Chicken Stock
Somehow, we seem to have suddenly transitioned to soup weather, so the 89th episode of Good Eats came at a perfect time. First up was Alton’s recipe for homemade chicken stock. It really is true that purchased stock cannot compare to what you can make at home, and taking the time to make stock will result in superior homemade soups later. For Alton’s stock, place four pounds of chicken remains in a 12-quart stock pot; I used the remains from grocery store rotisserie birds, but Alton pointed out that you can always use chicken wings if you need more bones.
Chicken remains in the stock pot.
Add four broken carrots, four broken celery ribs, the white part of one leek, a quartered onion, 10 sprigs of parsley, 10 sprigs of thyme, 8-10 peppercorns, two cloves of garlic, and two bay leaves.
Press a steamer basket down onto the chicken/vegetables to keep everything submerged, and add two gallons of cold water (cold water helps to extract more collagen). Alton says filtered water is best for stock, but I just opted for our tap water.
Steamer basket used to keep chicken/vegetables submerged in two gallons of cold water.
Turn the heat to high, wait until you see bubbles, and decrease the heat to medium-low to maintain a bare simmer.
Bubbles forming on surface.
Maintain the bare simmer, skimming foam from the surface every 10-15 minutes during the first hour, and every half hour after that.
Skimming foam from the surface.
As the stock cooks, add hot water, as needed, to keep the bones and vegetables covered. It should take six to eight hours for your stock to be done. How do you tell when stock is done? The easiest way to tell when stock is done is to remove a bone from the pot and try to break it – bones will break easily when your stock is ready.
Stock after cooking for seven hours.
When your stock has finished cooking, strain it through two nested strainers with a layer of cheesecloth between them; you can reinsert your inverted steamer basket, pressing on it with tongs as you pour the stock into the strainers.
Two nested strainers with cheesecloth between them.
It is necessary to cool your stock quickly, so Alton suggests dividing the stock between two pots, placing them into a cooler with ice, and adding frozen water bottles to the pots. Once cool, refrigerate your stock overnight. In the morning, discard any solidified fat from the surface of your stock. You should have stock with a jelly-like consistency. If not, bring your stock back to a boil and reduce it by half. I found that I had to do this second boiling step, as my stock had really not gelatinized.
Strained chicken stock.
Stock will keep in the refrigerator for a few days, or in the freezer for a few months. Prior to using homemade stock in a recipe, bring it to a boil for two minutes. Making this stock sure made our house smell great, and the resulting stock was packed with chicken flavor, though definitely in need of some salt. I used some stock in Alton’s next recipe, and froze the rest for later use.
Chicken Noodle Soup
What better use for homemade chicken stock than chicken noodle soup, especially as we enter cold and flu season? Alton’s recipe comes together super quickly, so you can make this on a weeknight. Oh, and this is easy to double, which I did. Boil a quart of homemade chicken stock for two minutes.
Add 3/4 C chopped onion, 3/4 C diced celery, and 1 T minced garlic. Decrease the heat and simmer the stock/vegetables for two minutes.
Add 2-3 ounces of cooked egg noodles and simmer the soup for five more minutes.
Add some fresh herbs (I used parsley and thyme) to the soup and serve with lemon wedges.
A bowl of Alton’s chicken noodle soup with lemon.
This soup was really good, though it was in serious need of some seasoning. Once I added a bunch of salt and pepper, it was great! I happen to like my chicken noodle soup with lots of fresh black pepper, and I found that I really enjoyed Alton’s lemon recommendation, as a little acidity really brightened up the soup. If you wanted, you could always add some chopped or shredded chicken to this soup to give it some additional texture, protein, and flavor. This recipe is so simple and really serves to show how good homemade chicken stock can be.
Allison Cooks Alton's Good Eats 