I apologise
if you are tired of me banging on about the joys of home-made stocks! This time I made a chicken stock. Rather than
having all sorts of aromats and vegetables in with the chicken, I used just the
top half of a head of celery (including the leaves), some peppercorns and a
couple of bay leaves.
I bought
some chicken carcasses from the supermarket – if I was better organised (and
had a bigger freezer) I would have saved them after roasts.
I roasted
the chicken carcasses (which I tried to cut in half) with a splash of oil until
the bones were a bit golden but not burned.
This took about 45 minutes in a moderate oven.
I 2/3rd
filled a large stock pot with filtered water and put it on to heat. As it was warming I put in the roasted
chicken bones and the celery, bay leaves and peppercorns. I did not add any salt. You have to remember this and compensate with
salt when you use the stock in dishes.
I simmered
this for just under 24 hours – on the lowest setting possible. I didn't skim it or use an egg white to
clarify the stock so maybe the end result wasn't perfectly clear – but it
doesn't seem to affect the flavour.
When the
stock is cool enough to handle, strain it and put it into clean jars – for what you'll be
using quickly – and freeze the rest. For
once I remembered to label and date it!
Carole,
ReplyDeleteThat's the hardest part for me--remembering to label the packages that go in the freezer!
Can look at my blog to see prices, and nutritional facts of chicken at different grocery stores.
ReplyDelete