Taste 12: Homemade Chicken Broth… My secret ingredient

I’ve been cooking a lot lately and often talk about my homemade chicken broth, but never seem to have any on hand.  It’s somewhat unacceptable, in my book, to live in a broth-free home because, since I do not purchase pre-made broth (why? that’s a tale for another day…), I don’t have it in my pantry. I have to plan ahead and make some (and then freeze a nice amount), and have been a bit lazy about it the last few months.

For my twelfth taste of how much I care, I decided it was time to make chicken broth so I can make my good meals even better.  It’s really easy.

Start by boiling a whole chicken in salted water until it’s cooked all the way through. Take it out of the water (keep the water… DON’T pour it down the drain) and let the bird cool to touch.  Next, remove all the skin (I definitely toss this out) and carve off the meat.  Then simmer the bones in the chicken water (add more water to fill your stock pot) with onions, carrots, celery, peppercorns, bay leaves, and sea salt for 24 hours or so.  Cool it down, skim off the fat first, strain the broth, and pour it into jars.

Notice the golden hue from the sunlight in my broth.  That’s no bouillon cube, baby.

Sweetly Spiced Grilled Chicken

If you have a cabinet full of Savory Spice Shop products like I do, you know that making unique spice rubs is fun and easy.  For 1.5 pounds of chicken breast I blended:
1/2 TB Granulated Onion
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 TB honey Powder
1/2 TB Aleppo Pepper
a pinch of Fennel Pollen
a pinch of Mexican Oregano
1 tsp Spanish Sweet Paprika
1 TB Peanut Oil
Mix well, coat the chicken, and let it marinate a little while before grilling. Drizzle with a little lime juice before serving. Delicious!

Honey Mustard Roasted Chicken Gravy

After roasting my chicken, I had a lot of pan juices, so I poured a cup or so into a sauce pan on medium low heat.

To that I added approximately a tablespoon of cornstarch that had been dissolved in 1/4 cup water.
Mix well and let thicken for a few minutes.
That’s it: Gravy.

Honey Mustard Roasted Chicken

I don’t do much with chicken. I’m not a huge fan and often prefer turkey. But, it had been almost a year since I roasted a chicken and on a cool autumn afternoon it seemed like the right thing to do.
Here’s what I made:

I got a whole frying chicken at Whole Foods. I gave it a nice rinse, patted it dry, and put it on an upright roasting rack. I covered it in a marinade of:
  • 2 TB Honey Mustard
  • 2 TB Worcestershire
  • 1 TB olive oil
  • 2 TB local honey from New Moon Farms (Best.Honey.Ever.)
  • 1/2 tsp Smoked Spanish Paprika from Savory Spice Shop
  • Fresh ground black pepper
  • a pinch of Red Algae Hawaiian Kai Sea Salt (also from SSS)
Then I stuffed the chicken with 3 carrots and 2 red onions, and laid some potatoes and turnips on the tray.
Next went 2 cups of water into the bottom of the roasting pan and the bird went into an oven that had been preheated to 350. I roasted for approximately 1.5 hours. It is done when the thigh reaches 180. You also want to see the juices run clear from the bird when you poke it’s thigh with the thermometer.
I had no choice but to make gravy with the pan drippings. Literally- I had no choice. The man of the house was not even going to consider a roasted chicken and potato dinner without gravy.
I served this with some Apple-Baked Brussel Sprouts.
Roasting a whole chicken is a great thing to do from time to time because after serving the breast meat on day 1, it’s resourceful to pick the bird clean and then make homemade broth with the bones. It is so much better than store bought broth, and you get to control what goes in.
Get cooking!

Welcome to my kitchen

A Bolder Table is a place where I bookmark my favorite recipes for later along with some occasional musings. It's my personal digital recipe compilation... Let's say it's my cookbook. Thanks for stopping by! -Megan
© 2017 A Bolder Home LLC. All Rights Reserved. | Boulder, CO Personal Chef Services