Fragrant chicken broth is a remarkably tasty first course, it is healthy, nutritious and perfectly invigorates. A rich, low-fat chicken broth is useful for the weak or sick, it is recommended to give it to children as a first meal. Soups are cooked on it and even porridge is cooked. The neutral taste of a good chicken broth will not spoil, but rather enhance the taste of any products. But it is worth noting what the broth will be, the dish will turn out like this - its aroma, taste and even color depend on the base.
How much to cook chicken broth? What chicken or carcass parts to cook from? How to use it and for what purpose? To answer such questions definitely will not work. Our article will help you learn the basics of cooking chicken broth, teach you how to cook it deliciously, and use it if you have an extra portion of fragrant chicken broth.
How to cook chicken broth - the main points and principles of preparation
To get a rich broth, it is better to give preference to homemade, laying hens, from 2 to 4 years old, rather than broiler-grown chicken from the store. From broilers, a broth is obtained that is bold but not rich in taste or aroma. Such meat is best left for baking or frying. But if there is no way to purchase poultry, you have to do with the store, the main thing is to properly cook it.
What part of the bird is it better to cook chicken stock? For a delicious rich broth, it is better to take equally fleshy and bony parts of the bird. Ideally, this is a whole carcass or its half. But, if you are saving or intend to cook the first and main dish from one bird, take a carcass cut into pieces: legs, wings, backs, etc. Note that poultry meat is quite stiff and will need to be stewed for a long time. Do not try to cook it by quick roasting or baking - the dish will be spoiled.
The wings contain little meat, but a lot of bones and skin. This part of the chicken is best taken for broths that will go to prepare risotto or sauces, such a decoction is good and if you decide to cook a light soup.
Breast fillet is the most demanded part of the carcass. The meat contains a minimum of fat and is considered dietary. Broths from it are less aromatic and very light. They are best suited for baby food and those who follow a strict diet. If you decide to cook the base for the soup from the fillet, be sure to add a piece of fat, for example, the back.
Hips. In these pieces there is a lot of meat, unlike breast, it is more aromatic, tender and more pleasant to taste. The tubular bone located in the hump gives broth broth and aroma. Experienced cooks prefer to cut the thigh in half to digest the bone marrow and the broth has gotten more taste.
Chicken legs or, as they are otherwise called, shanks. Along with the hips, they are considered an excellent piece for preparing a saturated brew. Juicy meat, separated from the bone, is easy to cut in portions, for which this part of the chicken is preferred for broth.
Soup set, also called chicken drumsticks, wings, hips, necks, backs. This mixture of chicken pieces in one pan is ideal for the very best broths. They always turn out to be rich, aromatic, moderately oily and have a pleasant taste.
There are plenty of options, and if you can’t decide exactly what exactly to cook chicken broth, put a little of everything in the pan, the soup will turn out tastier and more rich.
How much to cook chicken broth. Cooking time depends not only on whether you got a home hen or a broiler, but also on the age of the chicken. Cooking a bird can take from one and a half to three hours, a decoction of broilers cooks faster. In any case, chicken stock is considered ready when poultry meat can be easily pierced with a knife.
Highlights to consider. Firstly, it’s important what water you will cook on. Tap water is not the best option, since in many cities it is difficult to name it drinking. In most cases, it can be used only after filtration and prolonged sedimentation. Otherwise, it will give the broth an unpleasant aftertaste, and, in addition, chicken broths based on it turn out muddy. For cooking, it is optimal to take purchased bottled water.
Secondly, in order for the broth to really turn out to be tasty, transparent and not to have a smell caused by specific feeds and often inherent in shop chicken, it is advisable to cook vegetables with the bird. They remove odors, give the chicken broth a golden hue and improve the taste. At a minimum, put carrots and onions in a pan - vegetables are removed when ready.
A fairly common question that arises when cooking any meat broth is to drain or use "first water"? If the chicken is fresh, does not have a pungent odor, it is not necessary to drain the first broth. This is recommended only in cases where the chicken has lain and has a slight unpleasant odor, but its meat and skin are evenly colored, without any stains and impurities of mucus.
In the "first water", in these cases, it is advised to boil the slices for about 15 minutes from boiling, and then drain it. However, it is worthwhile to clearly understand the difference between “it smells a bit, because ...” and “it smells sharply, because the chicken was gone.”
Poultry can have an unpleasant odor on its own. In this case, it is recommended to put the onion larger and cook the broth longer. Very nice to add some spices.
How to cook chicken broth to make it transparent. Initially, the bird or parts of it must be thoroughly rinsed under cool, running water. The feathers remaining in the skin are removed with tweezers, and persistent dirt on it is scraped and cut with a knife. It is not recommended to remove the skin, it will give the broth a pleasant golden hue. Vegetables for the broth are also thoroughly washed.
The size of the container in which the broth will be prepared is selected so that the chicken completely immersed in water and was covered with it by at least three centimeters. Before boiling, you should carefully monitor the process of foam formation. It must be removed in a timely manner - as it appears, then the broth will turn out beautiful and transparent. After boiling, the actions are simple, and the broth practically does not require attention until ready. The main thing is to set the heating correctly so that the contents of the container do not boil intensively. Ideally, if only rare bubbles pop up, and the surface itself is evenly “worried”. This will not only allow you to maintain the transparency of the broth, it will turn out like a tear, but also give you more freedom. No need to constantly check whether the broth runs out or not. But to cover the pan with a lid or not is quite a moot point. Someone recommends not to do this, but someone and vice versa. We suggest choosing a middle ground - we leave a gap between the pan and the lid so that the steam exits through it.
When to salt chicken stock? Salt is not recommended to be added immediately, but when the chicken has already begun to separate from the bone. You need to add it carefully, remembering why you are preparing the broth and, if for soup, which foods you will add.
