Slow Cooker Chicken Stock

I'm going to guess what you're thinking. "It's the week before Thanksgiving. Why on earth is she posting a recipe for chicken stock? Why not turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes. Or even gravy, for the love of God?!"

I'll tell you why. Because chicken stock is going to be the backbone of nearly everything on your Thanksgiving table. It's going to moisten the bread in your stuffing. It'll be the foundation of your soup. And you'll reduce it down and add turkey drippings to it to make your gravy. Even my green bean recipe uses a cup of chicken stock.

To put it simply:

delicious chicken stock = delicious Thanksgiving spread

The recipe is here a bare bones, basic chicken stock. It's made with chicken wings (great bone/meat ratio), water, onion, garlic and salt. The flavor is pure chicken. It's a wonderful base for chicken noodle soup, gravy, or any other recipe in which you want the chicken flavor to really shine through.

You can modify this recipe to suit your needs. If you want a more intensely flavored stock, roast or saute the bones first. Or transfer the stock to a saucepan and reduce it down until it's strong enough. (A word of caution: if you think you might reduce the stock, be conservative when adding salt. As the stock reduces down, it will get more and more salty.)

There's also plenty of room to personalize. If you like a more complex stock, add celery, onion, peppercorns and/or a bay leaf. If the stock is destined for matzoh ball soup, throw in some dill. If you're going to use it for an Asian soup or curry, consider adding fresh ginger or star anise.

The recipe is as spare the list of ingredients. Put all the ingredients in a slow cooker and turn it on. Ten hours later, strain it. That's it. You're done. This recipe is perfect for the days before Thanksgiving when you're already running around like a chicken with it's head cut off (sorry -- couldn't resist)!

Oh, and in case you're wondering, we haven't finalized this year's Thanksgiving menu yet. But here's what we're thinking, a mix of old favorites and new recipes we're dying to try:

Ina Garten's Perfect Roast Turkey

Cornbread Dressing with Sausage and Fennel

Mark Bittman's Make Ahead Gravy

Jellied Cranberry Sauce with Fuji Apple

Sweet Potatoes TBD

Mashed Potatoes TBD

Best Ever Green Bean Casserole

Super Pumpkiny Pumpkin Pie

Bittersweet Chocolate Pecan Pie

Place the chicken wings in your slow cooker.

Add onions, garlic and salt.

Add water and turn the machine on. I cooked the stock on low for 10 hours. And had to be very patient. After 5 hours, it didn't look all that different than it did at hour 1. I started to doubt. 

I shouldn't have. Because at hour 8, it suddenly started to look like this.

And by hour 10, it looked and smelled divine. Okay, I lied. It didn't look divine yet. But it did smell divine.

 Strain out the wings, onions, and "bits."

And you'll have this.

And if you're lucky, a bowl of this.

Slow Cooker Chicken Stock

Recipe from Cook's Illustrated

3 pounds uncooked chicken wings

2 1/2 quarts water

1 large onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, smashed

2 tsp salt, or more to taste

1.    Place all ingredients in a slow-cooker. Cook on LOW for 10 hours or HIGH for 5 hours.

2.    Strain out chicken parts, onion and garlic. (I strained it twice. The first time, I used a "spider" to remove the chicken pieces and onion. The second time I poured the stock through a sieve lined with a paper towel to catch the little bits that I don't want floating around in my stock).

3.    Use right away, or freeze.

Yield: about 3 quarts

Notes: This stock is not very fatty. But if you'd like, you can refrigerate the stock for a few hours. The fat will congeal, and you can remove it. Also, you can portion the stock out into 1 quart zip loc bags, freeze them flat in your freezer, and use as needed.

Chicken Piccata Pasta

I love the flavors of chicken piccata. As far as I'm concerned, the chicken is an afterthought. It's the sauce I'm after. Rich with garlic and shallots, bright with lemon juice and capers.

capers

Capers are the edible flower buds of the caper bush. When you bite into a caper, it releases a little burst of salty, pickle-flavored juice. The flavor of capers is the defining flavor of chicken piccata.

