Recipe: Chicken Stock
Making stock is something of an art form in France, as precise as crafting a good soup, for example. Of course that because the basis of any good sauce is a good stock and in French cooking any good dish comes with a good sauce. Some stocks are too complex or lengthy to produce to be practicable in a domestic setting, but making a good chicken stock is simple. You can even store it conveniently in an ice cube tray to make your very own stock cubes, ready to be whipped out when needed.
I started with raw chicken bones from some thighs that I was using, if you’re using the carcass of a roast chicken or whatever, then simply skip the first step.
Ingredients:
500g free-range chicken bones 1 onion A few whole pepper corns 1 bay leaf 1 sprig of thyme A small bunch parsley stalks A celery stalk
A carrot
Method:
1. In a heavy-bottomed pan, brown your meat well in a little oil over a high heat or in a hot oven.
2. Add enough cold water to cover the bones, the onion (cut in half), and all the other ingredients.
3. The best temperature for maximum flavour extraction is a bare, bare simmer, i.e. the occasional tiny bubble in the pan but by no means boiling. Let the stock simmer like this for a good hour.
4. Now pass the whole lot through (ideally) a clean tea-towel (or muslin)—if not a fine sieve should be fine.
5. Now boil this liquid very hard until it is little more than enough to fill a mug. Pour into a mug and leave it to settle before skimming off any fat from the surface.
6. Pour what remains into an ice cube tray and freeze until needed.
Tip: There is no salt in this recipe, as is the case in most good stock recipes, because you have to take into account how much it will be reduced. Best to season whatever ever it is that you are using the stock for.