All Things Chicken Stock.

Chicken stock. It is at once one of the simplest ingredients in the kitchen and the ingredient that can make all the difference in your finished dishes. From the base of soups and stews to giving your rice dishes a little something extra stock is the work horse of your kitchen. Few things in life can take what would be a pile of scrapes for the compost or the garbage and turn them into something so wonderful. Make no mistake, Homemade stock is a far cry from what you can buy at the store. The depth of flavor that can be reached by doing it yourself makes the little investment of time all the worth while. The best part, is making stock doesn't take some great level of culinary skill. Just a pot some veggie scraps, chicken parts and some time.

The base of your stock will be chicken, I'm using fresh chicken backs but for an even deeper flavor you can use the leftover chicken carcass from your Sunday roast chicken. For your veggies you will want to use your standard aromatics, onion, celery, and garlic, but feel free to add any others you like. A tip I picked up some time ago from I don't remember where, is when ever you have vegetable scrapes from cooking. Instead of throwing them all in the compost, add some to a zip loc that you keep in the freezer. When ever you are ready to make stock you will have a bag full of veggies to add to the pot!

Chicken Stock Recipe.

1-2 lbs chicken parts

1 Carrot

1 Celery stalk

1 onion cut in half

2-3 cloves of garlic

1 small potato

1 sprig of thyme

1 sprig of rosemary

1 sprig of sage

Fill a large pot with water. Add all ingredients to the pot and set on high heat.

Bring the pot to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Let simmer for at least an hour but 2-3 is better. Let cool and strain off stock using a colander or sieve. Reserve the liquid and toss the veggies and chicken parts. If you wish to remove the fat from the stock place in the fridge over night. The fat will solidify on top and be easy to skim off the following day. Your stock will last up to a week in the fridge or if you wish to keep your stock longer it freezes great!

-Adam