Chicken Stock 101

I wanted to do a post devoted solely to chicken broth bc I feel like I've made a cooking breakthrough and I wanted to share it with you.  I know it sounds silly, but I always thought it was too hard to make stock.  It's like the cookie dough thing, now that I realize how easy it is, I may never buy canned chicken broth again!  I made my broth on Tuesday night after dinner while we were watching our Rangers beat the Tigers.  Anywho...  

For this stock I used:

• 1 whole fryer chicken (about 5 lbs)  - giblets removed
• 2 celery stalks (cut in three pieces each)
• 2 carrots (cut in three pieces each)
• 1 onion (chopped in large pieces)
• water

I just threw everything in the stock pot, covered it with water, brought it to a boil over medium/high heat, covered it and turned it to low, and let it simmer for about an hour.  Easy!

I tend to think that it's done when the chicken is floating.  Gross, yes, but that's how I roll.

Then took the chicken out and let it sit (and the broth, too) for 30 minutes.  

Then I strained the broth and put it into two containers, covered with foil, into the refrigerator.

The next day my first batch looked like this - gross, again, don't you think??  Yes!

But here's where you get to skim the fat off and throw it away - something I found surprisingly satisfying.  I'm a cooking nerd, what can I say?

After skimming the fat, I started to divide my stock into containers for freezing.

I got this great idea from my friend, Ashley :) I poured the chicken broth into ice cube trays to freeze and use as needed.  Each tray holds about 2 cups of broth, so it's perfect for many recipes that call for just that.  Also, if I'm making a side dish, I can just pop in a couple cubes of broth for added flavor.  I love this idea!

This is the reserve broth ready for freezing.  I kept about 2 and a half quarts out for a recipe and this was what I was going to freeze.  I figured that all in all, I made about 20 cups of chicken stock.

I covered each tray with wax paper, foil, labeled it, and into the freezer it went.  This kitchen staple will be a regular at our house starting now!

Awesomely Yummy King Ranch Chicken

Let me explain this recipe.  This recipe turned into quite a journey for me.  I made King Ranch Chicken a few years ago and my husband & I were not liking the recipe.  The flavor was all off.  Bland.  Boring.  If you were ever lucky enough to have King Ranch Chicken from Celebrity Bakery, back when they were still around, I wanted it to taste like that.  A little kick, just enough, but not too much.

So I took a few years off, then found this recipe in my Southern Living Best Fall Recipes, so I thought it was time to try it again.  Now, this time the recipe had me making my own chicken broth, using a whole chicken, things I wasn't used to and thought I was crazy for attempting!!  I was cursing this recipe from the beginning, thinking "why did I think this was a good idea??!?"

Well, I'll tell you why!!  BECAUSE IT'S AWESOME!!  After I tasted the final product I thought, "Totally worth it"!  The boiling the whole chicken, making my own stock, shredding my own chicken. Totally, awesomely, worth it.  This stuff is good, friends!!  Like me, you'll thank yourself when you're done!!

For this recipe you'll need:

• 1 tbsp butter
•  1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 medium sized green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, pressed (I smashed and chopped mine - and used 3 cloves :)
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 2 (10 oz) cans diced tomatoes and green chiles, drained
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp ground cumin (I didn't have any cumin on hand, i.e. I forgot it the two times I went to Target this week, but it was just fine without it)
• 1 tsp chili powder (original recipe called for Mexican style chili powder, but I used regular)
• 3 cups grated sharp Cheddar cheese
• 12 (6 inch) fajita size corn tortillas, cut into 1/2 inch strips

You'll also need:

• (4 1/2 to 5 lb) whole chicken
•  2 celery ribs, cut into 3 pieces each
• 2 carrots, cut into 3 pieces each

Okay, this is the part that threw me for a loop.  I was not prepared for dealing with the "whole chicken".  But, I put my big girl pants on and did what I had to do.  "Remove giblets" apparently means sticking your hand in a freezing cold chicken carcass and taking out whatever you can pull out.  Yuck.  I did that.  But I didn't like it.  

I rinsed my sad little bird and put it in a stock pot (original recipe called for a Dutch Oven, but again, don't have a Dutch Oven so stock pot it was).  After bird was in the pot, I covered it with water and added my carrots and celery, brought to a boil over medium high heat; covered, and reduced heat to low.  Simmer for 50 minutes to an hour or until chicken is done.  It took me longer than an hour for mine to cook, just keep checking until it's done.  I didn't take an after picture bc I honestly thought it wasn't going to be edible.  That's the zero confidence I had in my chicken stock/chicken experiment.

