I made a batch of it over the weekend and just heated up and enjoyed a big mug of it. So, so good on a cold winter day.
My method is, my wife brings home rotisserie chickens when she shops at Costco. I’ll freeze the leftover carcass, and when I have two of them I put them both in an Instant Pot with some celery, onion, garlic, thyme, bay leaf and whole peppercorns. Then I fill with water and a small splash of apple cider vinegar (the vinegar’s acid is supposed to help render more collagen out of the bones. I don’t know how well it works but I always add it). I never add salt to the stock of course, in case I want to reduce it later (and reduce it I often do when I make the world’s best Chicken Piccata).
How about you all— what’s your go-to methods; any tips and tricks?
I know the difference between ‘stock’ and ‘broth’ is generally, the former is made mostly with bones and the latter with meat. I leave a fair amount of meat on the Costco carcasses, so what I make is probably somewhere in-between. I’m thinking sometime i’ll throw a whole raw chicken in the Instant Pot with water and aromatics, and attempting some actual broth. Would that be even better than my recycled rotisserie Costco carcasses I wonder?
In my experience, which is somewhat extensive (my wife makes a lot of stock/broth) it doesn’t really make that much of a difference. The collagen in the carcasses will give you a stock with more mouthfeel- it may even set up like jello when chilled. Broth made with a higher proportion of meat tastes a little more meaty, but not enough to use an entire chicken to get there.
Your method for chicken stock almost exactly matches how I make mine. I also add carrots, so basically I have a Mirepoix going on in the stock pot. I also throw in any beef bones or other bones I may have accumulated. I tend to run my stock pot for 6 or so hours. Many recipes say just one hour, but I like to get everything I can from the stock. I then drain it and it is a great start for any soup.
But, what I usually do then is follow this recipe to make demiglace in cubes. I substitute my much better chicken broth, for the broth that comes in cartons. I love this stuff and cook with it almost every time I have meat.
I’ve never heard “stock” used like that before - in the UK it means the liquid (generally produced by boiling up bones etc) which provides the liquid component if a soup. One lives and (hopefully!) learns. Alternatively, here, you can buy stock cubes (or similar tiny pots of concentrate), which you disperse in water to make stock, in order to then make your soup.
As for “broth”, that makes me think of a soup which is a meal in itself, and in my mind the archetype is Scotch Broth. Here’s a recipe I’ve used a couple of times. It uses lamb stock, but I’ll replace that with a combination of home made chicken stock and vegetable stock cubes.
But that’s pretty much exactly how I described ‘stock’. What’s the misunderstanding?
Btw, your Scotch Broth recipe you posted sounds delicious, and reminds me I don’t cook with lamb nearly enough. I think I’ll pick some up next time I do a grocery run.
As I understood you, you were drinking the stock - is that right? Which suggests that stock can also mean (what I would call) soup. (Actually consomme would be closer.)
I would always use it to make soup - and drink the soup. Or in the case of Scotch Broth, that would be “eat”!
Yeah, here in the US, stock vs broth is basically the difference between it being primarily made from bone vs meat heavy, with stock being the more bony one. In terms of commercial labeling (like the cans or boxes of liquid you buy at the store), there doesn’t seem to be much difference observed. And now they’ve also got “bone broth,” which is what I would have simply called “stock” once upon a time.
Anyhow, my only trick is that I buy leg quarters or pinwheels or whatever cut is on sale for less than a buck a pound. I think I saw quarters for $0.79/lb in ~5 lb plastic sacks today at the grocery. I cleave them to expose more bone to the liquid, then I toss it in the pressure cooker with the usual suspects (if I’m going for an Eastern European flavor, that means carrot, celery root, parsnip, a few allspice berries, black peppercorns, onion [singed over the stove flame if I feel like it]. Oh, and a bit of cabbage.) I will also sometimes throw in a beef shank bone if I have it around (typical in Polish chicken soup.)
I like a good amount of both meat and bones in my soup liquid, whatever you want to call it. It needs to have enough gelatin to congeal when cooled in the fridge, but plenty of meat to give it that meaty flavor. I’ve tried bone-only stocks and well, in my opinion, they are invariably insipid, even when cooked down to concentrate. I also prefer my stocks light, not roasted, for the most part – not exclusively so, but 95% of the time.
Well, yes, I usually use the stock I make for soups, stews or gumbos, but I will often reserve some just to enjoy on its own, with only salt to taste added. So I guess then it did become consommé
Interesting addition. I’ve been on a big allspice kick lately. There’s a local family named chain of Coney restaurants around here that are a cut above the usual Coney Island fare, and they have a version of chicken gumbo soup that’s like crack. I used to get it by the quart for lunch all the time when I worked near one.
I think I figured out their secret— adding allspice and using very well browned roux (I imagine the restaurant uses the “dry flour toasting” method to make large amounts).
The (very simple) trick that I would add is one that my wife taught me.
Use soup socks! They’re cheap and easy to find. Basically a cheesecloth bag. You throw everything in there (the chicken, the aromatics, everything) and tie it up and throw it in. Then when the cooking is all done, there’s no straining, no pulling pieces out, just grab the sock and pull it out. You’re left with a beautiful clear broth.
Much easier than trying to pour and strain or skim or whatever.
As to having meat on the bone…that boiled chicken meat that comes out after the broth is made makes a nice good chicken salad. Most of the flavor is boiled out, but not all, and when you flavor it up with mayo, scallions, whatever you like, it makes a tasty sandwich. Bonus!
