Making Homemade Chicken & Beef Stock - So Easy it Should be a Crime! (2024)

FAQs

Is it worth making your own chicken stock? ›

Richer mouthfeel – Homemade chicken stock has abundant gelatin from the chicken bones and tissues, which gives it a full-bodied richness and mouthfeel when used in soups and stews. Store-bought stock lacks this quality. More versatile because it's unsalted – Store-bought stock is almost always salted.

"Ground paprika, turmeric, nutmeg, ground ginger, and other powdered spices add a touch of color and spiciness to broths," she says. As a general rule, use fresh herbs at or near the end of cooking and dried herbs and spices early on. This helps you get the flavors you're looking for in the right balance.

If you don't have beef broth, you certainly can use chicken broth when making beef stew. The beef and veggie will give flavor to the stew and you won't really miss anything by not using beef broth. I'd be sure to sear the meat and caramelize the veggies for extra color and flavor though.

Information. Chicken broth can be refrigerated for 3-4 days and frozen (for best quality) for 2-3 months.

Cook it too long, though, and you get into a case of seriously diminishing returns. Throughout my testing, I tasted my stocks as they cooked, and I generally found about one and a half hours to be a reasonable endpoint—plenty of time for a flavorful, rich broth, but not so long that it's a major commitment to make it.

To make homemade chicken stock, place chicken bones, vegetables, herbs and spices into a large pot. Cover with cold water then simmer for about 3 hours. Let it cool, then skim the fat. Store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 6 months.

Avoid bitter greens and members of the brassica family (kale, cabbage, Bok Choy). Other greens can be used in small quantities.

Exclude fatty ingredients: I don't see the need to add particularly fatty ingredients (e.g. chicken skin) to your stock. Save it for something else! Skim fat as you go: Once your stock or broth is cooking, occasionally remove the fats that rise to the top. This is easier on pots with a smaller diameter.

Some folks feel that chicken skin adds too much fat to the broth leading to an unpleasant mouthfeel. I can see how raw chicken might do this, but with roasted chicken much of the fat has been rendered. Plus, the crispy skin adds to the overall depth of flavor.

Do you keep adding water to chicken stock? ›

Add more cold water as evaporation occurs and as bones and vegetables are exposed. Cold water prevents impurities that have risen to the top of the stock from melting and redispersing back into the stock. 2. Simmer, Never Boil: Keep your stock at a simmer with gentle bubbles just breaking at its surface.

Add Flour Or Cornstarch

If you do, it will clump up on top. Instead, ladle a small amount of broth into a separate bowl and let it cool. Add a few tablespoons of flour or cornstarch to the bowl and whisk until it's blended smooth. Next, bring the soup to a simmer and add the mixture back to the pot.

Why is it so important to have a gelatinous broth? Firstly it's not 'super important'. BUT: The sign of the 'jelly' is what lets you know you've cooked the bones long enough, you've not used too much water, and you've used bones that have high gelatin in them.

Fill with water, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to the lowest simmer my stove burner will maintain, and leave it to simmer all night long. In the morning, I'll strain the stock and let it cool, and toss all the used bits in the trash.

Used stock bones are returned to the pot, often in the company of fresh vegetables, then covered with water and simmered until tasty, so making a second, extra-thrifty stock.

Making vegetable stock costs virtually nothing.

You're using ingredients that you already have in the fridge, so, really, it just costs a little bit of your time to make a flavorful stock.

Stock is an ancient, beloved ingredient used by home cooks and professional chefs to build body, increase volume, and create umami in recipes.

As a result, stock is usually a healthier product, delivering a richer mouth feel and deeper flavor than broth. Stock is a versatile culinary tool that can deliver taste to any number of dishes. Darker in color and more concentrated in flavor than broth, it's ideal for use in soups, rice, sauces and more.

Once you have learned how to make stock, it is easy to reduce. By simply reducing any stock down before storing or freezing it, you will not only concentrate the flavors and thicken the liquid, you will speed up the reduction time later when adding it to a pan sauce or other recipe.