But I continued to follow the directions, let it cool for 30 minutes, removed the chicken from broth, reserve 3/4 cup cooking liquid (I ended up using about 1 cup instead).  Strain any remaining liquid; reserve for another use - does anyone have any good ideas about how to store chicken broth?  Because this made a ton.  More on that later...

Okay, so I wasn't feeling super confident about my broth/chicken, but I decided to soldier on...

Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat.  Add onion, saute 6-7 minutes or until tender.  Add bell pepper and garlic, and saute 3-4 minutes.  Stir in reserved broth, soups, rotel, and spices.  Cook and stir for 8 more minutes.

Then it will look like this.  I have to admit, it was starting to smell good and I was starting to have a little bit of hope for this recipe.  Not a lot of hope, but some, nonetheless.  So I began shredding the chicken.  Whole chicken yield A. LOT. of chicken!  This was another teaching moment for me.  I bought the whole fryer chicken for 4 dollars this week.  That's a ton of chicken for 4 dollars!  Totally cheaper than buying chicken breasts or tenders or whatever!   If I can just get past the whole "this whole raw chicken grosses me out" thing, I'll be good.

Layer half of the chicken in a 13x9 baking dish - I greased mine with olive oil.

Then top chicken with half the soup mixture and a cup of cheese

Then top with half of the tortilla strips.  Repeat the layers once more, topping with one more cup of cheese.  Cover and put in 350 oven for 50 minutes... 

then uncover and bake for 10-15 minutes more.  It was smelling GOOD at this point!!  I was hoping it was as good as it smelled!!

It came out looking bubbly and yummy!  Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

For a side, I got out a can of pinto beans, rinsed and drained them, and put them in a pan.  Then, since I had a BOATLOAD of chicken broth in the fridge, I poured some chicken stock in with the pinto beans, added some season salt, pepper, and sea salt, and presto!  Yummy side!

Totally worth every minute!!  Next time I will make this on the weekend, but be assured, I will make this again!!

Pot Roast

I view making a pot roast like a rite of passage into adulthood.  You are finally an adult when you've successfully cooked an edible pot roast.  At least that's one of the steps - ha!  This was my third pot roast in a series of "what's my favorite way to cook a pot roast"  I started by getting up early one morning in the fall and making one in the crock pot, then a few weeks ago I made one on the stove top, and this one was the completion of my self-imposed experiment by cooking it in the oven.  I definitely decided that the crock pot method is my favorite!  It yielded the best flavor and tenderness.  Followed by the stove top method, and finally the oven.  This method was my least favorite of the three, but since I hadn't started my cooking blog back then, this is the only pot roast that's been documented thus far!  I started by referring to my favorite red and white Better Homes & Gardens cookbook and going from there.  I used:

• about 2 lb boneless pot roast
•  2 tbs vegetable oil
• 1 1/4 cup tomato juice (this is an increase from the original recipe)
• 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp instant beef bouillon granules
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 2-4 potatoes (again, increase)
• 3-4 carrots
• 1 large onion or 2 small ones

I always think the veggies are so pretty all cut up and ready to go - sometimes it's the small things in life!  Anyway, first I browned the roast in oil on all sides, put it in the pan, then poured the liquid mixture over the top (Worcestershire, bouillon, basil, tomato juice), covered it with foil and put it in 325 oven for 1 hour.

After an hour, I took it out and it looked like this.

I added all the veggies, covered it, and put it back in the oven for another hour.

Because my husband likes potatoes, I added more than it called for.  I also used more onions than necessary bc I like onions.  This caused the cooking time to be much longer, and I had to add more tomato juice (original recipe called for 3/4 cup) to compensate for the extended cooking time.  (You can also use dry wine or water if you don't want to use tomato juice)

I think it ended up being about an hour and a half to two hours.  I just kept checking it until the veggies were tender enough to be yummy.

Here's how it looked at the end.  Again, I think the crock pot method is definitely my favorite.  It's just not my favorite thing to get up really early to put a roast on, but I'll let you know when I try it again!  And sometime I want to try it with wine instead of tomato juice, I think it would give an interesting flavor.  

What's your favorite way to cook pot roast?