Making Stocks
Making chicken stock is a very simple thing that everyone can do. It's cheaper than buying from the store. It can be frozen, reduced, made into soup, and so many other things. We buy a whole chicken and break it down. This gets you meat for three of four days, and bones for the stock.
First, you have to break down the chicken. Get out your boning knife, and get to work. If you own a boning knife and don't know how to use it, shame on you ;) Breaking down a chicken is pretty easy. First you remove the breasts with a few strokes of the knife. Second, break the joints, and cut off the wings and legs. From here, you can either prep the carcass and wings for the stock, or you can debone the thighs and drumsticks. Deboning is a little more involved, and not necessary for making a stock. The addition of the extra bones will bring a little more flavor to the stock, but you can make it without them. Typically, I include the wings in my stock, too much work to get any meat off of them. If this is too daunting, save the bones from a store bought rotisserie, and just drop it in the pot.
After this step, you have two options: you can roast the carcass and bones, or you can drop it all in a sock pot. roasting the bones in the oven for a few hours will impart a very nice, rich flavor to your stock. If you choose to roast the bones, add a few carrots, celery stalks, and onions to the roasting pan about one hour into the cooking process. Watch the temperature, and do not let the vegetables burn. you do not need to peel the carrots, just rough chop.
After a few hours of roasting (the more the better), use tongs to transfer everything to the stock pot--even the fat. Feel free to add some more vegetables to the pot, they only help develop the flavor. If you have fond (little burnt, stuck on bits) on the bottom of the roasting pan, heat it up over the stove and deglaze it with some water. Add this to the pot, fill the pot with water, and put it on a low simmer. If the stock boils, the blood and muck in the bones will break up, and cloud up the final product. If you keep tit at a low simmer, the particulate matter will float to the surface, and can be quickly removed with a skimmer.
I prefer to make generic stocks--no spices, no herbs, no salt,--just chicken and vegetables. You can add herbs during the cooking process, but it limits the potential uses. If you infuse two gallons of stock with rosemary, everything you use it with will taste like rosemary. It's very easy to add strong flavors when you are using the stock for a sauce or soup. It's really hard to remove flavors from the stock.
Salt-- avoid adding any salt to the stock. If you decide to reduce the stock for a sauce, the sodium will concentrate, and possibly throw off the seasoning of the dish. If you want to taste the stock, add a little salt to the cup. You can always add salt, you can't remove it without diluting the flavor.
As with the roasting, the longer the pot can simmer, the better. I try to let mine simmer overnight. Most make it around 24 hours before they are strained and cooled. When you are ready to transfer the stock, have everything ready. The goal is to get the stock to a safe temperature quickly, without killing the refrigerator temperature. First, strain out the stock with a chinois, or a fine strainer, rinse the pot, and return the stock to the pot. Submerge the pot into a sink filled with ice-water. This will quickly reduce the temperature to a storable temperature. For a very clean stock - strain it througha coffee filter--this will remove everything you don't want in the stock.
When you store your stock, the fat will solidify on the top--remove theis with a skimmer. you now have a virtually fat-free, sodium-free, stock that can be made in t a number of things.
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Make this stock and then you can go so many different ways!! Having stock in the freezer is having magic on hand!