Chicken Stock

Across the globe you will find recipes for that mythical cure all called chicken soup! I remember both my mother and grandmother simmering the whole chicken in a stock pot, and adding the herbs and vegetables. How soothing it was on a cold or rainy day. How better it made you feel if you were under the weather.

Now there are many things that you put into your stock. I often opt for fresh herbs like thyme, oregano and parsley. A whole onion and a few cloves of garlic, along with whole peppercorns, bay leaves, celery and sea salt. Often my choices will depend on what I want to make with this stock and the chicken. Other times I might add lemongrass, ginger and star anise.

Ingredients:

1 whole raw chicken

1 white onion

4 celery stalks

1 bunch of thyme

1 bunch of fresh oregano

1/2 of Italian parsley

1 head of garlic

1 tbsp of salt

1 tbsp of peppercorns

2 bay leaves

Directions:

Rinse your chicken and pat it dry. with your carving knife, cut through the meat of the chicken and break the joints on the legs and wings. Crack the back so that you can slice that down the center. Place that into your stock pot. Fill the pot with water. I like to fill right up to the hand screws.

Bring that to a boil. If any foam forms, then skim that off the top and discard.

Add in the rest of the ingredients. Simmer for two hours.

Using tongs, remove the chicken from the pot and place into a large bowl. Let it cool for a little it so that you can handle it and not burn your fingers. Pull off the chicken meat from the bones. Discard the bones and the skin. Shred the chicken so that you can use in it your soup.

Strain out the stock and you will be left with beautiful clear liquid!

At this point you can turn this into soup and add back in any ingredients that you wish!

I made avgolemono soup! That famous Greek egg-lemon soup that everyone loves! Recipe to come!

Kali Oreksi!