TASTE
Taking stock of chicken
By Joan Namkoong
Special to The Advertiser
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Editor's Note: Sunday Night Suppers is a monthly column about how to spin a single cooking session into several meals, prepared in conjunction with Share Your Table, a culinary Web site celebrating Island foods.
Of all the basics in a cook's pantry, chicken stock is an absolute must. It's a versatile main component of soups of all kinds, laden with vegetables, meats, noodles or dumplings. It underlies creamy soups such as vichyssoise (a classic French potato and leek soup). It's the basis for a good risotto, the creamy Italian rice dish that can make a meal. Just a little chicken stock can add an underlying flavor to a Chinese stir-fry dish. A good cook simply must have chicken stock on hand.
You can buy canned, reasonably priced chicken stock very readily. But homemade chicken stock is a cut above the commercial variety, full of wholesome, rich, honest flavor. When you make your own chicken stock, you control what goes into it, especially vegetables and herbs that lend their flavors and aromas to the stock. And you control the amount of salt, an important consideration both culinarily and for health's sake. There's nothing better than reaching into your freezer for some chicken stock and knowing that you've made it yourself.
Making your own chicken stock is easy. The actual cooking takes a few hours, but the dish evolves on its own once you get it started, and you needn't tend it constantly. Make a batch on a Sunday afternoon and make a hearty soup for Sunday night supper with plenty of leftovers for a weeknight meal. Freeze the stock to use during the week for risotto or a bowl of chicken pho, the Vietnamese noodle soup. Or just keep it in the freezer for those days when a simple chicken soup will warm the soul.
As with everything else we cook, the quality and freshness of the ingredients is important to the final outcome. Choose your chicken carefully; if you can afford an organic or free-range chicken, it will have better flavor. Stewing hens — chickens that have aged beyond their usefulness as egg layers — are a good choice for making stock, since their meat is generally flavorful but tough. (These are most readily available in Chinatown, or at specialty meat stores, though some supermarkets do stock them.)
For a rich and flavorful stock, start with a whole chicken, cut into pieces. Add additional chicken wings for the flavor of their fattiness. Backs and necks can also be used; a combination of all these parts is ideal. If you save the carcass when you roast a chicken and freeze it, you'll be able to add even more flavor to the stockpot without additional cost.
Technically, a chicken stock made with the meat is a broth. Whatever you call it, it will be deliciously good.
CHICKEN STOCK
Use a 10- to 12-quart stockpot, the larger the better. Remove the giblets from the whole chicken and discard. Rinse the whole chicken; put the neck in the stockpot. Cut the legs from the chicken and put in the stockpot. Cut the breast portion from the carcass and put in the stockpot. Put the remaining carcass, wings and backs into the stockpot. Fill the stockpot with tap water, covering all the bones.
Place the stockpot over high heat and bring to a boil. As the water temperature rises, proteins in the form of scum will rise to the top. Using a fine-mesh skimmer, remove the scum and discard. Continue to skim the surface of the stock until there is no more scum. Do not allow the stock to come to a rolling boil; lower the heat so that it is gently bubbling.
In the meantime, peel the carrots and trim the ends. Cut each carrot into 4 to 6 pieces. Trim the celery stalks and cut into similar-size pieces. Peel the onion and cut into quarters.
When the stock is boiling and there is no scum, add the carrots, celery, onion, parsley and thyme. Bring the stock back to a gentle boil and continue to cook. After about 20 minutes of simmering, look for the breast and leg pieces and remove them from the stock and place them on a plate. Allow the pieces to cool. Then remove the meat from bones. Return the bones to the stockpot.
Cover and refrigerate the cooked chicken and use it in chicken vegetable soup, sandwiches or salads.
Continue to simmer the stock until there is no flavor left in the chicken. Remove a wing or other part and taste the meat: if it's bland, it has probably released its flavor to the stock.
Remove the stockpot from the heat and allow it to cool. Carefully strain the liquid into another pot, discarding the bones and vegetables. Cool the stock and refrigerate or freeze in containers. You can also reduce the volume of stock by returning the pot to the stovetop and simmering it for another couple of hours. This results in a more concentrated stock that will gel upon refrigeration.
Yields vary, depending on ingredients and how long you cook the broth.
HEARTY CHICKEN VEGETABLE SOUP
In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery and sauté for 3 to 4 minutes or until lightly browned. Add the tomatoes, zucchini, potatoes, pasta, chicken and stock and bring to a boil.
Lower the heat to a simmer. Add the cheese rind and beans, and simmer the soup for 30 to 45 minutes. Add the kale and parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for another 15 minutes and serve.
Makes 6-8 servings.
• Per serving (8 servings): 400 calories, 11 g fat, 2.5 g saturated fat, 100 mg cholesterol, 875 mg sodium, 38 g carbohydrate, 4 g fiber, 6 g sugar, 40 g protein
