Ciara’s Bone broth

A well-cooked bone broth is a deeply nourishing and useful addition to many recipes. Rich, savoury and full of depth, it can bring warmth and flavour to soups, risottos, sauces, braises and stews, or be enjoyed simply on its own. Used as a base, it adds body and comfort to almost any recipe, turning simple ingredients into something more satisfying and delicious.

Ingredients

2 Whole Chickens or 6 chicken carcasses 

3 parsnip (scrub and cut into 4)

4 to 6 carrots depending on their size (scrub and cut into 3)

2 leeks (cut green part off, clean well and cut into 2)

1 garlic bulb (cut the skinny top off to expose the cloves)

2 x hearts of celery (I cut 12cm from the bottom of the celery and wash it really well keeping it intact)

10 peppercorns

3 fresh bay leaves

3 teaspoons celtic sea salt or pink himalayan salt

Method

I use a 10 litre pot which I add almost 8 litres of water to and over 24 to 30 hours reduces to 5 to 6 litres of stock so if you don’t have a pot this large or want to make it in a slow cooker you can just halve the ingredients.

Put all the vegetables into the pot and if using whole chicken, clean the chickens and place on top of vegetables, fill with water until chicken is properly covered.  

(If you are using chicken carcasses, roast them all on a tray for 30 to 40 minutes until golden, place them on top of vegetables and fill the pot with up to 8 litres of water.) 

Put the pot on heat and bring to a simmer, keep the heat low so you are poaching the chicken, not boiling it.  After about 45 minutes remove the chicken, let them cool down a bit so they are easy to handle and remove all the skin and chicken meat.  Put all the bones back into the stock water and keep on low heat (just simmering) for 24 to 30 hours. Obviously if you are using carcasses you do not need to do this step, just let it cook for 24 to 30 hours.

After 24 to 30 hours of cooking, remove from the heat and let it cool.  Remove all the bones and vegetables and then strain into a large bowl to go into the fridge.  Leave overnight and you can skim the thin layer of fat off the top.  Now you can distribute into different size containers and freeze.  Stock is good in the fridge for five days.

The chicken meat that you remove should be tender and delicious and perfect for chicken salads, soups or pies.