[smr00]

Hi everyone,

I'm having trouble making homemade broth. Everytime i make it, the flavor is way too thinned out. I use salt, water, and chicken parts but don't know what to do to get good flavor for a reasonable amount of broth. Any suggestions would be appreciated Thanks.

[Scarecrobot]

There are a few things you can do. First simply if you broth is lacking flavor add more flavor to it. Mo chicken parts friend. Second- Help out that lil chicken. A basic broth should have onions, carrots, celery ,bay leaves, thyme pepper corns, parsley stems if you feel like it. This ,however, will not make for a thick broth. Search around for stock recipes see if you find one that suits your needs.

[smr00]

First off, how much water do you add to the pot per given amount of chicken parts?
Also, when you say chicken parts, does this just mean the bones of the chicken?? Maybe i'm not using the right parts. Is there any part that gives off the most flavor?
Also, can you store this regularly by freezing?

[Luc_H]

Hello smr00,
I wrote an article on the science behind broth making a couple of months ago (750 words). I am sure that with the combine experience of the membership here, this article may be debatable but I have given this recipe to a few already and they have converted.

Good luck.


Chicken broth’s secret revealed

By Luc H.


You think homemade chicken broth is not worth making? With a simple culinary technique and a little food chemistry, you can make an exceptional chicken broth at home.

A good chicken broth is neither salty, herbal nor spicy for its main purpose is to enhance the flavour of a recipe, to make it savoury. To obtain this characteristic, a chicken broth requires to be made using a mirepoix which is an ancient yet trusted French cooking technique. Basically, it consists of slowly cooking a selection of diced vegetables with oil.

Before starting this recipe note that the technique matters more then the precision in measurements. Trim the thighs, wings and breasts off an average size uncooked chicken and reserve the parts for another recipe. Keep the skin, trimmings, carcass and neck (if available) for the broth. Dice one carrot, onion and celery stalk per chicken carcass. Heat a skillet to medium high. Cover the whole bottom with a thin coat of oil. Add the diced vegetables. Reduce the heat to medium low. Do not cover. To succeed a mirepoix, you must avoid browning the vegetables yet cook out most of the water they contain. Hint: listen to the sizzle. The sizzle is the noise water makes when it escapes the heated vegetables in the form of steam. During this process, oil enters into the voids the escaping steam leaves behind Keep listening closely, add some oil as needed for the vegetables will soak it up. Stir occasionally and reduce the heat gradually to avoid browning. When the sizzle becomes very weak and the vegetables are soft, take the pan off the heat. The mirepoix process can take up to 30 minutes. Transfer the cooked vegetables into a pot with the chicken carcass and trimmings then fill with fresh water to barely cover the bones. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Do not cover. Simmer until the chicken carcass easily falls apart (about 2 hours). Strain the hot broth. It will taste surprisingly bland. Cool, refrigerate overnight then remove the solidified fat. Leave a little fat behind for added richness. Use the defatted broth for recipes.

This precious liquid will enrich any recipe that calls for broth because of its composition of natural flavour enhancers. One of them is monosodium glutamate (yes! MSG). Why? A little food chemistry will help explain. The vegetables used in this recipe contain mostly water and sugars. Unlike white sugar, yet chemically similar, these sugars are bound to each other like scaffolding which, give vegetables their rigidity. When these structures are heated correctly they breakdown in their individual sugar units. Since they can resist in boiling water yet overreact when exposed to slightly higher heat by caramelizing, the window between those temperature limits is where these sugar structures breakdown controllably. Since boiling water never exceeds 100 C (212F) but oil can, the way to reach this tight temperature range is by replacing the water in the vegetables with oil while maintaining a low enough temperature to avoid browning. The liberated sugar units prevented from caramelizing are maintained in a reactive state. Here lies the chemistry secret of the mirepoix technique.

Although these reactive sugars have flavour enhancing abilities, the story does not end here. These sugars can react with proteins. Any protein is like a pearl necklace of linked amino acids. Amino acids, the pearls, come in various chemical shapes. These reactive sugars, called reducing sugars, can attack the links between amino acids of proteins. Some proteins are found in the vegetables but more come from the carcass in the hot simmering broth. This reaction, called hydrolysis, liberates amino acid units. One particularly important amino acid is Glutamic acid. In the hot broth, free Glutamic acid readily converts to its salt form, monosodium glutamate or MSG, a potent flavour enhancer in cooking.

To make an exceptional broth you need to follow a scientifically sound and a culinary proven technique: the mirepoix. The controlled decomposition of vegetables to synthesize reducing sugars, free amino acids and MSG makes this broth an exceptional flavour enhancer. A key ingredient in my kitchen. Not all MSGs are nutritionally equal though but the type in this broth is wholesome.

[Goose]

We make chicken broth from scracth where I work and we also use carrots, celery, onions, etc. but we also roast the chicken parts before putting them into the water to boil. It produces, from what I have noticed, a much darker broth with much more flavor. Try this. I think it will help.

