Recipe: Making Chicken (or Any Poultry) Stock!

Ok, so you've roasted some bird(s) and now you've got this picked clean, beautiful hunk of bones, fat, gristle and those little pieces of muscle that never seen to wanna come loose just sitting on a tray. Let's make some stock! Here's what you'll need:

• Carcasses (really any bones, but this recipe is specifically for chicken)
• 3-4 medium sized, yellow onions
• 1 carrot
• 4-5 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 green bell pepper (maybe not as this might make it too sweet for you, but I had it sitting around so I used it)
• veggie / olive oil
• Some herbs, preferably fresh
• Peppercorns

OK, stock is pretty simple, so simple in fact! Here! We! GO!!!!

1. Cut up those veggies! Just chunk them, they don't really need to be small or look nice as they're getting thrown away soon!
   IMPORTANT: Make sure you keep the skin from the onions as they add a beautiful, rich yellow color to the broth!!
   
2. Put some (a tiny bit) of that oil in a big pot over medium-high heat and let it get hot.
3. Add the veggies and stir them around a bit, but then let them sit in the pot until the bottom of them gets browned. This is a very important step, so do not not do it! (Haha, I hate double negatives, they confuse me so much. However, I don't feel like figuring out how to rewrite it, so deal with it I'm sorry). This browning is caused by something known as the Maillard Reaction and long story short it basically breaks down sugars and amino acids and creates hundreds of flavor particles, making anything it happens to taste SO much better! However, you've gotta be careful so that nothing burns. This is a delicate process!
4. After they've sat for a bit, toss in the herbs and peppercorns, scrape them up and around and then dump in some pipe stock (water he he). I don't really know how much, but you definitely want to cover the veggies and then you should probably triple that I guess.
5. Turn the heat up to high, get it to a boil and then rock the heat down to medium, maybe even a smidgen below that.
6. Let this simmer for 1-2 hours, stirring if you feel like it every now and then. I know I like to, it lets me smell how things are going, as well as feel how cooked everything is. Also let's face it, it's just so much fun to swirl things around in liquid.
7. After you've cooked it for long enough you need to strain it! If you're lucky you'll have some fancy shmancy strainer that costs like $90 at the cookery store. However, my colander has relatively small holes, so I used that. What you need to do is get all the vegetables and herbs out of the broth. If you have cheesecloth, this works SUPER well!
8. Strain it into another pot and either use that or quickly rinse out the one you have and then return the newly created vegetable stock to it. Then, put the chicken carcasses in and, if necessary, add more cold pipe stock so that the level is about one inch (2.5 cm for our Euro buddies) above them. If you can't get it that high because your pot isn't deep enough then you need to get a new pot or just don't worry about it because it will be fine.
9. Bring the broth up to a boil and then drop it back to medium again.
10. Let it simmer for 1-3 hours! You can totally stir if you want, and I recommend flipping the carcasses over at least once, but it isn't super necessary.
11. Once your chosen time is up, strain it again!
12. At this point you can cook it down some more, or you can just throw it in the fridge. It is important to throw it in the fridge at some point because when it cools the fat will all be on top and you can scrape that off if you so desire.
13. What some people do is reduce it so much that it can fit into ice cube trays. This way, whenever they need stock they just take a cube or two of it and BAM they're good to go!
14. Whatever you decide to do will be fine I am sure. I have faith in YOU!

You can use the broth for SO much! Make soup with it as the base, make any number of sauces, make gravy by adding it to a roux, blah blah so much so much! You can even cook pasta or rice in it and they will absorb some of the flavor! It's so great to have around!