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Chicken Stock, take III.

post #1 of 10
10/5/08 at 7:55am
Thread Starter 
I bought an 8 quart stock pot at target for $20. For my purposes, I figure it's good enough for now. If, over time, I use it enough that it needs replacing, I'll be glad and consider buying something better.

I'm trying stock recipe from my nutritionist. I bought an organic chicken from whole foods and tossed the whole thing in (I did remember to remove the little bag of organs first from the cavity!). I added some veggies and spices (onion, celery, carrot, s and p, tyme, garlic)

In about 2 hours or two I'm planning to have the chicken for lunch.

My question is this - my son likes chicken legs, and he likes them sort of crunchy. Is there a way I can make them crunchy? Maybe by putting them in the boiler for a little bit?

After lunch, I'll pull off any meat that we don't eat and put that in the fridge.

Then I'll toss the bones back in the pot and let it simmer for 4 hours or more.
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post #2 of 10
10/5/08 at 8:06am
Thread Starter 
The Chef at a local cooking class said I might need a scum skimmer and a fat skimmer (the scum skimmer is slotted).

He also said, though, that if we don't want to nurse the stock for 8 hours then we can forego fat and scum skimming and just wait until the next morning - when we pull the stock out of the frigde - and scrape off the fat and scum from teh top and bottom of the stock.

Anyone try this method?
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post #3 of 10
10/5/08 at 8:07am
Thread Starter 
Also, I'll need to cool down the stock within two hours when its done. The chef said to take an empty plastic bottle, fill it half way with water, toss it in the freezer, and then dip it in the stock to cool it down.

Sounds reaonable, or any other suggestions?
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post #4 of 10
10/5/08 at 9:38am
Yesterday I made stock from remnants of roasted chicken from 3 days ago and somewhat "fresh" chicken legs that sat in my fridge a few days too long. Cooked for 8 hours with mirepoix and sachet. I cooled the stock in the sink water to room temperature and then in the fridge for 3 hours. removed the floated frozen fat/scum. there is a bit of floating scum inside the stock. need to use some gauze. smells great

and the carcass and mirepoix and the boiled chicken I ground down to fine puree in the vitamix. my dog likes it a lot.
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post #5 of 10
10/5/08 at 2:39pm
You can also fill the sink with ice water and place the pot directly into the sink.
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post #6 of 10
10/5/08 at 6:22pm
Thread Starter 
That may be my method tonight!
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post #7 of 10
10/5/08 at 10:08pm
I'm guessing that pulling the legs out of the pot and under the broiler for a bit would not really give the desired results. I'd suggest you just cut the legs off before you throw the chicken in the pot and fry or broil them seperately. The idea in making stock is to extract as much of the moisture and flavor as possible out of the chicken and get it into the stock. Frying or broiling the chicken is an attempt at the exact opposite, keeping as much moisture and flavor as you can still in the chicken.

mjb.
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post #8 of 10
10/6/08 at 5:31am
I once saw a method that Nigella used to fry chicken. She poached it in seasoned buttermilk first to "infuse it with flavor" and then fried it. I tried it and the chicken tasted boiled. Nothing worse than boiled fried chicken.
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post #9 of 10
10/6/08 at 12:20pm


I think you are overcomplicating this whole stock thing, as well as trying to do too many things at once. kind of like blood from a stone. My advice. Make stock. or make crispy chicken legs. one or the other.

or, if you want to make both, cut the legs off, and just use the carcass for stock.
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post #10 of 10
10/6/08 at 4:22pm
RPM is right. If you want to make "crispy" chicken legs, take them off the carcass and cook them separately. Just to make it clearer: Remove the legs before putting the rest of the chicken in the water; don't ever put the legs in the water.

Look at it this way, every bit of chicken flavor that goes into the stock comes out of the chicken -- so how much do you think is left in the chicken? Also, getting poached legs crisp would be quite a challenge.

The exception to the rule of not making stock with chicken you plan to eat as meat, is cooking something for which you need both poached chicken and stock. In that case, you poach the chicken until the meat is BARELY cooked, remove the chicken, take the meat off, reserve the meat, and return the carcass to the pot to continue making stock.

Here's a couple I don't know:

Why do whole chickens make better stock than pieces?

Why do whole chickens take longer to poach than pieces? (And yes, I'm including the slowest cooking pieces -- thighs.)

BDL
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