Chicken Stock

Chicken Stock is the base for almost every soup I make.  I will sometime use chicken stock from the store, but it is really easy and tasty to make a very flavorful chicken soup base.

Chicken Stock

Ingredients:
5 pound chicken – I tend to use the chicken that I will use in a soup, so thighs work great
Big swirl of Olive oil
14 oz carrots
14 oz celery
8 cups water
5 cloves garlic
1 TBS Thyme
1 TBS Oregano
Salt and Pepper to taste

optional:
1 TBS Hot Hungarian Paprika
Ginger to taste

Directions:
Place Chicken and a big swirl of Olive oil in a pot, salt and pepper chicken and start browning.  I leave the skin on the thighs, I want the fat and skin browned for flavor.  Brown/cook chicken for about 15-20 minutes, the chicken will release liquid because I am not searing it, I am just cooking it and browning it a little.  Add carrots, celery, onions, and garlic.  Mix together and let cook a little longer, about 20-25 minutes at this point.  Then add 8 cups of water and the thyme, paprika, and oregano.  Cook for 2 hours on med to low.  As in all my recipes I recommend tasting and adjusting as you need.  I don’t know if my oregano is fresher, older, stronger, or weaker, than yours, so taste things along the way and adjust as needed.  You have permission to experiment, in fact it’s a requirement!
If you want clear stock, remove all the veggies, bay leaf, and chicken.  Continue to cook down, to intensify the flavor.  You want to be left with about 8 cups of clear stock.  It’s sort of funny, you start out with 8 cups water, but with all the ingredients you end up with about the same and all the flavor or the carrots, celery, spices and chicken left in that water.  Even with some cooking down, I seem to be at 8 cups.  Which for me is perfect, because that’s about how much stock I need for most of my soup recipes.

My favorite adaptation to this recipe:  Remove only the chicken, pull out the bay leaf, and then immersion blend all the veggies into the soup base.  This is great if you’re making a creamed soup or stockier/heavier soup.

Save Chicken, debone, and use in recipes as desired.