|
| chicken broth by Muffet, on Flickr |
Normally, I prefer making broth after roasting a whole chicken, as I'm fond of the flavors that develop from the Maillard reaction. I'm just not crazy about boiled meat.
But a while back, one of my local farmers had a deal going on pastured chicken necks & backs if you bought 20 pounds, so I figured I'd make broth.
Twenty pounds is a lot more than I thought it was.
chicken broth
I put 10 lbs of the necks & backs into my stockpot, added a couple carcasses from roast chickens I had saved in my freezer, added the giblets from those same carcasses, added a nice glug of vinegar, and covered with vegetable broth.
After bringing to a boil, I skimmed off the scum that had formed using a slotted spoon, then reduced the heat to a simmer, and let go for about 4 hours.
After cooling, I strained through a colander to collect the broth, put in containers, and froze.
Then one is left to deal with the colander contents. One of the reasons I prefer using just bones is because of the sorting required to extract the meat. It is a messy job sorting through wet and greasy meat, bones, skin and "other".