If you use chicken carcasses in this stock you won’t have to worry about the stock being too fatty. If, however, you use chicken wings, be prepared to skim any fat or impurities that rise to the surface of the stock. We love natural fat but an unskimmed stock will make your soups, gravies and sauces oily.
PREP AND COOK TIME: 3¾ HOURSMAKES: 2 LITRES
2 tablespoons of olive oil
6 chicken carcasses or 2kg chicken wings
2 onions, roughly chopped
4 celery stalks, roughly chopped
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 bay leaves (fresh if available, dried if not)
2 garlic cloves, bruised with the back of a knife
10 thyme sprigs
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
2.5 litres water
1. Heat the olive oil in a stockpot on high heat, add the chicken and brown for 3-5 minutes. Stir in the onion, celery, carrot and bay leaves and sauté for 5 minutes until starting to caramelise. Add the garlic, thyme and peppercorns and sauté for 2 minutes.
2. Pour the water into the pot and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered for 3 hours until reduced by a third.
3. Remove from the heat and, if time permits, allow the stock to steep in the pot as it cools as this will ensure every last bit of flavour and can be drawn out of the bones. If time is of the essence, you can use the stock straight away.
4. Pass the stock through a sieve and then pass again through a sieve lined with muslin cloth. You have your finished stock ready to use for soups, jus, gravies and sauces. The stock can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days or alternatively, you can freeze it for up to 3 months and use at a later date.
WILL I have noticed you don’t season your stock, why is that?
STEVE For good reason! Do not season a stock with salt – pepper is fine but never salt. A stock is something that is used as a base and in all likelihood will be reduced, so if there is salt in the stock, when it cooks down that saltiness will intensify. Remember, you can always add salt but no one has ever figured out a way to remove it once it’s there. If your sauce or gravy is too salty, all those hours spent making the stock in the first place will have been wasted.