Monday, March 2, 2015

Pinterest and a Warm Winter Recipe

Hi Everybody, We've got a new PINTEREST page.  We'd love for you to follow us over there too! 


And, to help keep you warm, while you're hanging around enjoying the winter ride....


here is a wonderful chicken broth recipe by V. Fields, good for soup stock or just to enjoy on its own.  Our "test kitchen" tried it out and it was wonderful! 

"First I make my roast chicken.  You can roast  your chicken any way you want and use the bones, but I like efficiency.  I put carrots, celery and onions on the bottom of the casserole dish and sprinkle salt, pepper, seasoning salt and onion powder on the chicken outsides and cavity.  I figure anything that would taste good in chicken broth may as well get put on the roasted chicken.  That way, the broth automatically gets seasoned as a secondary benefit.  I also put the neck in the roasting pan to cook along with the chicken.  The other innards get pan fried in butter and scarfed up by my girls, who think it is such a treat. 

After enjoying your chicken meal, debone the chicken.  I throw away as much of the skin as I can manage; it will leave an oily layer on top that you would have to skim off before it cooks too long and gives an off flavor to the broth.  The bones get tossed in a 6 qt crockpot, along with the pan drippings and celery.  (We eat the roasted onions and carrots).  Fill the rest of the crockpot with water and a splash or two of apple cider vinegar (which supposedly helps draw out the minerals from the bones).  Turn it on low and in 8-12 hours, voila, you have broth. 

As I've mentioned, I then turn the crockpot on the Keep Warm feature and use the broth all week.  Mine keeps it hot enough (180 F) not to have to worry about bacteria.  You would want to ladle out some for use the first few days and replace it with fresh water.  It seems to taste best when replenished with water periodically.  If I used and replaced a largish volume, I may turn it on low again for a few hours to get the temperature back to simmering quickly, then turn it down to Warm.

The broth taste profile changes (gets darker and more savory) but still great to use in cooking vegetables and in place of water or chicken bouillon for other recipes.  A friend actually likes the chicken broth's taste at the end of the week's cycle but my girls do not.

In case you were wondering about the proportion of bones to water, there isn't a lot of water that the bones simmer in.  I would estimate in the 6-qt crockpot, there may be 2 quarts of usable of broth.  More diluted, it would taste watery.

Bits and flotsam will float on the top.  I just push it out of the way and scoop from the clear area.  I am not a stickler for clear broth, but you may want to strain it if it bothers you."

Thanks V. Fields for your recipe.

Let us know what you think of it, if you give it a try!

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