Chicken Stock
Bones, cold water, aromatics and four hours at a temperature that never quite bubbles. The single most useful thing to keep in a freezer.
- Prep
- 15m
- Cook
- 4h
- Total
- 4h 15m
- Serves
- about 2 litres
- Effort
- Easy
Method
Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.
| 2 kg | Roast at 220°C / 425°F until browned 40m Optional — raw bones give a paler, cleaner stock; roasted gives colour and depth. | Cover with cold water and bring up slowly 20m Cold start. Proteins coagulate gradually and rise as scum you can remove. | Simmer 4 hours at a bare tremble, skimming the first 30 minutes 4h Never a rolling boil. Boiling emulsifies fat into the liquid and makes it cloudy and greasy. | Strain, cool fast, and refrigerate — lift the fat off when set 20m Cool it quickly in a sink of cold water. A slow-cooling stockpot is a food safety problem. | |
| 4 l | |||||
| 2 | |||||
| 2 | |||||
| 3 sticks | |||||
| 2 | |||||
| 1 tsp | |||||
| a handful | |||||
-
Roast at 220°C / 425°F until browned
40m- chicken carcasses and wings 2 kg
Optional — raw bones give a paler, cleaner stock; roasted gives colour and depth.
-
Cover with cold water and bring up slowly
20m- from 1 Roast at 220°C / 425°F until browned
- cold water 4 l
Cold start. Proteins coagulate gradually and rise as scum you can remove.
-
Simmer 4 hours at a bare tremble, skimming the first 30 minutes
4h- from 2 Cover with cold water and bring up slowly
- onions 2
- carrots 2
- celery 3 sticks
- bay leaves 2
- black peppercorns 1 tsp
- parsley stalks (optional) a handful
Never a rolling boil. Boiling emulsifies fat into the liquid and makes it cloudy and greasy.
-
Strain, cool fast, and refrigerate — lift the fat off when set
20m- from 3 Simmer 4 hours at a bare tremble, skimming the first 30 minutes
Cool it quickly in a sink of cold water. A slow-cooling stockpot is a food safety problem.
No salt
Stock is an ingredient, not a soup. You will reduce it, and whatever salt is in it concentrates with it — a stock salted to taste becomes inedible once reduced to a sauce. Season the dish, never the stock.
Notes
- Cold water start, slow heat, bare simmer. Those three things separate clear stock from cloudy.
- Four hours is plenty for chicken. Beyond about six the bones start giving up chalky, dull flavours.
- Freeze in ice cube trays as well as tubs. Two cubes is often exactly what a pan sauce needs.