Rich chicken stock

[knitterbetty]

I accidentally made the best chicken/turkey stock. The scawny cooked turkey leg
my sister gave me to make soup with yielded a so/so stock,even with the usual carrot/onion additions. . It was OK, not too exciting, so I added a few cups of boxed organic chicken stock from Whole Foods. That helped some . Then, realizing I had practically no meat for my soup, I bought a whole chicken and simmered that in the stock. Result: a rich, wonderful stock . My question: do I have to do this to get the rich tasting stock I love so? I know Edna Lewis recommends making chicken stock by first browning the parts in the oven. I have never done this, and I wonder if that would get me that rich flavorful taste of the stock I made. . Any ideas? It seems kind of odd to have to make chicken stock by simmering a chicken in chicken stock. Thanks.

[scuzzo]

Here's my favorite way to make stock. Put carcass in a pot, add quartered unpeeled onions, carrots, celery, roast uncovered in 450 oven until contents is nicely browned. Add water to cover, half tsp. peppercorns, a bay leaf and either simmer gently on stove or simmer covered in a very low oven for a long time, like 8 hours. The long cooking time gets the marrow out of the bone. Strain, refrigerate, remove the fat from the top before using. You can also use a Crockpot on low to simmer for 8-16 hours even, if you're not around. Depending on amount of water used you'll often get a gelatinous stock when cold, which is great!

[yayadave]

I just tried something different for my chicken noodle soup. I put the whole chicken, standard vegetables with the addition of parsnip, usual seasonings, and water in the pressure cooker. I cooked this for 35 minutes. After it pressure released, I fished out the chicken and cleaned the meat off because it was done. Then I put everything else back in the pc and cooked it for another hour. Then I strained it and put it on the porch to cool. When I cleaned off the layer of fat, I did not have a nice layer of gelatin, which tells me this was not a good soup chicken. But the broth was dark and rich. That may be from the parsnip, but I think the double cooking did it.

[sheilal]

I made my very first chicken stock a couple of weeks ago by using the carcass of a rotisserie (sp?) chicken. I also used the browned skin and inedible wing tips. With the additional of various veggies (carrots, celery, onion, etc.) and spices (pepper, salt, bay leaf) I cooked it for hours in the crock pot. It turned out astoundingly rich and medium dark. Very unlike the thin, insipid canned chicken broth I was used to. But it is the most amazing stuff ever!!! I'll never go back to canned.

[JungMann]

I make stock from roasted chicken carcasses and browned backs and necks. They really do give off a much richer flavor. Rather than wasting money on soup chickens, you might just save the carcass from any rotisserie meals you have and try using that as the base for your stock.