Narsai David Recipe: Narsai's Chicken Stock
BERKELEY (KCBS) - It is so easy to make a good chicken stock, or as a matter of fact any kind of stock – vegetable stock, meat stock, poultry or fish.
Here's a simple recipe that yields five to six cups of stock you can freeze until you're ready to cook with it:
3 lbs chicken bones
1 carrot, cut up or peelings from 3 - 4 carrots
1 medium onion, chopped with peeling
4 – 6 large parsley sprigs, or stems from 1 parsley bunch
3 – 4 cloves of garlic
*1 tbsp pickling spice
The carrot peelings and the parsley stems work just as well as using the whole carrot or the parsley sprigs, and you can save both to use later. And the pickling spice adds a wonderful collection of aromatic spices to the stock.
KCBS Food and Wine Editor Narsai David:
Place all the ingredients in a 3-4 quart pot and cover them with water. Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat to cook it at the slowest simmer possible. It should simmer at least three hours, or better yet, overnight.
If you plan to leave it on all night, be sure to have enough liquid to last. Also, check in advance how much time it takes on your stove.
Once it's done, discard all those vegetables and bones, then refrigerate the stock until the fat floats to the top and congeals. At that point, it's really easy to skim off the fat and discard it.
Pack the broth in plastic containers and toss them in the freezer. Just be sure to leave ¼-inch of head space in the containers.
*Here's a substitute for pickling spice:
2 bay leaves
4 cloves
1 tsp peppercorns
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp mustard seed
1/2 tsp coriander seed
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Narsai David is the KCBS Food and Wine Editor. He has been a successful restaurateur, chef, TV host, and columnist in the Bay Area spanning four decades. You can hear him Saturdays at 10:53 a.m., 12:53 p.m. and 4:53 p.m., and at 2:53 a.m. Sunday on KCBS All News 740AM and 106.9FM.
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