This One's For You Dad

About a week ago I asked all of you to let me know what I should cook/bake.  The results are in….NOTHING!  I didn’t get any suggestions so there was no picking a dish out of a hat and no coming up with a new recipe.  Instead I decided to make something for my Dad, to thank him for the giant stock pot that he gave me on the weekend.  It would have come in handy a couple of weekends ago when I was making my mega batch of Bolognese sauce.

When I was at my Dad’s house on the weekend he asked me how to make chicken stock.  I proceeded to explain the details and he looked at me with a bit of a blank stare.  When I left I thought, I’ll have to go back to my Dad’s house soon and make chicken stock with him.  Then I thought maybe there are a few - more people that want to learn, I should put a step-by-step on my blog.  Here it isJ

It really is quite simple and is another one of those things that I like to make in large batches to bag and freeze for later use.  Here’s what you’re going to need 2 whole roaster chickens, 4 carrots, 4 celery stalks with leaves, 3 onions, 1 head of garlic, fresh thyme, peppercorns and salt.  That’s it!  Sometimes I through in other herbs like rosemary and dill but all I had was thyme so that will do.  Also, I got lucky and Metro had buy one get one free roaster chickens this week. 

I start off coarsely chopping all of the veggies.  I don’t bother peeling the garlic, carrots or onions.   It will all look something like this.

Then I dump all of this into a large stock pot, I put the chickens on top and fill it up with about 6 liters of water. It will look like this

Bring to a boil then reduce the temperature so that the stock simmers.  Let simmer gently for at least 3-4 hours.  It will start to look like this

Then strain the stock into a clean bowl or pot and let chill overnight. It will look like this

I hope anyone who has always wanted to make a chicken stock gives it a try.  There is no comparison to a box stock and it will make you a mean pot of chicken noodle soup.

Just to recap I’ll put the full recipe below

Chicken Stock
Yield about 3-4 liters

Ingredients

• 2 roaster chickens
• 3 onions, cut in half, not peeled
• 4 carrots, tips removed and cut in half
• 4 stalks of celery, leaves included
• 1 head of garlic, cut in half
• 1 bunch fresh thyme
• 20 peppercorns
• 1 tbsp salt
• 6 liters of water

Directions

1. Prep all of you veggies and add to the bottom of a large stock pot
2. Place chickens on top of veggies and add 6 liters of water.  The water should just cover all of the ingredients
3. Bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce the heat and simmer for 3-4 hours.
4. Strain the stock to remove all of the solids.  Cool stock overnight in a large bowl or pot and discard all of the solids.
5. Stock can stay in the refrigerator for about 3 days or can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for 2-3 months.

ENJOY!