The chicken stock is… bland.

Not bitter, fortunately, but… bland.  I have salted it, tossed in what the jar calls ‘Herbs de Provence,’ and am letting it simmer for another half hour; perhaps that will help draw out the chicken flavor more.  Failing that, I can just strain it, decant it and use it for soup tomorrow (it’s getting late in the day for soup today).

8 thoughts on “The chicken stock is… bland.”

  2. I smoked a pork shoulder yesterday. The way I normally do them is a good 5 or 6 hours of smoke and then wrap in foil with a stick of butter and some beer or cider and finish in the oven. This gave me some very tasty pork broth. So today I’m simmering the bone in it with the fat cap, and later I will fry some cubed bacon ends and toss them in there with some wontons for soup.

    1. Well, you know how it is. We had the chicken carcass and a bunch of vegetable peelings already, and it’s mostly just boil-and-simmer…

      1. Oh, absolutely. But this chicken was a wan little pre-cooked fryer that the wife had picked up at the grocery, don’t ask me why. After I pulled all the meat off the carcass, it just didn’t look like there was enough to make a good stock out of it. And I didn’t really have the time for stock-making, because the soup was the planned main course for dinner. BTW, I bought my first immersion blender! Last weekend, I made roast butternut squash soup, cream of broccoli soup, and beat soup. Immersion blenders are cool!

  4. For me the key is whole uncooked (NOT precooked) chicken pieces (bone and skin are your friend for a richer broth), carrots, celery, onions, fresh parsley (optional), salt and pepper to your liking along with thyme and bay leaf, although Herbes Provence are a nice touch if you want a bit more complicated flavor. Bring to a boil, reduce to a low simmer, cover and cook for an hour or so. Strain everything out and it should be good to go, although if you want it stronger, just bring it back to a gentle boil and reduce it for awhile to your liking. Another nice touch is substituting shallots for onion to give it a slight hint of garlic flavor. Hope some of this might help!

    -Mike

  5. Next time roast the carcass (+ quartered onion, carrot, celery) in oven at 500 F for ~20 minutes before tossing it in the stock pot. Also make sure the wings are in there — gelatin is key to stock body.

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