ROTISSERIE CHICKEN STOCK AND SOUP

O.K., so you did the rotisserie chicken thing last night. Please tell me you didn’t throw away all those incredible roasted bones! Assuming, you did not, let’s make a quick, easy chicken stock. Also, I suggest you try to reserve all the other bones as well after all the meat has been dispensed with.

You also will need about 1 cup of the cooked chicken meat, preferably breast meat, for the soup. I also used some leftover cooked white rice, but you can add egg noodles or other pasta like orzo, or nothing.

What you put in your stock is open to interpretation. I used onions, celery, a carrot, and, since I had one in the fridge I needed to use for something. Also, turnips and turnips work well for stock. Keep in mind this is a very small batch of stock, you’ll get about 4 cups, you adjust the amount of ingredients for more than one chicken.

What’s so great about making your own stock? You control everything, especially the sodium content. It will need seasoning when it’s done.

Ingredients:

For the stock:

• 1 rotisserie chicken carcass and bones

• 1 medium carrot, rough chop

• 1 celery rib, rough chop

• 1/2 onion, peeled, rough chop

• 1 medium leek, white and light green parts only, rough chop

• 2 garlic cloves, peeled, smashed

• 2-3 sprigs of parsley

• 1-2 sprigs of fresh thyme

• 1 bay leaf

• 10 whole pepper corns

For the chicken soup:

• 3-4 cups of stock

• 1/2 cup onions, 1/4 inch dice

• 1/2 cup carrots, 1/4 inch dice

• 1/2 cup celery, 1/4 inch dice

• 1 sprig of thyme

• 1 inch piece off fresh ginger, sliced into 3 pieces

• 1 tsp Worcestershire

• Kosher salt and white or black pepper to taste

• 1 cup cooked chicken breast meat, diced

• 1 cup cooked white rice or cooked pasta of choice

• 1 tbsp chopped cilantro or parsley

• 1 tbsp sliced green onions

Directions:

• Place all the bones in a large pot. Add the rough chop carrot, onion, celery, leek, garlic, thyme, parsley, peppercorns, and bay leaf. Cover with cold water by about 1 inch, about 8 cups. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Do not add salt at this point. Using a ladle, skim some of the foam if desired, it just makes for a more refined stock.

• When done cooking, strain the stock through a fine metal sieve. You should get about 4 cups. Transfer the stock to a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Add the diced onions, carrots, celery, thyme, ginger, and Worcestershire. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes.

• Remove the ginger and the thyme. Season to taste with Kosher salt and white or black pepper.

• Add the cooked chicken and cooked rice and heat through for about 2 minutes. Taste and reseason if necessary. Serve with chopped cilantro and sliced green onions. I added a few drop of sesame oil and cholula or Tabasco.