Kill the Same Bird Twice
So some cooking ethos from me while I am thinking on it. Right now I am cooking some chicken soup. It’s Saturday, and since a basketball game was canceled the whole house got to sleep in. I set out a frozen bird around 8:30 AM in a bath full of cool water. By the time 4 o’clock rolled around there was two pots on the stove; one pot of complete chicken soup, and the other a bone broth rendering down for another meal ahead. This is how you kill the same bird twice.
When considering broths and high density foods, chickens rule. You can roast a chicken in the oven, pull apart all the golden goodness, and then cook it again and make something almost better than the first thing. I always marvel at that, no matter how many times I’ve done it —I’m talking about bone broth, baby! The process is similar to wringing out a cloth, accept you get more in the second wringing than you did the first.
I wish that everyone had the second leg of the chicken-trip planned. When they’re done BBQ, Smoking, Roasting, Braising, and Boiling chicken, that chicken carcass needs something else to do. It still has plenty to give.
So listen, this is what you do…
When you set out to cook a chicken, whether you’re smoking or baking, also set out a bowl to collect the leftovers from whomever is enjoying it. That’s right, let them scrape their chicken bits off their plate, with all their cooties on it. Heck, if there’s vegetables on that plate, have them throw it in there, too. You’re gathering the otherwise deemed “refuse” to become something new; bone broth/stock. You can freeze this stuff in a gallon ziplock and deal with it later, or you can throw it into a pot of simmering water with a little vinegar to help pull the minerals from the bones. The stock is going to boil down for hours so there’s nothing very pressing to do once you get it in a large pot. I use a large dutch oven for nearly all my stocks and soups. I boil it until I don’t want to pay attention to it anymore. No less than four hours usually.
Another way to enrich these stocks is to save onion skins and any other veggie and meat bits you usually trim off when preparing a meal and freeze for when you make a stock. All the course ingredients can go into a pot of simmering water and become something refine. It’s really kitchen alchemy when you think of it. Add your favorite aromatic, or keep it simple so you can add your highlights later.
Once you’re done thinking about this stock, turn off the heat, strain everything out so you only have liquid and either A) start adding items to the liquid stock you want in a stew or soup, or B) let it cool completely and freeze for later use. I primarily freeze all leftover soups, chili, and stock in quart or gallon zip lock bags. Fill, squeeze out the air, seal, label, and lay flat to freeze so they can be organized later like books on a shelf. This type of storage is great for having the kids pick something quick to heat up, like chili, or a pho soup from the bag, or get a leg up on cooking with nutritious stock you made yourself, NOT filled with MSG. Because…ew.
If you want to be economical and smart about nutrition, you may consider this ethos: kill two birds with one stone, and kill the same bird twice!