It is advisable to strain the finished chicken broth through cheesecloth. This will help to get rid of small fragments of seeds and other impurities, for example, pieces of vegetables and spices, if any were added. Only after that it is considered to be chicken stock completely ready for further use.
Chicken broth, in the simplest cases, can be supplemented with homemade noodles, small factory-made pasta or cereals, which are boiled separately to avoid clouding of the broth.
How to cook chicken stock: a classic recipe for a slow cooker
Cooking chicken broth in a slow cooker is characterized in that the foam does not need to be removed. Cooking occurs at a uniform, slight boil, which allows the foam to collect in flakes, which are easily removed by filtering. This does not affect the transparency of the broth.
Ingredients:
• two liters of filtered water;
• 600 gr. chicken;
• a small onion;
• four peas of black pepper;
• one small leaf of lavrushka;
• medium-sized carrots, unsweetened varieties.
Cooking method:
1. Place well-washed pieces of poultry in the bowl and immediately fill them with water. If you do not plan to cook later soup, then the broth is better immediately and salt. Add a little less than a tablespoon of fine salt.
2. Wash the bay leaf and lower it into water, add peas of pepper and vegetables. It is advisable to divide the carrots into parts, and put the whole bulb.
3. Cook the chicken broth with the option “Soup”, but if the multicooker is not equipped with such a program, select “Stew”. We set different durations depending on the type of chicken: for a broiler bird, it is enough to set a timer for one hour, at home you need at least 2 hours.
4. At the end of the program we filter the broth, use it as intended.
How to cook a hearty chicken broth with potatoes and rice: easy soup recipe
Ingredients:
• a quarter of domestic chicken, the lower part, with a total weight of at least 300 g .;
• eight small potatoes;
• 100 gr. round grain rice groats;
• small carrots;
• fresh dill (chopped) - 1.5 tbsp. l .;
• large onion.
Cooking method:
1. Rice must be prepared in advance. Not earlier than two hours before the preparation of the broth, several times rinse the sorted groats. Then pour cool water and leave it in it. After two hours, we rinse again and recline on a sieve to filter excess water.
2. Chop the chicken in portions, put in a pan and add the onion, cut in half, to them. We put on the fire, cook the broth in accordance with all the rules. We remove the foam in time, cook the boiling field over low heat. We strain the ready-made broth, merging at the same time into a clean pan, and again place it on an intense fire. We lay in it and pieces of boiled chicken.
3. In a boiling chicken broth, dip the potatoes cut into thin cubes. Add coarsely grated carrots and dried rice groats, salt. Waiting for boiling again, remove the foam as it forms.
4. At the first sign of boiling, reduce the heat, cook for a quarter of an hour, until the potatoes soften. Season the chicken broth with herbs, remove from heat and let stand for five minutes.
How to cook light chicken breast broth for a children's or restorative diet
Ingredients:
• chicken fillet - breast - 300 gr.;
• liter of purified water;
• a small celery root;
• a small piece of parsley root;
• a small onion head;
• greens - optional.
Cooking method:
1. We clean the root of parsley and celery, remove from the onion only the upper, easily separated, layers of the husk. Well washing the onion and rhizomes, put in a pan. We put the whole bulb, and cut the rhizomes into pieces.
2. Wash the breast and lower it into the pan, where the vegetables have already been put, add the recommended amount of water and put on the stove. Removing the foam, bring to a boil over high heat. Then we add a little and leave the chicken to cook until soft with a slight boil, loosely covering the pan with a lid.
3. From the finished broth, put the meat in a clean bowl and cover it. Filter the broth, remove the roots and onions. Pouring into a clean pan, bring the broth to a boil. At the end, add the greens.
4. We use boiled meat as necessary - cut off the desired portion and kill with a blender. The resulting meat gruel is added to the warm broth.
5. If for some reason it is not recommended to eat meat, it can be used in other dishes, for example, for salads.
How to cook porridge on chicken broth: a recipe for millet with meat in the oven
Ingredients:
• chicken meat parts, preferably breast - 400 gr .;
• 120 gr. millet groats;
• ready-made light chicken stock from wings - 750 ml;
• 30 gr. butter;
• a small leaf of parsley.
Cooking method:
1. Wash the fillet, cut it into small, oblong pieces.
2. In a pan, melt part of the butter and quickly fry the chicken on it. Remove as soon as the pieces are lightly browned. We spread the chicken in equal proportions in pots.
3. Having washed the cereal well, decant it with all the water and put it on the fillet.
4. In the pan on which the breast was fried, pour the broth, add the parsley and peppers. Bringing to a boil, pour the broth into pots, if the broth is unsalted, add a little salt.
5. Close the containers and put in a cold, but already included oven. We raise the heating to 180 degrees and hold this mode in the future. Cook porridge for chicken stock for 50 minutes.
Useful tips and tricks for cooking chicken stock
• Try not to stir the broth or do it rarely, then it will be cleaner. Before boiling, stirring it is not recommended at all, otherwise the foam will mix with the broth and settle on the bottom.
• If you do not allow intense boiling from the very beginning, the remaining foam will converge into a thin film, which will subsequently settle. Filtering will help to remove it, but the nutritional value of the broth will decrease.
• When cleaning the onion, remove only the upper layers of the husk, and leave the part that needs to be removed with a knife, the broth will get a nice color.
• If you take raw chicken bones, put them in the oven for half an hour and bake, and then put together with the soup set, the broth will turn out to be more saturated in color. In addition, it will be more aromatic.
• Chicken stock should not be stored for long periods. It can be kept in the refrigerator for no more than three days. If you expect to save longer, it is better to freeze the broth.
