RECIPE:                 Home Made Chicken Stock

 

Last Updated:         October 28, 2007

Time to prepare:    15 minutes

Time to cook:         8 hours

Yield:                     Depends on pot size (approx 5-10 litres)

INGREDIENTS:

    3kg - Chicken pieces (backs, neck, thighs) must be with the bones and skin removed

    1 - Tspn whole black peppercorns

    1 - leek (cleaned and roughly chopped)

    5 - whole cloves

    2 - onions (roughly chopped)

    1 - can whole tomatoes (398 ml / 14 oz.), drained

    2 - whole garlic bulbs (not just the individual cloves), sliced down the middle

    3 - celery stalks with leafy ends, roughly chopped

    2 - carrots (roughly chopped)

    10 - thyme branches

    Handful fresh parsley

     

INSTRUCTIONS:

To make chicken stock in sufficient quantities you will need a large stock pot. Realistically, you should have pot that is at least 10-12 litres in size and it should, have a lid. The larger the better. You will also need to have 6-10 plastic containers of about 1 litre in size that are suitable for the freezer. Also have some of 500ml in size as well. All containers should, have tight fitting lids.

  1. Slice the leek down the middle and wash thoroughly. Dirt from the field accumulates between the layers of the leaves of the leek and needs to be rinsed to remove this. Cut into 3-4 pieces then add the entire leek to the pot.

  2. Add the onions, garlic, carrots, parsley, peppercorns, cloves, tomatoes, celery and thyme to the pot.

  3. Add the chicken to the pot. As I was going to reuse some of the chicken for a dish later on, I put them into a net bag first. This will make it easy to separate them from the pot later.

  1. Fill the pot with water and bring to a boil over high heat.

  1. Cover, reduce the temperature and simmer for 8 hours. I normally move the pot to a smaller burner as the large burner that I use to boil water fast is too large (even at it's lowest setting) for simmering.

  2. Remove from heat and let cool for about 10 minutes.

  3. Prepare a large colander with several layers of cheese cloth.

  4. If you have anything in the stock pot that you are going to remove for eating later, remove it now (in my case, the mesh bag with the chicken thighs which I will use for dinner another night).

  5. Pour the stock from the pot through the colander into a clean pot. Due to the high temperature of the stock, this is a two person job (the other person holding the colander) as you pour.

  6. Push as much of the liquid through the cloth in the colander into the new pot using a spoon or in my case, a wooden pestle that fits my cone-shaped colander. All of the vegetables and meat contain lots of flavour that you will want to extract into the 2nd pot.

  1. After you have extracted as much broth as possible, discard the cheese cloth and the remnants from the original stock pot.

  2. Set aside the pot with the clear broth for several hours until it has cooled to the touch.

  3. Cover the pot with a lid and refrigerate overnight.

  4. The next day, lift away any fat that has solidified on top of the stock.

  1. Using a measuring cup, measure about 1 litre into each of the plastic containers. I also like to fill some smaller containers of about 500 ml in case I need less than a full litre.

  2. Move the containers to the freezer.

 

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

The stock will keep in the freezer for many months. I have used the stock after it was in the freezer for 7 months and did not notice any difference in flavour.

 

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