Hey friends,
I use chicken stock in many recipes. It enhances the flavour and richness of any dish and the best thing about chicken stock is that you can prepare it with ingredients that tend to end up in your trashcan. It's inexpensive to make and you can prepare a lot at a time and preserve it for fifteen to twenty days in your refrigerator easily in an air-tight container. You can even make frozen cubes of chicken stock and store them in the freezer for months in a ziplock bag and use them in any gravy items or to rustle up a delicious soup in no time.
Now, many people add bay-leaves, flat-leaf parsley, coriander roots, ginger or lemongrass and many other flavouring agents to their chicken stock, but I don't. I believe, as far as the basic chicken stock is concerned, less is more. As you will notice, I don't use any flavour enhancer or even seasoning to it, but just a couple of ingredients that will neutralise the smell of raw chicken. That way you don't have to worry about the salt-content or flavouring when you are using it in any of your recipes and you can use it for any preparation, be it Continental or Chinese or Mughlai without having to worry about it changing the original flavour of the dish.
I had once prepared chicken sweet-corn soup using Maggi chicken stock cubes and I forgot they already have salt. Of course, I hadn't checked the instructions on the packet and I added salt resulting in an inedible soup which was way too salty.
Therefore, I don't add any seasoning to my basic chicken stock so that mistakes like this won't happen and it will take the flavour or any dish that I am preparing without overpowering them.
Now, about what parts of the chicken you should use for chicken stock - whenever I buy one whole chicken, I request my butcher to make it boneless and to give me the bones separately so that they don't go to waste. There is no problem if you make the stock with the whole chicken or chicken with bones and use the boiled meat for preparing something else (like a chicken sandwich or chicken bharta or olivier salad). Remember, there must be a lot of bones and the meat portion doesn't really do much for the chicken stock. It's the marrow that seeps out of the bones that makes a rich and flavourful chicken stock. Also, I forgot to mention before, don't use the chicken fat as it will make your stock disgustingly oily.
Ingredients:
Chicken bones (at least 300 to 500 grams)
1/2 litre water
4-5 whole black peppercorns
1/2 onion (don't bother to chop it, but I peel it to ensure it's nice and clean)
2 heads of carrot (discarded parts which are not used in cooking)
Preparation:
Clean the chicken bones and carrot heads thoroughly. I let the bones sit in water (not brine, but plain, cold water) for at least fifteen minutes and rinse them twice or thrice under running water so that there is no clotted blood or impurities stuck to the bones.
Place all the ingredients in a pressure cooker and bring it to boil. Cook it until seven to eight whistles (depending on your cooker, but at least you don't have to worry about overcooking the stock as the more the bones are boiled in the liquid the better) and let it cool completely before opening the lid.
If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can easily make it in a deep casserole/sauce pot/pasta cooker or anything with a fitted lid. Of course, in that case, you have to boil it for around 45 minutes (at least) on low flame, and you may need to add half a cup water because of the longer cooking time.
Strain the liquid with a fine mesh and voilà, your chicken stock is ready.
P.S. - I am sorry that I don't have an image as of now, but I will upload it soon.
I use chicken stock in many recipes. It enhances the flavour and richness of any dish and the best thing about chicken stock is that you can prepare it with ingredients that tend to end up in your trashcan. It's inexpensive to make and you can prepare a lot at a time and preserve it for fifteen to twenty days in your refrigerator easily in an air-tight container. You can even make frozen cubes of chicken stock and store them in the freezer for months in a ziplock bag and use them in any gravy items or to rustle up a delicious soup in no time.
Now, many people add bay-leaves, flat-leaf parsley, coriander roots, ginger or lemongrass and many other flavouring agents to their chicken stock, but I don't. I believe, as far as the basic chicken stock is concerned, less is more. As you will notice, I don't use any flavour enhancer or even seasoning to it, but just a couple of ingredients that will neutralise the smell of raw chicken. That way you don't have to worry about the salt-content or flavouring when you are using it in any of your recipes and you can use it for any preparation, be it Continental or Chinese or Mughlai without having to worry about it changing the original flavour of the dish.
I had once prepared chicken sweet-corn soup using Maggi chicken stock cubes and I forgot they already have salt. Of course, I hadn't checked the instructions on the packet and I added salt resulting in an inedible soup which was way too salty.
Therefore, I don't add any seasoning to my basic chicken stock so that mistakes like this won't happen and it will take the flavour or any dish that I am preparing without overpowering them.
Now, about what parts of the chicken you should use for chicken stock - whenever I buy one whole chicken, I request my butcher to make it boneless and to give me the bones separately so that they don't go to waste. There is no problem if you make the stock with the whole chicken or chicken with bones and use the boiled meat for preparing something else (like a chicken sandwich or chicken bharta or olivier salad). Remember, there must be a lot of bones and the meat portion doesn't really do much for the chicken stock. It's the marrow that seeps out of the bones that makes a rich and flavourful chicken stock. Also, I forgot to mention before, don't use the chicken fat as it will make your stock disgustingly oily.
Ingredients:
Chicken bones (at least 300 to 500 grams)
1/2 litre water
4-5 whole black peppercorns
1/2 onion (don't bother to chop it, but I peel it to ensure it's nice and clean)
2 heads of carrot (discarded parts which are not used in cooking)
Preparation:
Clean the chicken bones and carrot heads thoroughly. I let the bones sit in water (not brine, but plain, cold water) for at least fifteen minutes and rinse them twice or thrice under running water so that there is no clotted blood or impurities stuck to the bones.
Place all the ingredients in a pressure cooker and bring it to boil. Cook it until seven to eight whistles (depending on your cooker, but at least you don't have to worry about overcooking the stock as the more the bones are boiled in the liquid the better) and let it cool completely before opening the lid.
If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can easily make it in a deep casserole/sauce pot/pasta cooker or anything with a fitted lid. Of course, in that case, you have to boil it for around 45 minutes (at least) on low flame, and you may need to add half a cup water because of the longer cooking time.
Strain the liquid with a fine mesh and voilà, your chicken stock is ready.
P.S. - I am sorry that I don't have an image as of now, but I will upload it soon.
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