[bluezebra]

Secret to a good broth is not only your aromatic veggies and bouquet garnis and peppercorns (I use a garni of parsley, bay leaf, thyme, and sometimes basil and oregano depending, and sometimes a little tarragon and marjoram depending) and salt along with carrots, onion, garlic, celery and sometimes ginger coins and star anise (depending on the type of broth). I like brown stock even for chicken broth so I do a few different things...one is that I will brown the meat in a pan of oil/butter till very dark, then put it in the stock pot. The other thing that I do is buy extra parts: chicken necks, wings, backs anything with the most bone. Thighs and legs are ok but I am looking for cartilaginous bones and skin mostly cuz that's where the flavor is. I can sometimes get carcasses from my butcher too! He gives them to me! In that case I throw all the aromatics and bones into my huge roasting pan and roast the tar outta them on 450 degrees until it's all browned and good! I stir to rotate the bones. Then once the bones are all good and browned I put the entire contents of the roasting pan into the stock pot and let it simmer (never boil) on low for about 3-4 hours. I will strain it after that time and continue cooking the stock to reduce it to the right strength. It usually takes me about 8-12 hours to make a good rich stock.

I use the meat off the bones (even the neck, wings and back) to make things like my family recipe of chicken salad or make things like chicken pasta salad or I add it back in at the end per portion (meaning I add it to each individual soup bowl) for chicken soup with "whatever" (rice, veggies, etc). I also sometimes use it for chicken and dumplings or king ranch casserole or those things.

I never end up needing to use msg, kitchen bouquet, or bouillon or base. The secret is having as many bones as possible and as big of a stock pot as possible and long and slow simmer with colored bones, good veggies and herbs.

In my experience, the meat gives very little flavor to a stock. It's the taste that comes out of the bones and the skin that make a stock worth it's weight in gold!!!

Cool it completely then put it in the fridge. The real sign of a good stock is that it's gelatinous when chilled down. You will be left with a hard layer of fat on the top. If you want to reduce the fat in your stock you can skim off some of it after it's chilled down but for God's sake keep it! It's called schmatz and is awesome to use for cooking things like browning potatoes or potatoes fondant or browning veggies or starting sauces. It's also great as the fat in dumplings and matzohballs!!!

As for how much water? I want my meat/bones and veggies to always be covered with water while they are simmering in the broth. I have been known to even put a layer of parchment over the top of the broth while it's cooking or to put a pan inside the stock pot that is weighted a bit to keep everything submerged. Once the main cooking of the bones and veggies is accomplished, you can let the stock reduce. Also, you can remove the chicken with the meat portions (legs thighs breast etc) after about an hour. Let it cool enough to tear off the meat and reserve it - covered, to cool. But add the bones back into the stock with the rest of the browned bones...in order for it to cook.

Because I brown my veggies in the roasting pan, I don't bother about making the traditional mirapoix. I actually want the caramellized bits of the veggies and if there is stuck on goodies in the bottom of the roaster pan after roasting...I will deglaze with some vermouth. I will also sometimes add a splash of vermouth or sherry to my stock too. It just depends how heavy a taste I'm wanting...or if I want it purely for stocks and bases for other sauces.

[Scarecrobot]

Just to add a note. if you want a dark stock and you roast your bones, try pasting them with tomato paste. When that browns up- pince nez? I think it's called- adds tons of flavor, body to the finished product if what you want is thickness. Amount of water- Yeah, fill stock pot to the top & simmer at least 4 hours

[phatch]

After you skim off the fat, reduce it on a low simmer. It will get more concentrated and more gelatinous (when cool).

Phil

[DC Sunshine]

smr00 - you can freeze your stock quite well and thaw out when needed. I reduce mine right down to about 1/4 original volume then freeze. I don't have much freezer space so its necessary for me. Try using icecube trays, freeze then pop into freezer bags when done. Just add 3 parts water to get it back to its original state when you want to use it. I like to use the blocks straight into a pan for making a sauce for chicken and pork after the meats been cooked. Its a great time saver

[MikeLM]

I haven't done it, but I have read that chicken feet will add a lot of gelatin to the stock. Any Asian market has them by the bushel.

Big Jim Beard recommends gizzards for their gelatin. His stock recipe calls for 2 pounds gizzards to 2 to 3 pounds back and necks, plus the aromatics.

Never realized that gizzards had gelatin.

Mike

[Mezzaluna]

I didn't know that either about gizzards. I loved them as a kid though, still do.

I've made many potsful of chicken soup from scratch in my life, but I just can't look all that leftover chicken stuff in the eye any longer! I admit to using Swanson's broth (the low salt variety) and cook it a long time with carrot, celery, dill, leek and sometimes onion. I leave the lid off or only part-way on so it'll concentrate. It's a good substitute if you don't want to use the birds.

[bluezebra]

Mezza the cool thing about the backs and necks and carcasses from your butcher are that there isn't alot of meat on them to mess with! But the flavor is outstanding! I only use 1 whole bird cut in parts for my stock but I use lbs and lbs (as much as I can get in my roaster to brown) of the backs, necks, wings and carcasses from the butcher dude.

And I never knew that about gizzards but growing up now that you mention it, both my mom and my grandmom would save the gizzards for stock unless they were frying chicken (in which case, the gizzards got fried and fought over along with the heart and liver!).

[Luc_H]

True that chicken feet add alot of flavour and gelatin.

(never heard about the gizzards)

Luc

[OregonYeti]

Sheesh I'm never gonna mess with Luc H Not much to say if they go on science and have their science down.

I studied college chemistry, but not organic.