Basic Chicken Stock

• This Basic Chicken stock is a wonderful addition to any freezer. I keep some on hand as often as I can. It is a really very simple recipe, although it does require a bit of time and preparation. But do not fear! The results are well worth your efforts. A basic chicken stock can be added to a number of dishes, I use it as a base for soups and stews, an addition to pasta dishes, sauces, cooked or uncooked rice. I promise I will post a basic chicken noodle soup recipe very soon and give you a place to start with your lovely chicken stock. You may be asking, can't I simply buy pre-made chicken stock at the store? Yes of course you can! However, I bet that you have the ingredients you need in your kitchen already! And why not? If you have taken the time to make the chicken, why waste any part of that delicious bird?!

Basic Chicken Stock

• 2 Tbl. Olive Oil or Butter
• 1 1/2 to 2 large carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1/2 large onion, roughly chopped
• 3 large pieces of celery (i use the ends and the leaves), roughly chopped
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, cut horizontally in half
• 1/2 tsp. thyme
• 1 tsp. parsley
• 3/4 tsp. basil
• 2 bay leaves, broken in half
• 1/2 Tbl. black pepper
• Course Salt to taste
• 1-2 pounds chicken bones, wings, backs, and/or necks
• 6-8 cups water, or enough to cover

Place your chicken bones and remaining pieces into a large stock pot. Add your vegetables to the pot.

* A little tip, I take a piece of cheese cloth and tie up a bundle with all of my herbs and vegetables. It makes it easy to remove at the end of the cooking process. If you do not have cheese cloth at home, you can strain it later!

Add 6-8 cups of water to your stock pot, or enough to cover all of the chicken and vegetables. Turn your burner to high heat and bring to a nice simmer, reduce heat to maintain a simmer and cook for approximately 2 1/2 hours.

It is important that you resist the urge to stir everyone!! Stirring the pot makes a cloudy stock and lets face it, nobody likes that! The less you bother it, the better! At the end of the cooking process I grab a handy-dandy tasting spoon and take a taste. See if your stock it sufficiently salty for your standards. Remember: you can always add salt at any point, but you can't remove it once you've added too much. Think about the dishes you may use it in later and adjust your salt as needed.

Turn your burner off. If you have tied up your vegetables in a cheese cloth, pull them out with a pair of tongs. At this point you can skim off any fat at the top of the stock with a spoon. Now you are ready to strain! Place a large colander or fine mesh sieve over a large pot, measuring cup or bowl. You want to be able to pour, so if you need to strain in batches, please do so. I strain my stock into a large 4 cup measuring bowl with a spout. After straining into the bowl pour the stock into several clean ice cube trays. Place the stock in the freezer and once frozen pop the cubes out into freezer bags and label for later use.

If you do not have ice cube trays handy allow your stock to cool before you strain (chill in an ice water bath in your sink) and pour into freezable plastic containers or freezer bags.

Voila! There you have it, basic chicken stock!

Poulet Roti- Roast Chicken

It seems everyone these days is on the Julia Child bandwagon. I'll admit right up front, I'm one of them! My younger brother bought me "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" for Christmas this year. This wonderful set contains just about everything from the incredibly intimidating to the tastefully simple. My goal is not to cook my way through the book, simply to add a little more french cooking to my life. And lets be honest, who can really say they have too much french cooking in their life?! I figured I'd kick off this blog with a very simple recipe with a few of my own twists.




Roast Chicken

*Recipe adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking

-One 3-4 pound, ready-to-cook roasting or frying chicken (Make sure it is thawed!)
-3/4 tsp. salt
-2 Tbl. unsalted butter
-5-6 small baby carrots or one large carrot, sliced
-1/2 of a small onion, sliced
-2 Tbl. unsalted butter (for basting)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Unwrap your chicken and throughly rinse and pat dry. Most original recipes call for the chicken to be trussed at this point, however it is not necessary. I simply bend the wings behind the chicken and cross the legs over one another (if they will not stay, its certainly no big deal and if you have kitchen twine you may tie them together at this point).

In a roasting pan (one large enough to accommodate the chicken), place you chicken. Sprinkle a bit of the salt inside the chicken and place some of the butter inside the chicken as well. Salt the outside of the chicken and rub with the remaining first 2 Tbl. of butter. At this point you may also add some black pepper and any herbs you like to the skin of the chicken. Place inside the oven.



Allow the chicken to brown a bit for the first 15 minutes, then, turn the oven heat down to 350 degrees. At this point your chicken should take approximately 1 hour to an hour and 20 minutes to finish cooking. Continue basting the chicken with your remaining 2 Tbl. of butter throughout the remainder of the cooking process. I recommend a pastry brush for this job.

The chicken is finished cooking when the internal temperature reads 180 degrees (the thermometer should be placed in the thickest tissue of the chicken breast). Remove the chicken from the oven and from the roasting pan. Place on a plate and cover with aluminum foil. If you cut into your delicious looking chicken right now you will be sorry! Let it rest for at least 5 minutes before carving otherwise you will be sorry! This resting time gives the juices a chance to absorb back into the meat and if you cut it immediately after removing it from the oven all of those lovely juices will run out onto your plate.


(image courtesy of finecooking.com)

At this point you may pull out your vegetables to serve along side of the chicken. You may also make a gravy sauce from the remaining drippings in your roasting pan. This can be done simply by placing the roasting pan over medium high heat (if your pan is not suitable for the stove top, carefully transfer the drippings to a saucepan) and adding a half cup of low sodium chicken stock and 1 to 2 Tbl. of flour. Whisk the sauce and simmer until thickened.




Voila your chicken is ready! I served mine along with some roasted garlic mashed potatoes and a very nice Beaujolais wine.

Bon Appetit!

A Place to Start...

My name is Heidi, I have been married to my wonderful husband for two and a half years now. After many encouraging words from friends and family members I have caved and decided to start a blog. I don't know that I have much wisdom to impart on anyone but I would like to share a little bit about myself with the world (or maybe the 5 friends that I guilt into reading my thoughts). My husband is currently in school and finishing his last few months in his graduate program. It has been a long journey for both of us to say the least! I enjoy my wonderful place as his wife and best friend. On our road together I've realized a few things about myself and that is what I would like to share: My obsessions with entertaining, home life, all things pink and above all, food!!