Cooks Help! Chicken Soup

S

Shann

Joined
Sep 2, 2004
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Hope this is in the right forum. Anyway, I made, or attempted to make, chicken stock this weekend from a couple of leftover chicken carcasses (about 4 lbs of bone, skin, unpicked meat). I tossed in some onion and celery, salt and about 3 quarts of water and simmered covered for about 3 hours.

After cooling, I skimmed the hard fat off of the top. The resulting "stock" is more like chicken jello than liquid.

Where did I go wrong? And how can a guy screw up stock?

Can it be rescued?
 
The gelatin comes from cooking down the bones and connective tissue. It is supposed to happen and probably means that you have a good stock. It will re-liquify when you heat it. :thumbup: You might want to rehydrate it a bit when you use it to make soup - you'll have to go by the flavor.

Did it come out clear or cloudy? If it's cloudy you can clarify it by stirring in some raw egg whites and simmering it until a "raft" forms on top - skimming off the raft (which will contain most of the solids - and some of the flavor) will leave a clear stock. If you continue clarifying you end up with consomme.
 
Thanks. I will do that. Glad to know its still usable. Not that it was hard to do or anything, but I am looking forward to some real chicken soup.
 
I like to ditch the skin, and shave off fat where possible.....this results in a small loss of flavor, so I will usually add a small dose( 3 tablespoons or so) of Chicken Glace.

http://www.lobels.com/store/main/item.asp?item=355

This adds a dimension of flavor that my stock bases were missing before I utilized it. You CAN make your own, it just requires major reducing by cooking your stock and an Espagnole sauce(basically a chicken gravy) down to about half the volume. I find it easier and MUCH less time consuming to by glace when I need it, rather than making my own.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
STeven, ditch the skin????
Seriously, big pot, 1 or 2 whole chickens...you cut them up....right near boil for hours...
Keep it warm to hot after cooking down. take out all chicken, debone and deskin the meat....save the meat.....
The only thing I add is some salt (let me be "hip"...iodized sea salt.... )
Make what you want to with the stock never being cooled.....soup/noodle soup/chicken and noodles.....then invite me over to help you eat whatever it is you are making!!!!

By the way, there is and old adage from Jewish Mothers...if your are under the weather, I'll bring you over some chicken soup....... I don't know about it being so restorative, but I guarantee, chicken soup is right in there with some sort of restorative power......and tastes so doggone fine as well.....it must have some sort of fine quality.....
 
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When I make chicken soup from a left over roast chicken, I put the carcass in the crock pot with a whole onion and water. I slow cook it overnight. The next day, I fish out the bones, and seperate the good chicken & the ickies. I strain the resultin broth, then I put it back in the crock pot with the good chicken, a little rice, celery and carrots. i cook that until the veggies are ready.
 
Thats pretty much what I do too. Whenever I buy chickens, I buy them whole and cut them into pieces, and use the backs (and sometimes the guts) to make stock and freeze it for later, or I will use it to can a batch of chicken soup right away. When you're living with just one other person its hard to make meals without preserving a bunch in some way or another :).

I just used my last batch to make some Jambalaya, enough for 12 portions. I divided it into portions of 2 before I added the rice and froze it. So all I have to do now is take it out in the morning, and cook it up with some rice in the evening.
 
John R. Fraps said:
STeven, ditch the skin????
.
Click to expand...


My dad used to leave the skin on, and work it just like you wrote, with hat pasta, and veggies and chicken meat, but it was a very thin tasting soup, and that is what I wound up with the first few times I did it.

I roast skinless chicken first, and proceed on like the rest of you, with the glace it results in a VERY full flavored broth, with much less fat skimming.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Some delicious cooler weather cooking:thumbup:
My gramma told me once that the skin had some important antibiotic value.


Mark
 
Since we're on the topic of making stocks...

Throw the cut ends of your fresh vegetables, e.g., onion root and stem ends, carrot stem ends, celery root ends and leaves, dark green parts of leeks, etc., into a plastic bag in the freezer - just keep tossing them in there. Before too long you will have enough to either make a vegetable stock, or use them for extra flavor when making your chicken or beef stock.
 
My wife just made chicken soup last night. We take a whole chicken, onion, celery and some sage and cook for three to four hours. De-bone/ichy stuff and return the good stuff to the pot add carrots and thick noodles and salt to taste, cook thirty five to fourty minutes, serve with crusty bread.
 
Thanks for the advice. Last night I cut the stock with some water, threw in a bunch of onions and celery (I don't care for raw celery but I love it in soups, stews, etc) simmered for a while and then added some thai noodles. After it was all cooked I also tossed in some leftover peas and corn. Made for a great and easy "homemade" supper.
 
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