Published March 23, 2020
What am I doing while staying at home? Why, cooking of course! After all, I was known at camp as “Libby the Cook”
When I roast a chicken, I use a bit of boiling water to loosen all the browned bits from the roasting pan and pour that lovely brown “water” back in with the chicken. I do this every time I reheat the chicken for more tasty eating. By the time I use my carcass for broth, I have a nice amount of protein gel with a lovely deep brown flavor–umami at its best!
The Best Homemade Chicken Broth
- In a deep soup pot (or Instant Pot or Slow Cooker), place:
- 1 chicken carcass with all the yummy browned bits & any leftover roasted skin
- Ends and outer peels of a large onion (save onion for soup)
- Tops and leafy parts of celery (save sticks for soup)
- 2-3 bay leaves (I *may* use 4…)
- 5 black peppercorns
- a full head of garlic, peels & all–but crush each clove a bit for extra flavor
- 1/4-1/2 cup extra-dry Vermouth or dry white wine (optional, but the alcohol boils out, and the flavor is lovely!)
- Water to cover carcass completely
2. On the stovetop, bring to a boil, then simmer for at least an hour.
3. In Instant Pot, set lid to Seal, and cook on “Soup” setting, high pressure, 90 minutes. Let steam release naturally.
4. In a slow cooker, Set on high and cook for at least 4 hours. This is the time when your house will smell delicious!
5. Once the broth is cooked, let cool a bit. Set a large colander into a large bowl. Strain broth by pouring pot into colander.
Carefully lift the colander out, and hold over a bowl, stapping a bit to get all the broth out.
6. Dispose of remains from the colander.
7. Pour your delicious broth into containers to freeze for future use, or into a deep pot to use for soup-making now!
Tasty chicken soup:
- Heat a bit of oil in a deep saucepan.
- Saute chopped onion, minced garlic, sliced celery and sliced carrots until beginning to soften.
- Add broth.
- Set skinless, boneless pieces of chicken into the pot–you can cook them from frozen this way. I am all over anything that reduces prep steps!
- Add broth to 2″ from top of the pot, cover.
- Bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer.
- Add any other hard vegetables you want in your soup now (potatoes, yams, celeriac, cabbage, hard squashes), with a can of diced tomatoes.
- Sprinkle herbs and spices over the top: garlic granules, paprika, dill, parsley, thyme for a lighter flavor; garlic granules, cumin, curry and your level of cayenne pepper for a deeper flavor.
- Use your nose and a spoon for tasting to determine the flavor you want. Don’t forget to add salt, as it intensifies all the other flavors!
- Cover and simmer at least 1/2 hour.
- Remove chicken pieces, cut up, return to pot.
- Once hard veggies are soft, add other veggies as desired – broccoli, peppers, summer squash, peas, green beans, spinach, kale. etc
- Simmer until all veggies are soft enough to eat.
- Adjust flavor: salt a bit more, add a shot of lemon juice, black or white pepper, more garlic (can you tell I love the stuff?)
- Fill the bowl and enjoy!
*toppings to add fun to your yummy homemade soup: toasted pepitas, shredded cheese (that parmesan in a tube is good here!), nutritional yeast, sour cream or yogurt, chopped cilantro.
Hope you enjoy this meal. I know I am using this time at home to do lots and lots of cooking.
Best,
Libby the Cook
Indian Brook ’80-’84
Posted in Community Stories
