Chicken Broth

a white soup bowl containing chicken broth

Updated April/2020

We have completely changed our attitude towards chicken stock, we no longer make it! We know that this goes against all of the wisdom imparted by the vast majority of chefs, however, after years of making chicken stock we have come to the conclusion, that for us at least, making chicken broth makes for a better starting point for the soups and other recipes that call for chicken stock.

It is important to always remember, especially with soups that the taste of the broth (stock) that is the base of the soup recipe will make or break the final taste of the soup. In recipes we use the chicken broth as a flavour enhancer. Chicken stock does not enhance flavour no matter what anyone says!

For clarification, the basic difference between a chicken stock and a chicken broth is:

A chicken stock cannot be used as it is, it requires additional seasoning, if nothing else, salt.

A chicken broth can be used as is; as a consommé (the broth may require some additional clarifying to turn it into a true consommé) or just as a hot drink, without adding anything more to it.

The following chicken broth recipe has been honed, we made a lot of batches with adding different herbs and spices and the quantities of each before we hit our true chicken broth winner.

After it is cooked we strain it through a fine mesh sieve and then strain it for a second time through some cheese cloth. We tried to strain it through the cheese cloth initially but it clogs up very quickly.

We would also like to point out a few small items:

If you leave the brown outer skin on the yellow onion or shallot, it will make the broth a much darker colour. If colour is important to you, you might want to peel the onion and throw away the outer brown skin. We leave the skin on.

A similar situation applies to the leek. If you use the dark green leaves, the broth will be darker then if you only used the white part of the leek. We only use the white part of the leek.

You can substitute dry herbs for fresh herbs or vice versa. The formula is 1 teaspoon of dried herbs for every 1 tablespoon of fresh herbs. In other words, use three times as much fresh herbs when the recipe calls for dried and one-third of the amount of dried herbs when the recipe calls for fresh.

We don't peel the carrot, but we wash it and cut the bottom and top off.

I know that chicken feet turn a lot of people off. However, the chicken feet provide a lot of flavour and natural gelatin for the broth.

Yes, it sounds like a lot of salt, but you are salting 7.5 litres (8 US quarts) of water, it takes a lot of salt!

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place all of the ingredients in an 8 qt soup pot.
  2. Add cold water to 1" from the pot brim.
  3. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to a very low simmer. Simmer for at least 8 hours (12 is better)
  4. Remove lid. Using a spider strainer remove and discard all of the solids. Then pour the remaining liquid through a fine mesh strainer.
  5. Refrigerate the broth overnight. The next day remove the layer of chicken fat that has formed on the top of the broth.
  6. Bring the broth to a simmer. Then pour it through a layer of food grade cheese cloth. The chicken broth is now ready!
  7. We take the finished chicken broth and boil it down so that it is concentrated, about 4 to 1. We then freeze it in small mason jars.

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