welcome friends today we're gonna make chicken stock my friend Jamie was in and
showed us how to break down a chicken so I'm left with these three chicken
carcasses and I thought I'd make stock with them because it's always a great
idea to use the entire animal now chicken stock chicken stock is one of
those things that I'm sure all experienced cooks have a way that they
do it this is the way that they always do it and it must be done this way
because it is the only way it is the right way it is the best way and that's
great that is great if you are happy with the way you're making chicken stock
you could continue to do it that way I was like that too completely like that
and then probably fifteen years ago I was shooting a French chef in an Italian
restaurant in Hong Kong we were shooting him throughout his day showing the
different things that he would prepare during the day and one of the things he
made was chicken stock and I was completely blown away by his method I
spent a lot of time asking him questions about what he was doing and why he was
doing it and it all made sense and I came home and I tried it this way and I
thought this is absolutely fantastic this is the way I should be making stock
but I don't always do it this way there are times where I slip back into my old
habit and then I think to myself why didn't I use that method I learned in
Hong Kong and then a few years later I read the Michael Ruhlman book called
ratios and in his book he delineate sprit e much this method for making
chicken stock so it is a really good way to make it now I've got three carcasses
here they weigh about two and a half kilos so you're gonna use a ratio of two
to three by weight two parts chicken three parts water and so I've got two
and a half kilos of chicken which means I'm going to use three point seven five
litres of water which is three point seven five kilos of water if you're
using pounds you would do exactly the same thing however many pounds however
many pounds you can figure that out now I'm going to take the chickens you can
cut the chickens up if you want I pulled the neck off of this one just
to make sure that they fit in the pot properly so that I can cover them with
water let's just see how they go in and jam
that one in this one goes in two and this is just some trim of skin and the
wing tips so those go into the pot now we pour the water in now as I'm pouring
in the second amount of water it's just going to cover now if the water doesn't
cover the chicken bones you can break up the carcasses a little bit more break
them down so that the water will cover them and this this ratio that I'm
talking about is great for an all-purpose stock if you want a more
gelatinous stock or one with more intense flavor but still being a white
stock you would go one to one for every kilo of chicken bones you would use one
kilo of water and that will give you something that's a lot more unctuous
than what you're gonna get here although this is going to be packed with flavor
anyway now I hear yet there's people out there screaming you should have browned
the bones you should have browned the bones yes there are times when I will
Brown the bones if I know I need a stock that has a rich intense flavor that that
browning is going to bring but most of the time I want to stock this just going
to lift all of the other flavors without sort of pushing its way to the front and
in that case you don't Brown the bones and because I'm not sure where the stock
is going to be used yet I want to keep it as plain and simple as possible with
some nice bright flavors that aren't going to overpower everything so that
when I pull this out of the freezer later I can just use it in almost any
dish but if you want to brown them go ahead Brown them in the oven and then
put them in the pot and follow the rest of this method so I've got it on the
stovetop I've got it on sort of a medium-high heat I want to bring this up
to about 200 degrees Fahrenheit quickly and then I'll skim off any of the
proteins that form on the top of the pot don't bring it to a boil you never want
this to boil at all great so we've come up the temperature and there's nothing
to skim off the top now here's where this method differs from everywhere else
you you'd throw all the bones and you cover
it with water you'd bring it up to a boil and you'd boil it and that
coagulates proteins and fats and you'd have to skim that stuff off the top it
also gives you a very cloudy stock and there's nothing wrong with a cloudy
stock for certain applications a cloudy stock is exactly what you want think
chicken ramen that is a cloudy thick unctuous stock what I'm looking for here
is something is very clear with bright clean flavors so I never want to bring
it to a boil I never want to bring it up to a temperature where those proteins
are gonna jostle around and come together and and make it cloudy so the
easiest way to do that of course is at this point once I've got it up to
temperature it's just to stick it in the oven I've got the oven at a hundred and
eighty degrees Fahrenheit which means this is never going to boil I'm gonna
stick it in the oven and I'm gonna forget about it for all afternoon this
is a great recipe that you don't have to baby you don't have to do anything with
you just stick it in the oven forget about it and that at 180 190 degrees
Fahrenheit is going to keep you at a temperature where it's never going to
boil oh you were expecting salt pepper and aromatics like you know onion celery
maybe a carrot or two we'll get to that I'll see you in about four and a half or
five hours
okay so four and a half five hours have gone by now it's not like I've been
standing here all day babysitting it it's been in the oven it's been okay
I've been able to move on with my day go out and do all kinds of other things
while this just sort of mellows in the oven and gets really nice and fragrant
it's beautiful the stock is beautiful it's clear it smells amazing and now is
the time that we start to add in the aromatics and just like at the beginning
where you could have browned the bones before you put them into the pot this is
a point where you can sort of build your flavor profile that you want I'm gonna
go very classic and very clean in the flavors that I'm adding to this right
now because I don't know where I'm gonna use this stock I'm gonna put it in the
freezer and I might pull it out three or four weeks from now and use it in
something and I don't want the flavors to be overpowering I can adjust them
later to where I want them to be if you know where this stock is going if you
know it's going into a soup you can start to build your flavors now of
course and that would be fantastic so I'm going to start out with whole
peppercorns not going to crush them I'm gonna put them in whole I'm putting it a
little bit of salt not too much because again I may reduce this stock later in
another application and I don't want it to be too salty so very little salt then
I'm gonna go with a classic mirepoix of onion celery and carrot nothing too
fancy you could put in garlic cloves at this
point if you wanted you could put in all kinds of different fragrant vegetables
you could put in tomato paste tomato paste would be a fantastic addition to
this to the stock right now and I'm just going to put this in stir it in a little
bit and then it goes back in the oven for another hour and a half or so oh
this is gonna be fantastic okay back into the oven
and when it's in there you don't need to worry about stirring it or shaking it
around or anything just forget about it set a timer okay it smells wonderful
now we just need to strain it out so I have a fine mesh strainer and a few
pieces of cheesecloth so I can get this as clear as possible I'm going to pour
it into this container this container is a food-safe plastic container that is
food safe up to 210 degrees Fahrenheit this is 190 degrees Fahrenheit so we're
safe and I'm just gonna pour this in and try not to spill it everywhere so we've
got a really nice clear broth smells fantastic quite a bit of fat on top of
the jug here which is great the next step is to either get this into the
little containers that you're going to use to freeze it or whatever container
you're going to store it in and then get it chilled as quickly as possible you
want to get this out of the danger zone so you can use memory an ice bath
whatever it takes to get that temperature down really quickly let's
just give it a taste really nice clean chicken flavor that is amazing and don't
forget to mark on the containers what it is and when you filled them because I
always forget how long stuff has been in the freezer and without those markings
I'd be completely lost so thanks for stopping by see you again soon
you