Chicken Bone Broth

Forget TP, although that’s important too. Right now, we should probably all be stocking up on…STOCK! You know, in case we get sick.

Here is our favorite method for making chicken bone broth, a.k.a. stock. We roasted 2 chickens the first weekend of COVID-19 craziness, froze the meat, and proceeded to make this delicious broth using these principles. It’s less a recipe, and more of a methodology. Read, try it out, vary, and enjoy!

CHICKEN BONE BROTH

Ingredients:

• 1-2 chicken carcasses (depending on size)*
• Aromatics: Pick your favorites, or experiment with other seasonings:
  • 1-2 carrots
  • 1-2 celery stalks
  • thyme sprigs
  • Italian parsley sprigs
  • 1-2 leeks, rinsed and sliced (especially white & light green parts)
  • up to a head of garlic (slice bulb in half crosswise, throw it in)
  • peppercorns
  • 1-2 lemons, sliced in half
  • c. 1 medium onion, cut in quarters or more
• Fun and optional addition:
  • 1 pound browned/roasted chicken wings

Instructions:

1. Roughly chop chosen aromatics. Add to a large stock pot (6-8 quart capacity or more) with the chicken carcass(es).
2. If using chicken wings, brown them in the oven first (30-45 minutes at 425ish F should work). Add them to the stock pot. They will help darken the broth and make it truly taste like browned, roasted chicken.
3. Pour in enough water to cover everything.
4. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer several hours or until the carcass has come apart, the broth is a rich dark color, and it has lost some volume.**
5. Pour through a sieve into a large container. Throw out the solids, including carcass. Refrigerate the broth overnight.
6. After refrigerating 8+ hours: Skim or spoon off all the hardened fat on top.
7. At this point, I usually pour (again through a sieve) into pint- or quart-sized mason jars and freeze.

*Rotisserie chicken carcasses are great for this. Every time you eat a rotisserie chicken, save the carcass, wing tips, etc. in a freezer bag in the freezer. When enough chicken remains accumulate, make broth!

**I usually simmer for several hours, until the volume of liquid has reduced a good few inches in the stockpot. The resulting stock will semi-jellify (is that a word?) in the fridge overnight. This super-condensed chicken stock/jelly can then be diluted with water when making soup, making the stock last even longer!

Looking for a more formal recipe? Below are two of our favorite bone broth recipes. The first is what our current broth/stock technique is based on, and what I usually follow sans consulting recipe. The second, by chef Andrea Nguyen, makes a delicious, quick chicken pho broth if you make just the broth part of the mì gà soup recipe. (Chinese five spice and ginger? Yes, please!)

Cooking Light: How to Make a Rich, Flavorful Chicken Bone Broth (June 2018)

Andrea Nguyen: Leftover Rotisserie Chicken Recipes (in Wall Street Journal, February 2019)

Enjoy!