Recipe: Chicken stock

We make a lot of chicken stock at home.  With a Mexican in the house, there's no surprise to come home and see some chicken simmering in a pot, to get pulled and shredded later on.  Thus, we often have the resulting stock in the fridge for soups or what have you later on.  It's always tasty, with a good amount of gelatin - much better than quality store-bought stock - and always so simple.  It got me thinking back to cooking school and the stock classes and really, much of it is over-thought.  In school, we would have set amounts of mirepoix (stock vegetables), herbs and spices for each kind of stock, but really, what's most important is the method.  Don't get me wrong, the stocks at school were all good, but the emphasis is too often on the recipe, and the method is the key to your success.  In a large operation, you do want a consistently flavoured product, so something of a recipe is useful, but at home, just go with what you have - it'll be ok.

First you need chicken bones.  You can buy them, or take them from the chicken you are preparing.  If your meal will use pre-cooked chicken, then you can debone the bird, start the stock with the bones, then after skimming the impurities, cook the meat in the stock for more flavour in both the meat and the broth.  If you are buying bones, "working" bones are the best - feet, neck, back and legs - all the parts that move a lot when the bird is alive.

Vegetables.  Traditionally, mirepoix is two parts onion, one part carrot, one part celery - the amounts of each depend on the size of the stock.  Here's where things start to vary.  Carrot will colour your stock, so if you are making something you want as white as possible, leave it out.  Other very nice vegetables for stock are leeks (cut off the dark green), fennel and mushrooms.  My advice, be flexible.  If you are planning a little ahead, you can pre-cut the vegetables for your meal and set them aside, then use the (clean) trimmings for the stock.  Just avoid inappropriate vegetables - bitter ones like turnip and parsnip.  If simply making a soup, I often won't even add mirepoix to my stock since I like lots of vegetables in the soup itself.  If you sweat your soup vegetables well before adding the stock, there's plenty of flavour there already.  For the sake of argument, if you deboned a small chicken, one large onion, a medium carrot and a stalk of celery would be fine.  Adjust accordingly.

Aromatics.  Peppercorns, thyme (and other herbs), parsley stems, garlic, shallots - again, these all add a nice touch, and like the vegetables, are open to your personal preferences.  Using soup again as an example, some of these things are just as well added in the preparation of a dish.  It would be a shame to use up your herbs on the stock and have nothing for the final product to give it that "freshness".  If using parsley, sure use the stems in the stock, but save all the leaves for the final touches and garnish.  Our soups at home are almost always started with a saute of onion and garlic, and finished with a squeeze of lime and generous portion of cilantro.  Regardless what lands in the middle, a winner every time.

Method:

You've got your bones, figured out your vegetables and aromatics, now it's all love and attention.
  - rinse the bones under cold water till it's clear - there's residual blood and "environment" on them
  - place the bones in a pot and cover completely with cold water - if it's not covered, it's not involved
  - slowly bring the stock up to a low simmer - don't rush it, and NEVER BOIL A STOCK and don't stir it
  - you will start to see grey foam emerging (impurities) - skim it off with a shallow spoon or ladle
  - once the impurities are emerging less frequently, you can add your mirepoix and aromatics
  - keep skimming any impurities that emerge
  - it can take up to 6 hours or more to get all the flavour from the bones, so keep it on low and be patient
  - when it's time to strain, turn off the heat and carefully pour the stock through the finest mesh you have - line a seive with cheesecloth if you can
  - don't worry about the fat, once the stock cools, you can store it in the fridge and remove the hardened fat later (the solid fat also does a great job sealing the stock during storage)