MY BEST PICTURE
STORY
I love soup. It is always so cheap to make. I was tired of buying chicken broth AND a rotisserie chicken every time I wanted chicken noodle soup. What a hassle. I wanted a way to have stock on hands at all times, without having to run to the store to get store-bought stuff for each meal.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 Rotisserie chicken, pre-cooked from grocery store
- 1 Onion
- 4 Celery stalks
- 10 carrots
- Olive oil
- 3 Bay leaves
- 3 springs of thyme
- Parsley
- Lowery’s seasoned salt
- Fresh cracked black pepper
HOW I COOKED IT
I pre-heated the oven to 450 degrees and laid out a baking a sheet. I quartered the onion, leaving the skin and everything on it, cut the baby carrots and half, and cut the celery stalks in two inch pieces. I did use every bit of the celery, even the leaves that are on the top. I purposely did the chopping of the veggies first, since I have had experience pulling chickens apart and it is a total grease-fest. I threw the veggies on the baking sheet and left them to the side.
I separated all of the good parts of the chicken including the white and dark meat and placed them in a zip-lock bag. Once I broke that chicken down, I took the skin, the bones, and the questionable parts, and added them all to the veggies on the baking sheet. This is what is pictured under “My Best Picture.” I drizzled the olive oil on everything contained on the baking sheet, and put a fair amount of Lowery’s seasoned salt on top of everything. I was not shy with the salt. I added some pepper to complete the seasoning and then mixed it all with my hands before throwing the mix in the oven.
I set a timer for 45 minutes and forgot about it. That oven was applying its magical roasting abilities to the bones and veggies which was super exciting to think about. After 45 minutes, I removed the baking sheet from the oven and scraped the veggies from the sheet into a clean pot (a big pot). I rinsed the pan with some water in the sink and was careful not to spill any because I scraped the remaining smutz on the pan with the water and poured that into the pot as well.
I filled the pot with water, didn’t measure the amount of water, but added enough so that it felt right. Kind of the amount of water I put in a pot as if I were about to cook two pounds of pasta. I placed the pot with all of the wonderful scraps on the stove and turned the heat on high until it began to boil. Once it boiled I threw it the bay leaves and the tyme and turned it to as low as it could go and let that baby simmer with a lid on top, of course. I let it simmer for 4 hours.
After 4 hours, I turned off the heat and got out a big strainer, a fine strainer, and a second pot. I poured the mixture through the big strainer into the new pot. It looked pretty nice at this point, and I rinsed out my original pot. Then, using the more fine strainer, I strained the stock back into the original pot. I let it cool, then placed in containers for freezing and for my next soup adventure.
MY HONEST OPINION
This stock was wonderful. It turned a beautiful dark color after simmering for 4 hours. So much flavor.
WHAT I WOULD TRY NEXT TIME
It is hard to think of ways to improve this, considering its simplicity and how great it comes out. Since I have a secret obsession with rosemary, I would like to throw in a few sprigs of that to the simmering stock next time!