicken. I either buy a rotisserie chicken, an organic chicken if the budget allows, a grass fed organic chicken if I really have a big budget (these are much better for you! but I've only bought one) or just an ordinary chicken from the local mega-chain store for .98 a pound. Honestly, there is not really difference in outcome where taste is concerned.

2. Clean the chicken. If you want to make a stock, roast the chicken first (I'll post a recipe for this later) and eat it, or take the cooked meat off the bones and use it in a variety of ways.

3. Put the whole chicken, or the bones of the chicken in a stock pot. Fill the pot with cold water. Then, chop up a few carrots and celery, add an onion cut in big chunks and add a bay leaf or two. To save time with this, when you use the vegetables for other dishes on other days, take what is left over after chopping (the onion skins, the ends and peelings of the carrots, etc.), toss them in a ziplock bag and store them in the freezer until you make stock. Then, pull it out and simply dump it into the water with the chicken.

4. Bring the water to a boil. When it starts to boil, use a large spoon to scoop out the foam. Then, reduce heat and simmer for at least 2 hours. Keep in mind that the longer you cook it, the more flavorful and nutritious it becomes. I have cooked it as long as perhaps 12 hours and as little as an hour.

5. Strain out the chicken, vegetables and bay leaves. If needed, you can use the broth right away; however, it might be kind of greasy.

6. To take out the greasiness, put the whole pot in the refrigerator for a day or two (I've left it in the fridge for as long as two weeks and it somehow still smelled and tasted wonderful!). The fat will coagulate on top. Simply skim it off the top.

You will probably have way more broth than you will be prepared to use right away. I have made as much as 20 cups of broth at one time. So, after a few failed attempts and broken jars, I've found an easy way to store the broth for later retrieval. Here's what you do... Pour your broth into ice cube trays. Pop them in the freezer until the broth is frozen, then store the cubes in a ziplock bag especially for freezers. 8 cubes make a cup, give or take a bit. This way, if you need two cups or eight, you can easily get what you need without having to thaw out way more than you need.

And that's it! Enjoy!