Chicken stock to soup

juicygirl

Thank you both so much! G

ot a leek, carrots and an onion so will see how I go with those! Thought about maybe adding some rice in place of the lentils, although I do have those too. Will see!

Gigervamp

What I do is remove all the meat. Put the bones in the pan, cover the carcas with water, add an onion chopped in half, (no need to peel it) a carrot chopped into two or three pieces, a stick of celery if I have any, a bay leaf or two, some salt and pepper and a sprinkling of herbs. Simmer for at least an hour, the longer you cook it, the more concentrated the flavour will be.

Then strain it and use straight away, or fridge it (it will be fine for about 5 days in the fridge) or freeze it.

Pink.

Hi juicygirl,

This is how I do it...

-Strip all the leftover meat from a chicken carcass and put it aside.
-Put the bones into a roasting tin and brown in a hot oven or under the grill (this really adds to the flavour)
-Put the browned bones in a pan and just cover with water, bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for at least four hours. Don't leave it to boil as continued boiling can make a bitter stock.
-After at least four hours when the carcass bones are beginning to break up, strain the stock through a fine sieve

Now you have stock that you can use in soups, casseroles, gravy etc. If you want to use it for soup just leave it as it is, but if you want to store (freeze) it you can boil it to reduce the amount. This means that it will become very concentrated and take up less room in your freezer then you can just add water to it when you are ready to use it. If your stock tastes too strong you can add water to dilute it if you want.

I often make a chicken and veg broth with chicken stock:

-Add a couple of handfuls of soup mix (barley, lentils, and split peas) to the stock
-Depending on the amount of soup I'm making, sometimes I add a couple of stock cubes for extra flavour at this stage.
-Simmer until the pulses are soft then season with black pepper and add chopped carrots, leeks, celery and parsley, although any veg will probably work well.
Once all the veg are cooked add in the reserved chicken, check for seasoning and serve with warm crusty bread. Pics of how I make it here

This thread has lots more advice that may help:

How do i make my own chicken stock?

I'll add this thread to that one later to keep the advice together.

Pink

juicygirl

Thanks again everyone!

Doing a kind of mix of all of the above! The bones have been covered in water, an onion chopped in half, 2 bay leaves and some salt and pepper added and it's simmering away.

Will add carrot, leek and maybe some rice later. That sound ok????

Should I keep skimming the fat off the top??

Excited about the rest of the 'rubber chicken' too. Hadalovely roast chicken tonight, hubby will get sandwiches tomorrow and I'mgoing to do a chicken pasta tomorrow night. All that plus the soup

Will let you know how it goes!

garthdp

Once the stock is strained, let it settle and then take the fat off the top Its a lot easier

juicygirl

Thanks, doesn't seem to really be much fat. It seems a bit tasteless though, have I done something wrong?

garthdp

If it is not too strong you may have had it in too much water, boil it rapidly and reduce the volume by half, this will concentrate the flavour

redruby

so you have just made the stock right? and not the soup ? if you make the soup later as per suggestions it should be delish

juicygirl

I feel really thick! Believe it or not I do actually cook from scratch, just not chicken soup!

I simmered the bones with the onion, bay leaves, salt and pepper for just over an hour. Then I drained off the bones, added carrot, leek and rice and simmered for another 20 mins. Thought that was me done??

Think you might be right garthdp, I've maybe used too much water

garthdp

Dont worry if you have made the soup.now you can adda stock cube to give it a bit more punch but take care they can be salty.now tyou have done it first time you will get better the next.Go for it