Making your own chicken stock is both rewarding and satisfying. So little actual work with so much benefit comes out of a picked over chicken bones and some everyday vegetables.

ingredients:

	1 chicken carcass
	3 carrots - medium sized
	2 celery stalks
	green parts of 3 leeks
	1 large sweet onion, outer dirty skin peeled off
	2 small shallots, outer dirty skin peeled off
	1 2" hunk horseradish, peeled
	1 1" hunk of ginger, peeled
	2 large garlic cloves
	1 whole lemon
	3 sundried tomotoes (not in oil)
	½ bunch flat leaf Italian parsley
	5 whole peppercorns
	2 bay leaves
	3 whole cardamom pods
	1 teaspoon mustard grains

directions:

1. Put chicken carcass in large stock pot and fill with cold water (hot water will seal in the protein and your stock will never be clear). Turn burner under it on high.

2. Rinse and chop carrots, onions, celery, horseradish and ginger roughly and add to pot (I usually also add some of the celery leaves). Smash garlic cloves and add (peel on), add sundried tomatoes and chop lemon in half and add to pot. Add all herbs and spices to pot and bring to the boil.

3. Cover and simmer for a few hours then strain and bring to room temperature. Skim fat off the top and put into freezer containers to store for a few months (if it lasts that long!).

after-thoughts:

Chicken stock should be something that is done without a recipe, so this is really just a guide. Add the carcass to cold water and everything else is whatever you have to hand. No horseradish or ginger? Don't sweat it! Want to add more onion? Go for it! It's all personal and totally subjective.

recipe origin: A Domestic Goddess original.

Filed under:   Soups

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