This is a method rather than a specific recipe. Stock can be made
with whole chickens or chicken parts – even the parts not normally
eaten, such as wing tips and necks. It can be made from the bones when
the meat, either cooked or raw, has been removed. Stock made from
roasted chicken or chicken bones is called brown stock; when the chicken
or bones are put in the pot uncooked, the resulting product is lighter
in color and called white stock. The aromatic vegetables and spices used
in making stock may be varied according to what’s available, what the
stock will be used for, and personal taste. Vegetable trimmings – the
root ends of onions, small leafy stalks of celery, leek tops, tiny
garlic cloves in the middle of a head of garlic, parsley stems – are
great.
Never add salt when making stock! If the stock is reduced
or salty ingredients are part of a recipe calling for stock, the end
product may be ruined.
- Chicken
- Suggested aromatics: onions, leeks, celery, parsley, carrots, garlic cloves, unpeeled bay leaves, whole peppercorns, whole cloves, leaf thyme (dried or fresh)
If making brown stock, roast the chicken (whole, parts, bones or
trimmings) in a 400 oven until a rich brown color. Put the chicken into
large pot or slow cooker. Place roasting pan over high heat, add 2 to 4
cups of water and deglaze the pan (stirring up all the browned bits on
the bottom). Add to pot. Add the aromatics.
Cover with water.
Bring to a bare simmer. If using uncooked chicken, put it in the pot and
proceed as above, periodically skimming off the sediment that comes to
the surface. Keep at a bare simmer – a lazy bubble. Do not allow stock
to boil! Boiling emulsifies sediment and fat into the liquid, resulting
in a cloudy stock.
For one chicken or chicken carcass, use some
or all of the following: one carrot, one medium onion, one leek or leek
top, one or two small stalks of celery, a few parsley stems, four to six
unpeeled garlic cloves, one bay leaf, a teaspoon of peppercorns, one or
two whole cloves, and a teaspoon of thyme. Add approximately one gallon
of water. Simmer for at least two hours. If you’re using chicken with
meat, remove the chicken after 45 minutes, let it cool enough to handle,
then remove the meat return the bones and skin to the pot, setting the
meat aside.
When the stock is finished, strain out the solids
and then pour the liquid through a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth.
Then either put the stock into a fat separator, allow it to stand a few
minutes, and pour off the stock or rapidly chill it by placing the pot
in a sink of cold water, stirring the stock frequently and changing the
water in the sink when it becomes warm.
When the stock is cool,
refrigerate it until the fat (which will have come to the top) has
hardened, and remove it. There are several ways to freeze stock – many
people use ice-cube trays or small plastic containers. I like to put
quarts of stock into gallon-size resealable plastic bags and squeeze out
the air. They lie flat in the freezer, and they’re stackable.
