Basic Chicken Soup Broth- A delicious stock for many Soups, Stews and Sauces
Bring on the Soup! Steamy, varieties of chicken, potato, creamy cauliflower and broccoli, and my family’s all time favourite..Italian wedding Meatball soup. Whatever you are fancying, a good number of them start with a good chicken base. At this time of year I aim to make at least one homemade soup per week. My family has sort of taken for granted that there is some type of soup to warm up. If I’ve made a roasted chicken for a dinner…perfect throw it in a pot. If not, a rotisserie chicken from Costco is a perfect substitute. Exactly how many meals can you get from a Costco chicken?
Throw it all in
I used to just make my stock by basically boiling a chicken until it had immersed chicken flavour into the water. Blah…. And how does that taste good? Sorry, not intended to insult anyone who still does that but, that is pretty boring on the flavour scale. I was inspired by watching a Michael Smith “Chef at Home” episode. The show is no longer running but I do attribute a lot of what I have learned in cooking from faithfully watching his show. His tag line of “Cooking without a Recipe” has been instilled in my brain and inspired me in many ways.
So how does Michael Smith say he makes chicken broth? He adds his chicken to a large pot of water and then a whole lot of flavour. However, contrary to what you might expect to do, there is no need to peel and chop. Just add an onion, garlic, leek, celery stalks (with the leaves of course!), and whatever other flavours you want to add to the pot and simmer away. The longer you let it simmer for, the better the taste will be. There is nothing complicated about it all. To make life even easier, you can use a pasta pot with a strainer; when the broth is finished, just pull out the strainer and you are left with a golden pot of goodness
Multitudes of possibilities
So, if you’ve made a huge pot of chicken broth, you might be wondering if you will start to grow feathers before you can use up all that chicken soup. No problem, you can freeze some for later or divide the pot up and use half for the base of a creamy soup. Maybe you have a taste for some creamy loaded baked potato soup? Yummy! You can think of your new pot of broth as a blank canvas for your creativity. There are few dishes to make in the kitchen which offer the amount of flexibility for creativity as a pot of soup. You can really get those creative juices flowing and experiment as much or as little as you want. What are your favourites to make? I’d love to hear how you dress your chicken broth.
Here’s how I make my chicken soup broth. 🙂 Enjoy!
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Thanks!
- 1 Chicken carcass Cooked or raw
- 1 tsp Chicken Base paste
- 2 Stalks celery The inner leafy part is best for flavour
- 1 onion Not chopped and with skin
- 1 Garlic clove Not chopped and with skin
- Leek Rough Chopped and to clean
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp Celery Seed
- 3/4 tsp Herbes de Provence A dried herb blend of savoury, marjoram, rosemary, thyme and oregano
- 1/2 tsp Vegeta
- Place chicken in a large pot 6 or 7 litres, preferably a pasta pot with strainer
- Add vegetables and cover with water to fill the pot an inch or 2 from the rim
- Then add salt and spices, cover, and bring to a slow simmer
- Let simmer several hours
- Remove from heat and strain the vegetables and chicken from the broth
- Make into your favourite, soup, stew, or use as the base for sauces
Very similar to the chicken stock I make but I used to clean and do some chopping of things like onions, garlic etc. Wont be doing that anymore.
Thank You !
No problem! We have Michael Smith to thank on this one 🙂