Basics: Roasted Rich and Robust Chicken Stock

One of the things that has been missing from this blog since the beginning is a post on the basics: condiments and sauces, condiments, sweet and savory condiments, sauces, coughs. Sure, some of these are featured in posts about soups or stews, crab cakes, salads, and desserts, but their pages have very few stars. So one of my goals this year is to correct this mistake.

Here are my first basics : a delicious, rich, robust chicken broth made by roasting chicken bones in an unglazed pan until golden, caramelized with aromatics, then simmering to make the broth. Then the decline begins. The broth you get at the end of the process is dark and full of flavor, perfect for enhancing soups, stews, casseroles, risottos, rice and pasta, sauces or anything else that gets the pot going.

I started this broth with a pre-roasted 5 pound chicken carcass (including skin and skin), but you can use butcher block shoulder and wings and start roasting with this recipe, no pre-roasting necessary. I always give you bones, wing tips, etc. I recommend storing and freezing. of any bird you cook.

Aromatic products (onions, carrots, celery, garlic, spices) are fried like chicken bones.

Add a little salt, a drizzle of olive oil and a 375 degree oven for about an hour. I covered the pan with foil for the first 25 minutes, then left it bare for the rest of the baking time.

Instead of wiping the pan with wine after cooking (which is what I usually do), I took it about two-thirds of the way out of the oven, quartered a very ripe Meyer lemon (thanks Bill!) , and poured in the juice onto the pan, scraping up the brown bits with a spatula, tossing the lemon wedges from the bottom into the pan, and continuing to fry until golden brown.

The bones, herbs, lemon wedges, spices, brown bits and everything went into a large pot with chopped fresh bay leaves, sprigs of fresh thyme, a small red Padron chilli from a struggling plant in my greenhouse and a pinch of sea salt. and 12 cups of fresh water (preferably chlorine-free).

After boiling for an hour, the product was 11 cups of delicious broth. And really, you could stop here and start making the soup, but I wanted my broth to be richer, more concentrated, and less fatty, so I strained it through 2 layers of cheese and placed it in the refrigerator to chill while night, so the fat solidifies. on surface. The next day it was easy to remove the oil from the surface of each dish.

Again using 2 layers of cheesecloth and a fine mesh strainer, I transfer the stock to the pot, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and let reduce for 6 cups - 40 minutes total. The flavors were wonderful, the deep rich brown you see in the photo above. As I write this, four cups are frozen in ice cubes and 2 more cups are in the freezer to be used as a soup base later in the week. I think you will like it.

Christine's rich and robust chicken broth

(print recipe)

Ingredients:

5 pounds or two 2 1/2 pound chicken carcasses, cut into pieces, preferably pre-grilled

1 sweet yellow onion or large onions, peeled and chopped

3 large carrots, peeled and chopped

4 celery sticks, roughly chopped

About 10 peeled and whole garlic cloves

1/2 teaspoon whole peppercorns and whole peppercorns

1 Meyer lemon, washed, quartered and seeded

2 fresh bay leaves, chopped

4 long sprigs of fresh thyme

The small pepper, without stem, will be jalapeño, I used Pimiento de Padrón from the greenhouse

1 teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt

2 tablespoons olive oil, approx

12 glasses of fresh water

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Place the chicken pieces, onion, carrot, celery, garlic cloves, pepper and paprika in a large pan and drizzle with olive oil. Shake the pan to distribute the oil.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and place in the oven for 20-30 minutes.

Remove the foil and drizzle the inside of the pan with Meyer lemon juice, pour the lemon slices into the pan. Scrape the pan with a spatula to loosen any brown bits from the bottom and return the pan to the oven for another 30 minutes or until the bones and vegetables are browned. Be careful not to burn the garlic cloves. That would be bad.

Scrape the contents of the pan into a large pot and cover with 12 cups water.

Add the bay leaves, thyme sprigs, pepper and salt and mix.

Bring to a boil over medium heat. If any foam forms on the surface, remove it with a spoon or a fine-mesh sieve, then reduce to a low heat and cook the sauce for an hour. Check the heat often so that it does not boil or boil.

Remove the pan from the heat and let the sauce cool for 30 minutes.

Remove as much of the layer as possible with a spoon, then pour the broth through a large sieve into the glass jars with 2 layers of cheese.

Refrigerate the pans for 8 to 10 hours or overnight to allow the oil to rise and harden.

Remove the sauce from the refrigerator and skim off the fat from the surface (your puppies and kittens will expect this part; there's nothing like a little chicken fat to liven up a meal).

Using 2 layers of cheese and a fine sieve, strain broth into a large pot over medium heat and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to a simmer and reduce broth to 6 cups; Cook for about 30 minutes.

Allow the reduced sauce to cool and filter it one last time through 2 layers of cheese and a fine sieve. I know it sounds very stressful, but I think you'll be happier with a stock that doesn't have sand at the bottom.

When the sauce is cold, you can pour it into ice trays, freeze it, then store the trays in zippered freezer bags, write the date on the packages and place them in the freezer. Or pour the sauce into the desired volume of freezer containers and freeze.

The sauce keeps well in the freezer for up to 6 months, but honestly, once you try it, you'll want to use it sooner. And that's okay, because you can always do more.

Have fun!

Copyright © 2005-2011 by Christine Cooks. All rights reserved

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