Here’s a nifty follow-on from the home made stuffing a few weeks back and keeping with value theme. A roast chicken does great between the four of us and maybe some left over for a sandwich or two. However, throwing out the carcass felt like waste to me I looked up how to make stock from the bones. It’s easy: Some roughly chopped veg; some herbs; a lot of seasoning; the remains of last night’s chicken and some water.
I have found a single chicken makes about two pints of decent stock, any more water and it would end up too diluted.
Ingredients (Makes two pints)
1 Chicken carcass, anything left over.
3 Carrots, roughly sliced.
1 Large onion, peeled and sliced.
2 Sticks of celery, sliced.
1 Bouquet Garni (or any bunch of mixed herbs, thyme, sage, oregano etc)
Handful of fresh thyme (if you have it)
Plenty of salt and pepper. I usually add about a tablespoon of salt.
2 pints of boiling water.
Method
Combine all the ingredients in a large pot, add the water so that it covers everything and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer on a very, very, low heat for two hours, just enough to keep it ever so slightly moving. After 20mins or so the chicken should start to come apart, you can use a spoon to break it up so the flavours will mix better. Allow to cool, strain and decant. I measure out pints into freezer bags and freeze it for use in soups, risotto etc.
26/05/2009 at 1:41 pm Permalink
Good topic for a post. I don’t make stock often enough. I’ve read that adding a few raw chicken wings when making stock from a cooked carcass makes a huge difference, but I’ve never tried it.
Ivan, check out the River Cottage Meat book, it goes into a lot of detail on making stocks. Love that book.
Conor.