4.03.2009

Chicken Stock from (Chicken) Scratch


The last time I went up to make soup for Ruth, she requested that I make a chicken soup next time. I roasted a chicken, then carved off and reserved the meat before putting the carcass in a pot with water to make stock.
I use the recipe found on Michael Ruhlman's blog. It's very simple, though I still managed to forget to add the herbs, peppercorns, and tomato paste. Next time, I suppose.
I so much prefer homemade stock over canned stock. (The new fangled boxed ones are a bit better.) The canned stock seems too salty and too chickeny (if you know what I mean).
I simmered some of the bones a second time in a smaller amount of water to flavor the water I will use to make the rice. My auntie is glucose intolerant, so it'll be chicken soup with rice, rather than chicken noodle soup. (And me with a new pasta maker! Oh, the humanity!)

6 comments:

Océano Naranja said...

Que sano vedad.mmmmm

Unknown said...

And one can make rice noodles....
::chuckle:: the word verification is "gente" (appropriate considering the comment above mine)

Anne C. said...

Sí, es sano, pero voy hacer más galletas para compensar. ;)

My experience with rice noodles is that they do not reheat well, so not so helpful for Ruthie's soup. But yes, I'm sure I could make rice noodles.

Mummy Grabill said...

Sipping once, sipping twice, sipping Chicken Soup with Rice! Nothing wrong with that! ;-)

Jim Wright said...

Looks pretty similar to how I make stock - though I usually add a cup of good white wine, garlic and chopped crimeni/portobello mushrooms to the stockpot. I like the earthy flavor mushrooms give to the base stock. I also usually roast the bones and root vegetables first, which gives a little more depth to the flavor.

I usually make around two gallons, then divide it up into 12oz glass containers and freeze it. Then it's just a matter of zapping it in the microwave for 30 seconds, and let the chicken flavored ice cube slide out into whatever I'm cooking.

Homemade stock is the only way to make decent soup, especially potato.

Also I make homemade egg noodles, rolled thick and cut by hand with a pizza cutter (more like southern style dumplings) and simmer them in fresh chicken stock. If you dust the dumplings in flour before adding them to the stock, the stock will thicken into gravy without any additional effort. I make the noodles in big batches, and freeze them in portion sized bags.

Easy quick dinner is to bring chicken stock to a light boil. Add a bag of the frozen noodles. Add some chopped celery, some diced leftover chicken meat, and a handful of sliced mushrooms and you've got chicken and dumplings in about fifteen minute with zero effort and only one pot to wash.

Anne C. said...

[Pardon me while I sponge the drool from my keyboard...]

Jim, those dumplings sound fascinating. I'm definitely going to try that. I agree about the mushrooms. I often have aging mushrooms on hand (because I buy too many, not because I'm holding back on the mushroom love), so I toss those in too. Thanks for the great ideas. Mmmmm!

MG, thanks for quoting that! I meant to reference it, but forgot. I should have guessed I could count on you. ;)