My whole grains & lots of vegetables diet is on hold this week due to the required pre-colonoscopy “low roughage diet”. A bit tricky when the recommended white bread and dairy products are off limits. For me, the low-roughage diet translates to: banana for breakfast, puréed potato soup for lunch, a dinner of roasted chicken, rice, and overcooked carrots and some organic applesauce for dessert. The good news is that after roasting the chicken on Sunday, today I get to make chicken stock! (Which I will need for the day of “clear fluids only” just before the procedure.)
To be honest, my chicken stock recipe is just my veggie stock recipe with a chicken carcass thrown in, but for anyone who wants the details, here they are:
Chicken Stock
- 2 Tbls canola oil
- 1 large onion, sliced thinly
- 4 carrots, peeled and sliced
- 4 celery ribs, sliced (or about 2 cups of a combination sliced ribs and leaves)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- large handful of fresh parsley, coursely diced
- fresh ground black pepper
- 1 tsp oregano leaves
- 1 tsp basil
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1/2 tsp marjoram
- 1 chicken carcass (leftover from roasting chicken and removing the major parts)
- 12 cups water
Sauté the onions, carrots, and celery in the oil until they start to get soft. Add the garlic, parsley, pepper and herbs. Stir until fragrant. Add about half the water and turn up the heat to high. Slip in the carcass. Add the remaining water. Bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer. Cook for about 2-3 hours. Cool. Remove carcass. Strain out vegetables. Strain the broth through a cheesecloth-lined strainer.
Makes 2-3 quarts.
Notes
- I follow the rule which says if a vegetable is too wilted for you to think about eating it, don’t put it in your stock either. That doesn’t mean I don’t use stock to clean out the veggie drawer . . . just that I only use veggies that still have the will to live (if they’ve given up and started to go brown, throw them into the compost!). I also do not include carrot peels or onion skins in my stock. Some people do. I don’t.
- I also discard all of the stuff (meat, veggies, herbs) that has been turning into stock for 3 hours. You’ve gotten what you could out of it. It’s in the stock. Don’t try to then use those poor overcooked things as the veggies and meat in your soup/stew. Reserve fresh veggies and other meat parts for that.
- I know you can buy meat parts specifically for making stock. I just rarely do that. One, I mostly make and use vegetable stock. Two, the only meat stock I make regularly is chicken stock and the carcass works just great for that. Besides, it gives me a great excuse to roast a chicken. Yummo! (Feel free to add comments below about how to adapt this recipe to use fresh meat parts.)
- I sometimes add a peeled, diced potato or two to stock. Also a bay leaf. Today I forgot them . . . it will be fine without them.
- In case you need a great recipe for Roasted Chicken . . . I went a bit simpler this time, but that post contains all you need to know.
