It’s time to prepare for those lovely warming dishes you’re going to cook over the next few months. Don’t throw away those roasted chicken carcasses! Put them into freezer bags and throw them in the freezer until you have a day when you can turn them into pure golden goodness.
It is beyond simple, but you do need a very large and tall saucepan or stock pan. It’s a great investment as I use mine a lot.
All you do is to wait until you have at least 4 or 5 carcasses frozen, then defrost them in the fridge overnight.
Put them all into the large saucepan, pushing them down into the pan and cover with water. Grind some black pepper and put in about 1 tbsp of dried oregano. Bring to a simmer and keep it simmering on VERY low for anything up to 8 hours or more. The lower you simmer, the clearer and golden the broth.
Occasionally stir the pot and push down the bones. When you are ready for the next step, remove the pot from the heat and set aside until it cools down a bit.
Get a large colander and pour the soup through it catching all the bones and meat in the colander while the juice goes in to the saucepan underneath it.
When the meat and bones have cooled enough to touch them, wash your hands then pick through all the bones and remove the meat.
Throw the bones away, put the meat into containers and freeze to use in pies, soups or anything else.
Put the remaining chicken juice in the fridge overnight to let the fat rise to the surface.
The following day, skim all the fat off the top of the stock and store the fat in a glass jar in the freezer to use for roast potatoes.
The broth should be really gelatinous if you’ve simmered it for long enough. Pour it into containers and freeze. You can use this very rich broth for soups, gravies, stews and almost anything. If you have stuffed your chickens with lemons, onions and fresh herbs when you roasted them, you will have all this added flavor to the stock.
Now sit down, look at your stack of golden goodness, pat yourself on the back and pour yourself a glass of wine.
I just had a bowl of neat steaming chicken broth and it was stunning!