Chicken stock to soup

MrsBartolozzi

If you boil up the carcass in some water with some herbs or spare veg for a couple of hours you can make stock. Then pour through a sieve and leave the liquid to get cold (I put in the fridge overnight). All the fat will rise to the surface and you can skim it off, then use this stock as a base for soup- add veg etc as per your fave recipe. The stock will be jellylike - that's from the marrow out of the bones rather than fat so don't be alarmed by this.

liz545

As Mrs Bartolozzi says, if you refrigerate the stock you'll be able to skim off the fat, just to add if you freeze the stock it will solidify, but not get really hard so you can scrape it off. A jellified stock is just a sign that you've made a really good stock! If you find that it still tastes a bit too rich you can dilute it, and it will taste less oily in a chunky soup, risotto or pilaf than it will as a clear broth. HTH!

meritaten

second the above! I chuck the carcase (minus skin and obvious fat) into a large saucepan, add a quartered onion (skin on) a couple of carrots roughly chopped and (these are all optional - if you havent got them dont worry about it) - couple of sticks of celery chopped up, a couple of bay leaves, about a half teaspoon of cloves, some parsley stalks or a handful of parsley chopped roughly. or you can add a teaspoon of dried herbs of any kind - mixed herbs is good, but i have used sage, rosemary or oregano in the past. put in about two litres of waters, then bring to the boil and simmer fast for a couple of hours. 'the longer the simmer the better the stock' is a mantra my old cookery teacher taught us. pressure cooking or a slow cooker would make fantastic stock.
then let it get cold. any fat now rises to the top and you can skim it off. strain the liquid and discard whats in the strainer.
now you can use the stock to make chicken soup! i find it cheaper to buy whole chickens and joint them myself. (you can reserve the breast meat and use the rest, just cut it into large peices and simmer in the stock for an hour or two, adding any veg you fancy.

Agapanthus

meritaten wrote: »

second the above! I chuck the carcase (minus skin and obvious fat) into a large saucepan,

Why remove the skin and fat at this stage? Boil the lot in not too much water to make a strong jellied stock, then strain it off into a bowl and cover it tightly while it's still hot. Leave to cool and put it into the fridge when it's cool enough. It will keep much longer if you keep the fat on top, as it acts as a seal.

When you want to use it then you can just lift the fat off in a slab, which is much easier than trying to skim it while it's still hot. You can then use the stock how you want - it'll be virtually fat free then.

exlibris

Once you have made the stock you can then freeze it if you don't want to use it immediately.

zippychick

Hi Andrew

I explained my method of making stock in this post if it helps and Pink explains in this post

You know now how to remove the fat, so here are a couple of other threads which may help

How do i make my own chicken stock? (which I will merge this with later on)

I've kept the chicken carcass, now what?

Chicken stock to soup

Good luck - I'll merge this later on
thanks
Zip

Herbyme

I'd suggest simmering gently, not boiling - maybe that's why yours has been gluey? Even if you put the skin etc in, there won't be much fat because chickedn isn't a very fatty meat and lots of it will have run off in the roasting process (which you will have made gravy out of). I'd also agree that slow cooking is totally ideal, that's what I'll be doing tonight! I will use at least 1 litre of stock for a big risotto for 4 of us, and freeze smaller amounts for the gravy for next week etc.

Well worth doing, so many people don't, but that's just a crime to the chicken - I say use everything but the cluck (adapted)

Stephen_Leak

Try this recipe, which is designed to use a left-over roast chicken carcass. As it says, firstly remove any remaining skin.

CHICKEN SOUP

4 servings

INGREDIENTS

1 roasted chicken carcass
100g to 125g of at least 2 vegetables (see below)
1 onion
1 teaspoon of dried sage, or ½ a teaspoon each of parsley and thyme
1 chicken stock cube
1 litre of water
Ground pepper to taste

METHOD

Remove any skin from the chicken carcass and discard it. Peel the vegetables and chop any tops and/or bottoms off, if required, and then chop them into 2cm (1 inch) pieces. Peel the onion and chop it into 2cm (1 inch) pieces.

Put the chicken, onion and vegetables, herb(s), stock cube and water into a large saucepan on a medium heat. Stir thoroughly. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat until it is just boiling (simmering).

Put the lid on and cook for 1 hour. Check the liquid level from time to time and top up if it starts to dry out.

Fish out the bones and put them on a plate. Remove any meat which is still on the bones. Put the meat back into the soup and discard the bones.

If you have a food processor, put the soup in it and blend it to the desired consistency. If you have a hand blender, put it in the soup and blend it to the desired consistency. If you don’t have a food processor or hand blender, use a potato masher, press the soup through a sieve with the back of a spoon, or leave it lumpy. If you used a food processor, rinse out the saucepan and put the soup back into the saucepan.

Put the saucepan on a low heat and reheat the soup gently.

Season with the pepper.

ADDITIONS & ALTERNATIVES

Use green vegetables (celery, courgettes, leeks) and mushrooms for a light and delicate soup. Use root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, potatoes, swedes, turnips) and tomatoes for a thick and hearty soup, The so-called "Holy Trinity" of soup base ingredients is carrot, celery and onion.

For Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup, use green vegetables and add a small pack of noodles after blending. Cook them in the soup, according to the instructions on the packet.

For Scottish [CENSORED]-a-Leekie Soup, use 200g to 250g of leeks and add 4 stoned and thinly sliced prunes after blending.

hannahO_2

Oh chicken stock/soup made from carcus is fabulous.
I remember in my childhood, after a whole chicken roast dinner, you put the carcus in a 5L pot (or break it down to smaller pieces if you don't have a big pot), cover the chicken with water and bubbled away on a petrol stove/heater for a few hours during the winter. Happy days. Do put at least an onion and pepper. When it is cloudy, it's done! YUM

Mrs_Bea

Hello all
Please don't laugh but I just have a daft question about chicken soup. I know that you can make yummy chicken soup by boiling the carcas but have never had much success myself as it comes out too greasy.
What do others do to make a simple chicken broth/soup?
Thanks