Vert-à-Go

After a couple of unpleasant experiences with having store-bought hamburger recalled because of possible E. coli contamination, I switched to buying free-range or naturally-raised meat. I was unhappy with the idea of animals being raised on factory farms, and was very pleased to find that the quality of meat produced more humanely was much closer to what I had enjoyed on our small family farm while growing up.

In fact, I think the rise of factory farms over the past few decades is in large part due to the commoditisation of this premium meat. The vast majority of people can’t afford to eat top-quality cuts of humanely-produced meat every day, so a farming system emerged that could churn out huge quantities of meat at low prices. People became accustomed to to this cheap availability and grew to expect it. But unfortunately, this bargain at the grocery and fast-food till could only be achieved at an appalling cost to animal welfare and the environment. Buying a whole chicken really helps me to remember that 1 chicken=1 breast, and I prize the breast meat much more highly on the much fewer occasions that I do eat it.

If you don’t know how to cut up a whole chicken, you can find simple illustrated instructions here. The other night I cut one up and used the breast meat for a lovely chicken balti. I gave the thigh pieces to a friend to use, and was then left with the scraps of the carcass, two drumsticks, and a couple of wings. These would be hard to divide up between four people for another meal, and trying to rescue the meat off the raw wings and neck is would be time-consuming and somewhat unappetising. I tend to think that if you’re too squeamish to handle meat in its original format, you probably shouldn’t be eating it in the first place–but I don’t have much desire to chow down on a recognisable chicken neck! So I decided to make chicken soup out of the remains instead, which would create at least two meals. Soup makes every part of the chicken palatable and very easy to deal with, and allows me not to waste a single bite of meat–an extremely important consideration if you want to reduce its considerable carbon impact.

The first step was to make the stock. I find that right after supper is a good time to make stock. That way it can simmer all evening and be all ready to go the next day with the least amount of effort and hanging around. This recipe looks long, but it really takes very little fuss. I will point out that you will only get really good results with a free-range bird. A factory-farmed chicken just will not make very tasty stock.

Easy peasy chicken stock

• 1 chicken carcass, either raw soon after cutting it up, or frozen if you didn’t have time to deal with it straight away (reserve the drumsticks, wings, and neck for the soup and cook separately so they don’t get overcooked–see below). You could also use the remains of a leftover roast chicken. I will sometimes put two in the pot at a time to intensify the flavour.
• 2 carrots, broken into a few pieces
• 2 celery sticks, including the leaves (make the celery organic if at all possible–conventionally grown celery is treated with about 29 chemicals and has no protective skin), snapped into a few pieces
• 2 parsnips, broken into a few pieces (if you have them)
• 1 onion, cut into quarters
• 8 whole peppercorns
• bay leaf
• fresh herbs for a bouquet garni (a bundle of fresh herbs tied with string)–because it is autumn, I had none on hand, so threw in some dried parsley (from the garden) instead

Throw the chicken carcass into the pot (frozen is ok), along with the vegetables and herbs. Cover with water (I pretty much fill my big Dutch oven–over 10 cups). If you’ve cleverly been saving the cooking water from your vegetables (except potatoes) and freezing it, use that. It will intensify the flavour of the stock even more!

Bring to a boil and then reduce to a very low simmer for 3-4 hours, occasionally skimming off any foam and removing any pieces of skin that come to the surface. At the end, strain it with your colander and then once more through a fine wire sieve.

You’re now left with the stock. Leave it at room temperature until cool (don’t put it in the fridge warm–that will reduce the overall temperature of the fridge and bad organisms could start to grow in the stock before it gets a chance to cool off. If it’s winter, you could set it outside with a tea towel over top of it to speed things along). Place it in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight. The fat will rise to the top and congeal–just lift it off and dispose of it.

Voila! You now have about 10 cups of delectable chicken stock a million times superior to anything you could buy in the store, and which cost virtually nothing to make. You can use it all for a big batch of soup, or freeze into smaller portions (some people use ice cube trays, but I like having 2-cup and 4-cup containers on hand). And don’t panic if it has solidified into a jelly-like consistency. That’s what real chicken stock is supposed to do! Note: this recipe contains no salt, so you will need to add salt when you cook with it.