What you are looking at is some of the finest tasting chicken stock you will ever try. Stock good enough that it can essentially stand alone as a broth. Stock easy enough that it requires almost no instruction. Stock that is so cheap, it is almost literally free. Trust me when I tell you that the easiest way to start cutting costs from your cooking budget is to spend a couple hours a month* making batches of chicken stock. What will follow should not be viewed a detailed set of instructions as much as a loose guide. The only items I believe are mandatory are a chicken carcass, garlic, some type of onion and some seasoning. The thing to keep in mind is that stock is essentially flavored water, and how much flavor you add is entirely up to your personal tastes. The only item you may need to be buy especially for this is a cheese cloth or some other fine-meshed filter.
*And about 99 percent of that is just making sure your pot doesn’t overflow.
Ingredients
- At least one chicken carcass
- bulb of garlic cut in half, horizontally so that all the cloves are exposed
- half an onion
- whole pepper-corns
- cilantro
- one carrot roughly chopped
- one stock of celery roughly chopped
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
In a pot (at least 3 quarts) place the chicken and the rest of the ingredients. Fill with water. Bring to boil. Lower to simmer. After about 30 minutes, globules of fat will start to appear, that is a good sign. Cook for 2-4 hours uncovered. Periodically taste the broth. If you would rather make bigger batches, save your chicken carcasses in the freezer. Just make sure to use a larger pot, the more carcasses you intend to use.
Once the stock is to your liking, remove the large pieces of food from the broth, secure a cheese cloth to some kind of receptacle (I used a water pitcher) and ladle the stock over the cloth. Periodically clean out the cloth to keep it from getting clogged. Transfer the stock to a jar, seal and put the refrigerator. After a few hours, you should be able to easily skim the fat out of the jar.
Uses
This stock works great is just about anything. We often use it to make rice (50 percent water, 50 percent stock), as well as in all sorts of sauces and soups.
How much it will cost: What I’ve started doing lately is saving the trimmings from my vegetables (tops and bottoms of carrots; tops and bottoms of celery; stocks from broccoli; tail ends of onions; etc.) and using that. Combined with an otherwise useless chicken carcass, the only thing you really pay for is the garlic and seasoning. We’ll call this $.35 a quart.
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