making my own chicken stock - what am I doing wrong?

[tasmaniandevilchaser]

I have been trying to make my own chicken stock - after the roast, I stick the carcass in the slow cooker, with at least an onion cut up into wedges and a bouquet garni (carrot and celery if I have it). I put it on overnight.

But my stock tastes of nothing! What am I doing wrong?

You need to add more ingredients.

I use this recipe

link doesn't work!

Sorry try this

I know it's highly unfashionable these days but you do need some salt in there.

A couple of bay leaves

Garlic if you're going to be using it in a garlicky dish afterwards

A bit of pepper

Just don't do what I did once and tip it into a strainer, catching the overcooked mushy ingredients and letting the lovely stock drain down the sink

Hahaha TigerFeet

Dh did that once with the gravy I had just made, I wasn't too happy!

Would you think me odd if I said I crack the larger bones to make sure all the marrow gets into the stock? Very, very good for you. You know when you've made a good stock as when refrigerated it turns to jelly. :o

Ooh, and this is a great use for the stock - a sort of Asian broth. Just add (generous amounts of) Ginger, soy sauce, lemon, garlic chilli and left over chicken. Yum, yum, yum. You can add noodles for a heartier meal. Hmm, might add this to recipes later.

I'll steal that tip thanks Okonomiyaki!

DH does ours, and has found that the more you reduce down the more intense the flavour.

He covers a chicken carcass, throws in garlic, carrot onion bay and thyme.

simmers for about a hour, removes everything, then keeps just below the boil, until about 3/4's reduced.

He is left with a thick, intense stock which is brilliant.

One carcass usually fills 4 of those tommee tippee babyfood pots.

My method of making chicken stock is to roast the carcass and vegetables first with a little oil. Bash up the old bones and spread them out in a roasting tin with some celery, onion, carrot, bayleaves, rosemary, peppercorns, garlic cloves. Leave the skin on the onion and just top/tail & cut it in quarters. Don't bother peeling the carrot, just top and tail it. Break the celery with your hands. Bruise the garlic rather than peeling it. Roast everything in a fairly hot oven until everything starts to smell toasted and is looking a bit brown at the edges... about 25 minutes

Then put everything in a regular saucepan or, even better, a pressure cooker with plenty of water, some parsley stalks, bayleaves and a good pinch or two of sea salt. Wouldn't use a slow-cooker personally because I think you want stock to be nicely boiling/simmering rather than just sitting there tepid for hours on end. Simmer for 25-30 mins in a pressure cooker or 1 hour in a regular big saucepan.

Good luck :)

Ooh chil that sounds yumptious

Start with a decent chicken, break the carcass up as much as possible, and add a minimum of water - about a pint for a chicken. Plus onion, bay leaf, ends of carrot, bit of salt and pepper. Bring to boil and then simmer for about 30 minutes.

I'd guess yours is too watery - if so take lid off and boil for another 30 min or so.

Chil - do you need to roastthe carcass even if it was roasted in the first place?

Forgot to say - I add a splash of vinegar too to help draw the minerals out the bones.

Two tips.

1. Free-range chickens produce better stock than battery chickens.

1. Don't overestimate the amount of stock you can get off one carcass. I buy left-over chicken frames from a local butcher. I estimate about 15-20 (free range) chicken frames for 4 ltrs of stock. If your stock doesn't set to jelly once it's cooled, you need to reduce it.

I normally add nothing to my stock. I normally make it in large batches so I can freeze it and use it in what I feel like later on. Sometimes I add one onion, a handful of English parsley, a carrot and a piece of celery. Stock is a very good way of getting rid of celery that is past its best.

Don't do it in the slow cooker!! Stock needs to reduce and it won't in a slow cooker 'cos it'll never get hot enough.

The most likely thing is that you have made it with too much water. I tend to have a bag in the deep freeze and top it up with any chicken bones (from roasts, casseroles etc) until I think there is enough (usually two or three carcasses plus maybe a dozen thigh/ drumstick bones) and then put all the bones in a big stock pan, cover with water and bring to the boil and then simmer for a few hours. If it doesn't taste of much after that I then reduce it (basically just take the lid off) which also is better for space. I usually use some immediately and have enough to freeze for a few soups, risottos etc.

Does the slow cooker ever come to the boil? If not that's probably part of the problem.

Boiling stock?

Sacré bleu!!

Unless one is reducing it, of course. But boiling with the bones in will make it cloudy.

If you are using cooked bones it will be cloudy anyway. Of course using cooked bones is a bit of a no no to stock purists.

For cooked bones, bring to boil, skim and then simmer for a long long time.

There's not enough flavour in most chickens these days. You need a proper old boiling hen - one that has had a bit of a life, rather than being killed at 5 weeks (I think free range chickens don't live much longer than this either). Or (bizarrely) use poussins.

@doblet... I roast the bones even if they are from a carcass that was roasted once already, so that they get nicely caramelised and crispy round the edges. Adds colour and flavour.

so many answers, thankyou!

I think too much water is where I'm going wrong and I'll give the bones a bash next time as well.

But in defence of my slow cooker, it does bubble away quite a lot, though it takes a while to get there. I tend to leave it all day or night, so about 10 hours.

And for the record, I always buy free range (after visiting a battery farm as a child - yuk, yuk, yuk)

Honestly, but honestly (and I ask this in the nicest possible way) - who can be arsed? When we have Knorr chicken stock cubes? Is it worth the effort and the ingredients and the fuel for cooking it all, when stock is usually just a background flavour in most dishes its used in. Fair enough if you are a serious restaurant, but for ordinary home cooking ???

That's probably fair bibbity.. perhaps I should add stock making to the "wanky things you do at home" thread

You can controls salt levels doing it yourself!

I think a decent stock makes or breaks some dishes - the soup that Okonomiyaki suggested for example. And it's no effort for me (quite a lazy person really) to chuck bones, onion etc in a slow cooker, put it on and go out for the day. Anyway, do what makes you happy