Yeah, Polish food uses it more often than you might think. (Incidentally, translated, they call it “the English spice” or “English pepper.”) My mom would always put four or five allspice berries in her soup. That’s not a hell of a whole lot for a pot of soup, but I do it out of habit. I guess it’s not too different than sticking a clove or two in the onion when you make broth. It’s also used in pickling as well as some Polish sausage recipes (all in restrained manners – we’re not talking jerk here.)
I make my chicken stock much the same way, but start out with vegetable stock. I put all my vegetable scraps in a gallon size bag in the freezer. Onion ends and peels, the root end and leaves of celery, tomato cores, carrot peels, garlic peels, broccoli stalks, pretty much any plant matter except for lettuce. When the bag is full I’ll put the scraps in the instant pot with some seasoning, salt, a fistful of loose peppercorns, a couple of bay leaves and pressure cook it for 30 minutes. After straining the vegetables out I’ll add the chicken carcasses plus any chicken trimmings I’ve also frozen, wing ends and necks and such and a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.
If my wife isn’t around I’ll add a half pound or so of chicken feet. She hates the idea, so I try not to belabor her with the sight of them. 90 minutes on high pressure then filter out the solids.
I’m with @pulykamell on this, you need some meat left for best flavor, but it’s the carcass and bone that gives the mouthfeel that I identify with stock. I find that when I’m using a whole bird, the effort of trimming usable meat from the thighs is often not worth it, and I’m not a fan of the texture of the drumsticks, so I’ll eat the breast meat and wings, and use the carcass with thigh and drumstick meat for an intense stock.
(no worries, I brine my birds and rub herbs under the skin, so even the otherwise low taste of white meat is elevated, so I don’t worry about losing all that flavorful dark meat)
Since I normally roast with a whole onion in the body cavity, as well as rosemary sprigs, I normally don’t add a lot of additional herbage, just some whole peppercorns maybe some bay. I prefer the stock to be more neutral in flavor for future use. And I’ll use a pressure cooker for one bird sized batches (plus bonus bones from the bone bag if needed), or my big-ass (official size) slow-cooker for the post Thanksgiving turkey stock bonanza.
The biggest issue I have with making stock that’s heavier in meat is temperature control. Overcook, and even with a good cheesecloth straining, you may still have a residual ‘overcooked meat’ smell that has to be dealt with. Not normally an issue once it’s been added to a dish, but it has left me feeling like I’ve failed a time or two.
Back to ingredients. Since my wife doesn’t eat meat anymore, it’s generally just the rarely roasted whole chicken for myself (for a week), or a few times a year, a turkey when they’re $0.50 a pound for the holidays. Plus post Thanksgiving, I take the in-laws carcass home (2-3 birds normally), then render as time allows. Otherwise, I buy the bone-in chicken thighs when on sale for $0.69-0.79 a pound when I find myself running low.
And this is the best time to get rid of those ends of onion, or the last one from the 3lb bag that’s about to go soft, or any other hearty veg that’s past it’s best. I don’t buy extra veg to make stock per my tastes above, but I’m happy to scavenge what’s already in the fridge. But no carrots. I find they make my socks taste too sweet most of the time.
This sounds good! Also sounds like quite a bit of work, making vegetable stock and then making meat stock out of that, but I bet you end up with some awesome-tasting stock.
I doubt it. The bones and time (or pressure in the case of the Instant Pot) are what make it special. I think you’d mostly be wasting chicken that could be better used some other way.
Meaty bones + Instant Pot is exactly how I do mine. It’s amazing how quickly the IP can turn a bunch of garbage into a magical potion that elevates any recipe you care to use it in.
See, I would say exactly the opposite. Just try it and see what you prefer. I grew up on soup that was made exactly that way: a whole chicken, skin on, bone-in, into a pot with veggies.
I use much the same recipe as the rest of you. I keep carrot peels, celery that’s getting soft, and onion skins and ends in a bag in the freezer. When i roast a whole chicken (which i do frequently) the neck and gizzards go in a bag in the freezer. After i remove most of the meat from the bones, the carcass and usually the legs tossed in with the raw bits. When i roast a second bird, i take the freezer veggie scraps and two chicken carcasses, plus a light sprinkle of kosher salt and maybe a whole onion and some parsley into the instant pot. Fill with water, cook on high pressure for 90 minutes. Strain, and enjoy my broth.
Sometimes I’ll buy feet and backs for stock, too.
I like the mix of roasted chicken (nice roasted flavor) and raw parts (better gelatin yield).
Stores sell ten pound bags of leg quarters cheap around here. I’ll get a bag, skin them, separate the leg and thigh, and bone the thighs. The thighs get frozen two to a bag for whatever I end up using them for. The legs get boiled and the meat is portioned and frozen.
I then take the leg bones, thigh bones, and skins and put them in a pressure cooker. Sometimes I’ll roast some of the bones and skins first until they’re nicely browned first. I use the water the legs boiled in and enough extra to cover everything, then it’s an hour at 15 PSI. I strain the resulting broth into another pan and refrigerate it overnight. Sometimes I reduce it by about a third before refrigerating. The next day the schmaltz comes off in a nice puck and I freeze the de-fatted broth in baggies.
I use the broth for many things- making tamale masa, veggie/chicken soup, chicken and noodles, rice dishes, etc.
Yes, I know it’s not technically stock since I don’t add veggies or seasonings, but it’s yummy!
I use rotisserie chicken carcasses too, but I smear a bit of tomato paste on them and roast the bones first before I throw them in the pot with onions, carrots and a bouquet garni. I may add pepper or not. Let it barely simmer for a few hours. I have a pot with a colander insert, so once it’s done all I need to do is pull it out and the bones, etc. come out with it.
