Abbey Chicken Broth
from Abbey Cooks Entertain
Servings 10 people
Ingredients
- 3 pound chicken or a mix of bone in chicken breasts and thighs
- 1 pound unpeeled onions trimmed and cut into eighths
- 2 ribs celery halved lengthwise and coarsely chopped
- 4 stems broccoli
- 1 large carrot coarsely chopped
- 3 large garlic cloves peeled and coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients into a large stock pot.
- Add 4-6 cups of water to cover all the ingredients and bring to a boil.
- Lower the heat, cover partially and skim occasionally until the chicken is cooked. This will take an hour.
- Take the chicken out and when cooled, take the meat off the bones and cut or shred into pieces. Save for a meal or wonderful chicken noodle soup.
- Use a strainer to separate the liquids from solids. I like to press down on the solids to let some of the flavour come through, but it will give you a slightly more cloudy stock.
- If you are going to use right away, use a fat separator if you have one to remove the fat, or you can blot the top of the surface with paper towels, add ice cubes or simply skim with a large flat spoon.
- Cool immediately in large cooler of ice or a sink full of ice water to below 40 degrees. Place in refrigerator overnight. Remove solidified fat from surface of liquid and store in container with lid in refrigerator for 2 to 3 days or in freezer for up to 3 months.
- Wonderful in chicken noodle soup (see link below). I always keep a supply of soup frozen on hand when someone in the family is starting to feel unwell.
Notes
Making your own brothdoes takes a bit of time, but for the most part you just leave the pot simmering on the stove, and is well worth the effort. The trick is to keep a stockpile of ingredients in your freezer. I often save celery and broccoli stems and toss them into the freezer, ready for the soup pot. I have purchased bone in chicken breasts, and saved the bones for the post as well. Chicken wings are also great for the stock pot.
When I make broth I am intending to make chicken soup so I use the meat from the whole chicken to put back into the pot. This recipe is like making sour dough. You use some of your previous batch to enrich your current creation.
If you are starting from scratch you can always reach for a quality low sodium "stock in a box" if you don't let Spratt catch you. I also like adding wine to my stock to give it more depth of flavour. Experiment and make your own creation worthy of the Dowager's praise.