How to make chicken stock

Why boiling ruins it

A boiling stock agitates violently. Fat is emulsified into the liquid instead of rising to the surface, and small particles of protein are broken up and suspended rather than coagulating and being skimmed off. The result is cloudy, greasy and slightly muddy in flavour.

A stock at a bare simmer — an occasional bubble breaking the surface, no more — lets the fat rise where it can be skimmed and lets the scum coagulate into a raft that lifts off. It stays clear and clean.

The other half of the rule is that boiling does not extract faster. Gelatine comes out of connective tissue with time and gentle heat, and a stock rushed at a rolling boil is both cloudier and no quicker.

The method

Three or four hours, almost all unattended. Cooling, storing and reheating a stock or broth safely is a food-safety matter rather than a question of taste, and the Food Standards Agency is the authority on it. Follow its guidance rather than a recipe timing.

1. Use a roast chicken carcass, raw wings, or a mixture. Wings, backs and feet carry the most connective tissue and give the most body.
2. Put the bones in a deep pan and cover with cold water. Cold, not hot — starting cold lets proteins coagulate gradually and rise as scum rather than dispersing.
3. Bring it slowly up to a bare simmer. Skim the grey scum off as it rises in the first twenty minutes; this is the only demanding part.
4. Add aromatics only after skimming: onion, carrot, celery, a bay leaf, parsley stalks, a few peppercorns.
5. Simmer uncovered, or barely covered, for three to four hours. Never let it boil.
6. Strain through a fine sieve, ideally lined with muslin. Do not press the solids — pressing clouds the stock.
7. Cool it quickly and refrigerate. The fat sets on top and lifts off cleanly the next day.

What goes in, and what does not

• In: onion, carrot, celery, leek tops, parsley stalks, thyme, bay, peppercorns. The standard aromatic base.
• In: chicken feet or wings, if you want a stock that sets to a jelly. Connective tissue is where body comes from.
• Not: salt. A stock is usually reduced later, and salting early gives a dish you cannot season.
• Not: brassicas. Cabbage, broccoli and sprouts turn sulphurous over hours.
• Not: starchy vegetables. Potato clouds the stock and adds nothing.
• Not: too much of anything green or strong. Aromatics should support the chicken rather than compete with it.
• Freeze it in useful portions — ice cube trays for small quantities, tubs for soup.

Stock, broth and the rest

Stock

Made mainly from bones, unseasoned, used as an ingredient. Body comes from gelatine.

Broth

Made with more meat, often seasoned, and drunk as it is.

Brown stock

Bones roasted first for colour and depth. Standard for beef, optional for chicken.

Body

A good stock sets to a wobble in the fridge. That jelly is dissolved gelatine and it is what thickens a sauce.

Reduction

Concentrates flavour and body. Reduce after straining, never during the simmer.

Common questions