badseed1980 | Thing fifteen: chicken broth

Three nights ago, we bought a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store to eat for dinner. Tonight, I picked the remaining meat off the carcass and stuck it in the fridge. The carcass went into the Dutch oven along with a frozen chicken neck and giblets that I'd been keeping on hand. I added the tough, fibrous scapes from some of my Egyptian walking onions, which weren't good for much else, as well as some celery tops, some Scarborough Fair herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme) from the garden, and a bay leaf. I put in enough water to cover everything, and guessed at the amount of salt I'd need.

I brought the pot to a boil then turned it down to a simmer, and let it sit there for a few hours. Every time I opened it to see how things were going...man, it smelled GOOD. I just poured it into a bowl through a mesh strainer, and stirred it for a while to cool it down a bit. I put the lid on the bowl, and stuck it in the fridge.

Tomorrow, I'll take it out of the fridge and skim the solidified fat off the top of the broth. I think I'll freeze the broth. I don't currently have ice cube trays, alas, which would be the best thing. I think I may have given mine away to a friend when I wasn't using them. I may go get more, because it's really convenient to be able to freeze stuff in cubes like that--it's easier to fit into a pot and melt than larger chunks would be.

This may turn into soup when the weather gets cooler. :)