22 Oct, 2008
How to make a fine chicken broth that will make your mother proud
Posted by andrea tomkins in: Recipes and Food
When I was sick, nothing made me feel better than (a) garlic toast and (b) Tylenol Cold and Flu meds (c) tea with honey and lemon and (d) chicken broth.
I have never been the sort of gal to whip up a batch of chicken broth. In fact, I didn’t even have a tested chicken broth recipe (or chicken stock, as some may call it), but I was so desperate that I forced myself to make a batch, even though I had to drag my sick, sorry, self to the kitchen to do it.
Fortunately, I knew this day was going to come. So I was ready. More or less.
This recipe uses carcasses of already-roasted chickens, the kind that we buy at the grocery store. I had two of them in the freezer, just waiting for this day. Back when we’d eaten our fill of the chicken I just wrapped it up in a bag and tossed it in there. Thank god I did because the leftovers were the basis of my:
Easiest Chicken broth recipe, ever.
- 1. Take the leftover bodies of two roasted chickens (even if they’re frozen) and put them in a large pot. Cover with cold water.
- 2. Add whatever you have in your crisper, just chop everything into large pieces. (Sloppy chopping is perfectly acceptable here. You will not be using these veggies again. You’re just going to boil the crap out of them. ) I used half a red onion, garlic cloves, chunks of carrot, celery, potato, and parsnip. In terms of herbs and spices I added a couple of bay leaves, some chopped fresh parsley, and ½ teaspoon of sea salt and five or six peppercorns.
- 3. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer for several hours (three or four will do). Bits of meat and fat will float off the chicken bones. You might want to skim the “foam” while it’s simmering.
Strain. Throw out the bones and soggy veggies. - 4. Freeze the extra for future cold and flu emergencies.
If you want to remove some of the fat, let it cool and skim the stuff off the top. Voila! You just made yourself some really satisfying homemade chicken stock.
My kids like chicken soup but there cannot be a shred of chicken in it, nor a single visible vegetable. I took some of the stock, boiled some circular-shaped pasta in it, and served it up for lunch (as pictured in this previous post). I don’t know if chicken soup is the most effective cold remedy out there, but every little bit helps, right?
