Kitchen Tip: Rotisserie Chicken Stock

~ Like most families, we make weekly Costco runs. I pick up one of their rotisserie chickens nearly every other week. It’s great to have the meat on reserve for salads, sandwiches, or pastas throughout the week. However, it’d be a shame to let the bones with their lovely oven roasted flavor, go to waste.  After the meat is carved out, I put the carcass in a Ziploc freezer bag to set aside for future stocks. Even though sometimes there may be 5, 6, 7, or even 8 of these in the freezer, I can’t begin to tell you what an incredible time-saver this is for soothing soups during the winter time. If you have fresh herbs, throw some in too. The ingredients listed below is for a basic stalk, but at times I will throw in rosemary, thyme, and or cilantro if I have any extra laying around. This is what stock is about- not letting odds and ends go to waste.

*A tip to keep things tidy: the bones from the wings, drumsticks, or any other loose bones and skin- stuff them all into the carcass.

Special Equipment:

2- 8 qt stockpots or bigger

chinoise (or large colander AND cheese cloth)

ladle or large spoon to use for mashing/pushing (you’ll see why)

6- 1 qt plastic containers with lids

Ingredients:

1 rotisserie chicken carcass

3 celery stalk

1 medium onion

½ garlic bulb

1 bay leaf

1 tsp vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Wash all vegetables, cut off ends, and peel.
2. Flatten garlic cloves. Cut onion into quarters. Cut celery into 3-4 sections. This is just to make the vegetables easy to handle in the pot.
3. Set stock pot on medium high heat. Lightly cover surface with oil.
4. Add garlic, onion, and celery. Sear and stir lightly for 10 seconds or so. Add carcass and bay leaf. Fill most of pot with water. Cover for about 20min or until boiling.
5. Reduce heat to low setting and let it simmer for 45min – 1hr.
6. Set chinoise (or colander lined with cheese cloth) over second stockpot. Carefully pour contents of first stockpot through chinoise into second pot.
7. Using a ladle, push the contents to squeeze out excess liquid. If using a colander and cheese cloth, gather corners of cloth to wrap up together and squeeze like laundry.
8. Skim off all excess oil on surface.
9. Pour stock into 1 quart containers. If not using immediately, store in freezer. Should keep well for up to 6 months.

Suggested uses:  In preparing stocks, you want to avoid incorporating seasonings as much as possible, to prevent over-salting the final dish. In this stock (depending on where you get your chicken), the salt and seasoning may have already been added. When using it for future dishes, be sure to taste the dish as you are adding the stock, BEFORE you add any salt.  I typically use this stock for chicken noodle soup, ramen soup, congee, and sometimes even a base for Chinese hot pot.