Today is the perfect day for a nice bowl of soup! To set up the scene, Fall in New York has finally come with a vengeance as October ends. I am sitting here in my living room with the space heater going full blast, since we've had such nice weather, my landlords have not turned the heat on yet. For lunch, I'm pretty sure I'll have a nice bowl of Progresso soup. I am planning on making my famous Potato and Leek soup next week.
Chicken stock is usually the base for any soup. I have bought so many cans over the years with each grocery shopping trip. Every time I roast a chicken I say, "I'll save the bones next time!" Well next time has come and gone for some time now! I finally did it! The last time I made a roast chicken, I saved the bones! It's really a simple, no-brainer recipe. That being said, it is very tedious and time consuming.
I'm not going to give you my usual lay-out for a recipe. Mainly because this is a little bit of this, a little bit of that kind of recipe. It is solely based on what you prefer, almost like chicken soup and rice. I've looked up so many ways to make this, from stove top, to slow cooker. You can use the bones, you can use the giblets (except for the liver), you can have some meat in there too. I made mine using just the frame of the chicken with some back meat on it.
So after you have your chicken dinner, pull the rest of the meat from the frame that you will be saving for leftovers. If you are not making the stock right away (it takes 3-4 hours just for the cooking portion of it), place in a zip-lock bag, or even a shopping bag and knot. Place in the refrigerator if you will be using within the next day or two, the freezer if it's going to be much longer than that.
When you are ready to cook, place the frame into a large stock pot. I cut mine up a little using kitchen shears so it fit a little nicer. Cover the bones in cold water.
You can wait to add your vegetables, but I added mine from the beginning and it came out fine. I chopped up some carrot, pretty much 3/4 of a baby carrots bag. I chopped up about 4 stalks of celery. (I tried to keep a visual balance between the carrots and celery). I only used 1 onion, but you can certainly add another.
Spices are another thing that is left up to personal preference. I used 2 bay leaves, parsley, salt and pepper. Use a little, you can always adjust the flavors at the end.
So pretty much this is going to simmer about 3-4 hours. Your liquid is going to reduce some and become more concentrated. I actually split mine up into two pots because I had so much! Every so often, you need to skim the fat from the top of the pot. After it is done simmering, I strained the stock into storage bowls. You want to strain out the veggies, meat and bones; only reserving the liquid.
Unless you plan on using the 2 quarts this is going to yield, I started pouring mine into empty ice cube trays. After they freeze, transfer into a labeled zip-lock bag. You want to put the contents and the date made on it. Each cube is about 1 ounce.
When you need to use some stock for a recipe? Just pop out a few cubes and either defrost in the fridge, pop in the microwave, or throw into your pan or pot!
Although it is time consuming, it really is just that easy!
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