So I’m going to make a confession. I have skeleton’s in my fridge. I keep them in the back in that dark spot that no one looks next to my guilty pleasures.
Seriously though, whenever I roast a chicken I carve it and save the carcass/bones for stock. Sure, you could just buy chicken broth and the bought stuff will do, but I’m a nose to tail guy and the bones land somewhere in between there. Waste not want not I always say. Anyways, home made stock is practically liquid gold. It can come in handy for everything from blanching vegetables to the base for a soup to adding that last dimension to a sauce. The stock I’m going to describe is very generic and simple. Feel free to add some fresh thyme and bay leaves to spice it up a bit.
Ingredients
- 1 roasted chicken carcass
- 1 stick of celery
- half a medium onion
- 1 carrot
- 1 clove of garlic
- few tablespoons of olive oil
Prep
Dice your mire poix fairly fine. Mince the garlic and that’s it for prep.
Cooking
Add a few table spoons of olive oil to a stock pot and add the vegetables. Sautee them for 3-4 minutes so they sweat a bit. Add the chicken bones and add enough water to just cover the chicken. Bring to a vigorous boil and simmer on medium low for 3-4 hours. Skim off the oil and gross bits and you’re good to go forth and cook. I like to freeze the stock in a ice cube trays so I can have stock blocks on demand. Otherwise the stock will last for a week or so just in the fridge. You’ve probably noticed I forgot the salt. This isn’t true. I’ve remembered the salt. In fact I’ve very importantly remembered to not add it. It’s easy to add salt to un-salty broth. It’s very hard to cover up the diluted flavor of over salty stock that’s been cut with water.
Don’t season your stock. Season the dish the stock goes into.