Friday food

Ah, January. Time for comfort foods. Soups. Stews. Chilis. Pot roast. And what do many of these dishes call for?

Chicken broth.

Sure, you can use that wimpy stuff in a can, but hey, it's not hard to make a really good broth of your own. What you really need is a lot of time, because this stuff has to stay at a slow simmer for a long, long time. Like 12 hours.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, we need a chicken.

 

Hee hee hee. Yes, I know. I'm not likely to become a mature adult if I can't get over giggling at nakey-butt chicken. But c'mon! It's so funny looking!

The recipe says you're supposed to cup up the chicken, but that's work, so I don't. It all falls apart anyway.

Now we need some veggie goodness.

 

Two carrots, one stalk of celery with leaves, two whole onions (unpeeled), all coarsely chopped. And four heads of garlic sliced horizontally in half. Oh, and six canned tomatoes, a couple of whole cloves, and a bay leaf.

Bring the nakey-butt chicken to a very gentle simmer, then dump all this stuff in.

 

Yup--fill that stockpot full. Now you bring this to the gentlest of simmers. You don't want it to boil. That'll ruin it. Just barely, barely bubbling. Hardly at all. Cover partially and simmer for 12-14 hours. If the water starts to reduce, add some more, boiling to keep the temperature steady.

 

Oh! Look what happened! The veggies have gone from being bright and fresh to battle-scarred and defeated. They have had to give up the fight. They have lost everything--all their flavor and nutrition--to the greater good of the broth.

Now you strain out the broth. And really, don't bother keeping the meat and veggies. Seriously. There's no flavor left. Then you need to chill the broth for several hours. Why? So you can increase the health quotient of this dish by having the fat rise to the top and solidify.

 

Ew. Who wants to eat that? I'm all for fat in food, but not when I have to look at it like that. Fortunately, it's solid now. Don't worry, you don't have to stick your fingers in the ick. Just get out your trusty fat skimmer:

 

--and save the day by removing that fat!

What's left?

 

Heaven in a bowl. Outstanding for bases for other soups and stews. Also excellent heated up and used to cook tortellini. And very healthy. Did you notice I put no salt in? Now, I can't guarantee there's no salt in here--many chickens are processed with salt or chicken broth to give them more flavor. Yes, you heard me right--chicken broth is used to make chickens taste better. Because the ingredients are "all natural," you can't trust the labels that say "all natural chicken." If you have salt issues, read the fine print.

I have no salt issues, but this broth simply doesn't need it. I get several 2-cup containers from each batch, which I freeze and use as needed. Oh, and the little last dregs I use up like this:

 

Frozen in cubes for those odd recipes that need just a couple tablespoons or quarter cup of broth.

See? Easy peasy.

Comments

[mary]

Yum, your broth looks delicious. I have to confess though, I like to use the bones from a roasted chicken, or roast the bones first. Really gives it a great flavor.

I rarely confess this in public, but, I'm not much of a tomato lover. I know, scandolous isn't it! So I think roasted bones give that extra flavor I miss by not using tomoatos.

That scarf looks fabulous, I love the colors.

[rudee]

I'm hungry now...

[Jeanne]

Thanks. I'll stick to the cans.

[Sue]

You have inspired me. I love soup but canned soup is, well, canned soup and restaurant soup is waaaaaaaaaay too salty. I have made soup using store bought stock which is good but this sounds better. Now to find a stock pot.

[bezzie]

But wait, did I miss where the naked chicken ended up after he was brothified?

[Elizabeth]

What beautiful broth! I also freeze mine in ice cube trays. (This works great with leftover red wine, too.)

[kmkat]

Mmmmm. I made homemade chicken soup on Tuesday, but it wasn't as good as your broth; I was using up some 4-yo drumsticks I found in the freezer. But it WAS good. Broth next...

[Chris]

Will you be my personal chef?

[--Deb]

Oh, sure. You make it look so easy ... whereas I live under a Chicken Stock Curse and all I've ever managed is chicken-scented water!

[kate]

Hey, I use ice cube trays too! I got the idea from a woman I babysat for eons ago, who had tomato sauce, etc in ice cubes for the kids' pasta, etc.

I always use the carcass and left overs from a roast chicken to make my stock.

[Carrie K]

Ice cube trays? Why have I never thought of that? Brilliant! I generally freez them in humongo tupperware containers far too big for my needs.

[kathy b]

Oh I love that you dump it all out and just use the good broth now flavor laden! Like that ice cube idea too! Soups on!

[caroleknits]

I never ever thought of freezing it in ice cube trays. Brilliant! (And I used to make and freeze baby food that way so you'd think I'd have thought of this on my own.)

[Kitt]

Bravo! That's awesome. I never seem to have the patience, and I really should.

I think you're supposed to cut up the chicken so that the bone marrow and gelatin come into play more. Not that I would know from experience!

[cursingmama]

I love good homemade broth - but rarely have the time for foresight to make my own.

[Angie]

DH does a similar long simmer but just with chicken bones that we've saved (and frozen) for a tasty broth. Generally, there is little meat left on a few of the bones. (The result of chicken salad sandwiches, I suppose.) What do you think the difference in the broth would be between just bones and a whole chicken? Yours looks delicious.

[T. Myers]

I can testify to the fabulousness of this broth! I made my traditional tomato soup with it this summer, instead of canned broth, and it was better than ever. This is going on my to-do list for next week, because I've used all mine up!