your chicken stock for gumbo

Boil leg quarters with celery, onion, parsley, bay leaves and a few peppercorns until done. About 30 minutes. Cool and debone chicken. Roast bones at 400 for 1-1.5 hours until nice and brown. Add them to the broth and simmer for a 2-3 hours. Done.

quote:

---

Roast bones at 400 for 1-1.5 hours until nice and brown.

---

Damn...never tried that. What does that accomplish?

Just makes it richer

quote:

---

Fresh ginger is my new favorite ingredient in chicken stock.

---

That's interesting. Seems like it'd be a pretty strong/distinct flavor for a stock.

you can also roast the chicken skins and make schmaltz. That is pure flavor. Dump it back in along with the bones. Eat skin like pork rinds.

quote:

---

Ginger - Seems like it'd be a pretty strong/distinct flavor for a stock.

---

Try it sometime because it adds depth without being overpowering. The mere slices/wedges of ginger add great flavor to the quarts of stock.

quote:

---

i love ginger but not sure I want any hint of the flavor near gumbo.

---

Oh shite, now I'm gonna get lynched by the purists. I was talking about stock in general.

The crispy skin and meat bits from the roasted bones aresome.

One thing I've heard is that you should put the chicken in cold water, then bring up to simmer. Supposedly, the pores in the bones don't get clogged right away in this method and it lets the collagen release into the stock better for more flavor.

And I've had a chef tell me that roasting bones gives what he called a "rich stock".

I like to make stock and freeze it in quart containers to be used when I like, or at times I'll make a bunch to use for a gumbo and freeze what I don't use.

6 chicken carcasses
6 yellow onions ( pealed and quartered)
6 carrots ( rough chopped)
6 Celery stalks ( rough chopped)
1 bulb of garlic (halved)
4 sprigs thyme
3 bay leaves
2 tbsp whole black pepper corns


Take whole chicken carcasses and place on 2 sheet pans. Brown in the oven on 375 to 400 until bones are browned, about 2 hours.

Place chicken bones, veg, bay leaves, thyme, and whole peppercorns in large stock pot and cover with roughly 2 1/2 gallons of water. Bring everything to a boil and reduce to a slight simmer, and let go uncovered on your stove overnight. You want it to just barely bubble on simmer or on one of the lowest settings you have on your stove top. You are looking for a little bubble to pop through every so often here and there.

I'll let mine go for about 12 hours or longer, so if I'm doing a gumbo for instance the next day, I'll get that going the evening before and use the prep time to get everything else cut up that I will need the next day, and use the chicken meat I remove from the bones to use in my gumbo as well.

When your stock is ready, pour it through a chinois or strainer a couple of times, first to remove the bones and large pieces of veg and such, and a second time to remove smaller particulates. If using a strainer only, and depending on how clear you want this stock to be, you can also pour it a third time through some cheese cloth lining the bottom of the strainer until you achieve the desired clarity. For most things however, that's probably not necessary. Twice will do.

Pour into a large enough container capable of holding the volume of stock and let cool to room temp on the counter, portion and freeze, or use in your dish. I'll use some cambros I have. They come in handy, and I stock up on quart containers with lids like nobody's business. Best thing ever for freezing liquid, leftover beans, gumbo, etc.