It’s not a lot of work to make your own chicken stock. Apart from a bit of time you need to find a butcher willing to sell you lots of bones or a decent soup chicken. Once you have the bones it’s a matter of herbs, spices, water and a pressure cooker.
Here is what you need:
- Lots of chicken bones or a soup chicken
- Herbs (parsley, bay leaf, thyme)
- Onion, carrot, leek, celery (the usual suspects!)
- Black pepper (crunched)
- Water
Put everything in a big pan with sufficient cold water. A kilo of chicken meat combines with 1,5 litre of water. If you use chicken bones (our preferred option) you need a bit more than a kilo.
Bring everything to a boil, reduce the heat and remove the foam. Now you have two options: cook gently for 3 hours or close the lid of your pressure cooker and cook for 30 minutes.
Filter the stock by using a fine sieve (or if you want an even better quality use a cloth). Best is to cool the stock and than transfer to the refrigirator. The next day remove the fat. We freeze the stock using ice-cube bags. And believe us, these come in very handy when making sauces!
Cook and Drink 