Recipe 7: Chicken Stock

After last weekend's stop at my nearby market, I decided to make the most of my roast chicken and try my hand at chicken stock for the first time. I knew before starting that I didn't have the four pounds of carcass that most recipes called for so I substituted the missing chicken with two pounds of veggies. In general, I worked off the chicken and vegetable broth recipes found in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.


In my large oval dutch oven, I heated up a drizzle of olive oil. As it got warm, I chopped and started throwing vegetables on top. A half dozen ribs of celery, five big carrots (cleaned but not peeled), four shallots, three cloves of garlic, and the white part of a leek. I then added eight cups of water and the chickens (with some meat still on the bone). I worked slowly since I didn't want to fill the pan too much but realized quickly that I could add the remaining eight cups of water. I snipped some rosemary off my plant and generous shook in some pepper, herbes de provence, salt, and coriander. From everything I've read, broth is pretty forgiving so you can pretty much use whatever hearty vegetables and savory spices that you'd like!


Bring to a boil and then lower the flame so that it simmers for 2-3 hours. I used a pasta strainer at first and then went through multiple cycles with a small mesh strainer. Refrigerate and check multiple times to skim fat off the top. Now, I'm getting ready to use the 7 cups that cooking yielded in some homemade soup! Recipe for that coming tomorrow!