Dinnercraft helps bring your (and our) protracted adolescence to an end. Our authors cover topics ranging from cooking and eating, to home and garden, to crafting and DiY, and all the rest of the things you find yourself caring about these days.
Stock Answers: A How-To Guide on Making Super Simple Chicken Stock
I always thought having chicken stock on hand was kind of bullshit. How boring! What a hassle, right? Totally nerd-o! So I would usually just throw our ravaged chicken carcass* in the cat’s direction. Now that I am all old I find it an absolute delight to open the freezer and have myriad tiny containers full of sauces and stocks that I can thaw and use for dinner at a moment’s notice. The concept of saving is something to consider more seriously in These Economic Times and so I urge to to invest in containers ( I like Pop-it) and stock up on essential components for healthy, easy suppers.
Making your own stock is fun for at least three reasons. Let’s enumerate:
- boiling bones in a giant cauldron-like pot makes you feel like a Russian or German witch who cooks children and lives in a house on chicken legs
- spices! use whatever you have in the pantry, e.g. and i.e., Armenian red pepper makes a stock all orange and zesty while herbs de Provence has an earthy, homey and cozy aroma
- you skim the fat which allows you to be as healthy as you want to be
- I’m out of ideas. It’s the brothy basis for soup, not disco bowling.
It’s simple as 1-2-3. Fill a pot with water. Submerge the remains of a chicken (bones, fat, what-have-you). Add veggies like celery, carrots, onions, mushrooms and herbs (see above). Oh fine, 4 – cook covered on low for hours. NB: if you don’t eat meat omit the whole carcass component. Aren’t we learning so much together? Damn, step 5 – strain. Use a strainer. Or a colander. Can someone explain the difference? Guess what? We’re done. Ta-da! That’s definitely all there is to it. Don’t worry, we’ll talk more later about what to do with said stock.
A few more words to the newly wise: glazed ham makes a weird, sweet, slick stock which you should avoid at ALL COSTS. Save your shrimp shells in a plastic baggie for a quick fish stock; sounds gross and is, but worth it. Basically, if you boil anything long enough if becomes delicious. So get creative. If you have any more questions feel free to ask. But for today this has been Jillian with Stock Answers.
* Roasting a chicken is one of my skills that I will happily share one day soon…
