White chicken stock

MAKES 1.5 LITRES / PREPARATION 10 MINUTES / COOKING 3 HOURS 15 MINUTES

3 chicken carcasses (freeze carcasses after roasts until you have enough or buy 3–4 raw carcasses from the butcher) or 2kg chicken wings, jointed, or a mixture of both 2–3 onions, quartered

1 head of garlic, halved

2 carrots, chopped into 3 pieces each

2 leeks, chopped into 3 pieces each

2 celery sticks, cut into 3 pieces each

2 bay leaves few parsley stalks fresh thyme

8 black peppercorns

Place all the ingredients in a large, deep cooking pot and cover with cold water. Slowly bring to the boil, skimming off the scum that rises to the surface with a large metal spoon, along with any fat. This helps to ensure a lovely clear stock. Turn the heat down and let it simmer gently for 3 hours. It’s important to make sure that it doesn’t boil at this stage, or the bubbles will knock away at the bone marrow and make the stock cloudy. While it’s simmering, skim the scum from the top, especially for the first 30 minutes of the cooking time.

As the stock cooks it will begin to reduce. If the water level falls below the ingredients, add more cold water, which will also reveal any scum hiding at the bottom of the pan.

When the 3 hours are up, place a fine sieve over a large saucepan or bowl and pour the stock through it, collecting all the flavoursome liquid. Squeeze all the juice out of the veges and through the sieve. If you taste the stock at this stage it may not have much flavour; you need to reduce the liquid to condense the flavour. Pour the stock into a clean saucepan, bring to the boil and slowly allow the liquid to reduce. Taste it every so often as it gently boils, and once you have the right intensity of chicken flavour you can stop. Do not season your stock as you may want to reduce it more when making gravies which will make it too salty.

Either use the stock straight away or let it cool, transfer to a container and keep it in the fridge. A good chicken stock will have a really chickeny essence to it and, once refrigerated, will turn to jelly.