The Soup Prerequisite: Stock

Every soup starts somewhere...

The following recipe is for chicken stock. This recipe makes a rich, hearty, flavorful broth that can be modified for beef, pork, turkey, lamb, or duck-based soups. You may eat it alone, with noodles, or use it as a base for other soups. See below for details.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, cleaned (the smaller, the better. You want to be able to fit everything else in the pot.)

3 gallons of cold water 

6 whole peppercorns (or less if you don't like spice)

4 whole cloves of garlic, peeled

3 whole medium yellow onions (or 2 large ones)

3 whole celery ribs

2 large whole turnips

3 medium sized parsnips

4 whole potatoes, peeled

4 whole carrots, peeled

1 chicken bouillon cube

1 beef bouillon cube

Start to fill your 4 gallon stock pot with water. Add the peppercorns. When your pot is about 75% full, add the garlic, onions, celery, turnips, and parsnips. Leave the potatoes and carrots on the side--DO NOT PUT THEM IN THE POT! They will become mushy and fall apart!

Bring the stock to a rolling boil. Continue boiling for another 10 minutes. Do not stir the pot, the flavors circulate by themselves.

Now, add the chicken slowly. Watch the water level in the pot. This is not an exact science! If the water is getting close to the top, take the chicken out and use a measuring cup to take out some of the liquid. Leave the liquid (if any) on the side, because when the stock boils down later, you may want to add it.

After you add the chicken, this is when the magic starts to happen. After another 10 minutes,taste the broth (which will still be extremely watery), and add the bouillon cubes. If the broth is already salty enough to your liking, leave out the bouillon cubes. The chicken cube is to enhance the chicken flavors, and the beef adds richness, trust me it's my little secret. 

Note: If you are splitting the recipe to make a smaller pot of stock, split the bouillon cubes, otherwise your stock will taste like oodles of noodles!

You may now lower the heat to medium-high. Let the stock cook for 20 minutes at least, and taste. You may let the stock simmer for as long as you like at this point, the longer the better in my opinion, but some of us have things to do.

Lastly, add the potatoes and carrots. Let them cook until tender, about another 20 minutes, and turn off the heat. Once again, make sure you don't overcook the carrots and potatoes. 

Let the stock cool, take out the chicken, and refrigerate it overnight. Save the chicken in a container (or even a ziploc bag works) and put in the refrigerator. The next day, use a strainer to take off the layer of grease at the top (it's yellow and hard, kinda gross actually). Take out any other vegetables that you don't eat (like whole garlic) or onions. I actually take all of the vegetables out and put them in ziploc bags too. This way, I have a big pot of just stock to work with.

You may refrigerate this stock for up to 5 days, or freeze for a few weeks. 

For variations of this stock, see my next blog!