A pot full of bubbling chicken broth, vegetables and diced breast or thigh meat that's simmering away on the stove is every mother's home remedy. Food Over 50's version calls for homemade, fat free chicken stock using a roasted carcass for extra color and flavor, complete control over added salt, and so many vegetables and healthy fiber that it's easy to forget about the meat! That's why we call it Almost Chicken Soup and it's the best "remedy" you'll ever taste!
| Prep Time | 10 mniutes |
| Cook Time | 1.5 hour |
| Servings |
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- 1 whole chicken carcass
- 1 onion
- 6 black peppercorns
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 rosemary sprig
- 1 thyme sprig
- 1 double handful mixed vegetable trimmings carrot tops, celery leaves, parsley stalks, etc.
Ingredients
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- Break last night's roast chicken carcass into several pieces and submerge in 3 to 4 quarts of simmering water. If you're starting with raw bones, pop them into a hot oven first, for 15 to 20 minutes, to brown them up and develop flavor and color. Making stock from a raw carcass means you'll have to skim and the final yield will be pale and less flavorful.
- Quarter a whole onion "skin on" and add it to the pot, along with any vegetable trimmings you've saved from other recipes, like carrot tops, celery discards and parsley stalks.
- Toss in the peppercorns, bay leaves and herbs.
- Partially cover the pot and adjust heat to a very slow simmer. Let cook for at least one hour in order to draw the flavor from the bones and aromatics. The longer it simmers the better the stock. And don't ignore the fluid level. Add hot water as necessary to keep ingredients submerged. It's the stock we want, not the old bones.
- After simmering is complete, strain the contents of the stockpot through a large colander or sieve, discarding the solids after you pick through them for any choice morsels your dogs or cats might like.
To remove the fat from the stock there's two options. Use a fat separator if you need it immediately for another recipe, or refrigerate the stock in a tall, narrow vessel until the fat has risen to the top and solidified. Spoon off the fat solids and you're left with 100% fat-free, salt-free chicken stock, which can then be frozen in differing portion sizes and used whenever you like.
This chicken stock is the very best soup or sauce foundation for any low-sodium diet.