In addition to piccata dishes, you'll find capers in pasta puttanesca, remoulades and vinaigrettes. You might recognize them as the dark green, pea-size spheres you see next to the lox and cream cheese on a bagel spread. 

Traditionally, chicken piccata is served as a breaded cutlet topped with its defining lemon-caper sauce, and served on a bed of pasta.

This variation takes the essential components and turns them into a one-pot meal. It's lighter because rather than dipping the chicken in an egg wash and breadcrumbs, it's just lightly dusted with a bit of flour. I used mini penne, my son's current favorite pasta shape. But use any short pasta you like.

Gather your ingredients.

Set pasta to boil.

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Toss lightly with flour.

Lightly brown chicken in hot butter/oil mixture. Remove chicken and set aside.

Add shallots (I used sliced red onion, but will use chopped shallots next time), garlic and thyme to the same pan. Cook until shallots are tender.

 Add flour, stir to coat shallot mixture, and cook for a minute or two until the flour is golden brown.

Whisk in lemon juice and chicken stock. Let simmer for a couple of minutes until the sauce thickens slightly.

Add the capers...

Chicken...

And pasta. 

Serve warm.

Chicken Piccata Pasta

Minimally adapted from A Spicy Perspective

1 lb chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces (you can also use breasts or tenders)

1 lb pasta

4 Tbsp flour, divided

2 Tbsp butter

3 Tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 shallot, finely chopped

2 tsp fresh thyme leaves

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup chicken stock

3 ounces capers, drained

Salt

Pepper

1.    Place a large pot of salted water over high heat and bring to a boil.

2.    Meanwhile, salt and pepper the chicken liberally and toss with 2 tablespoons of the flour.

3.    Place a large skillet over medium heat. Add butter and oil.

4.    Drop the pasta in the boiling water and cook as instructed on the package then drain.

5.    Once the butter is melted, place the chicken pieces in butter/oil mixture and saute for 2-3 minutes per side until golden brown and just cooked through. Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon and place on paper towels to dry.

6.    Add the garlic, shallots and thyme to the same pan and saute for few minutes, until the shallots are tender. Whisk in the remaining 2 tablespoons flour until it turns a light golden brown. sauce.

7.    Then whisk in the lemon juice and chicken stock.

8.    Once the sauce is simmering again, toss in the capers and chicken. Mix in the pasta and serve warm.

Serves 6.

Ballotine of Chicken

For the April Daring Cooks Challenge, Lisa from Parsley,Sage and Sweet has challenged us to debone a whole chicken, using this video by Jacques Pepin as our guide; then stuff it, tie it and roast it, to create a Chicken Ballotine.

I'm a list maker. I have a to do list, of course. And a list of recipes to try, restaurants to sample, books to read, clothes to buy, vacations to take, things to pack, and gifts to give. You get the idea. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed I calm myself down by making a list of lists I need to make. Yes, really.

So maybe it's no surprise that I have a list of cooking techniques to master. Or at least try.

That list looks something like this:

• Break down a whole chicken into 8 pieces
• Filet a fish
• Make a tender pie crust
• Make mayonnaise from scratch
• Make a loaf of bread
• Debone a chicken

So I was excited when I read this month's Daring Cook's challenge -- deboning, stuffing, tying and roasting a whole chicken! If you're not a list maker, you may not understand. But there is something immensely satisfying about crossing something off a to do list.

Most Daring Cook's Challenges involve one or more recipes and then photos illustrating the technique. But this one took more than photos. It required a video. And not just any video. A video featuring cooking legend Jacques Pepin. (If you're interested in watching the video, you can view it here.)

He made it look so easy. I watched the video a couple of times and felt ready to go. I gathered my knives, cutting board and kitchen towels. I had my laptop, video cued up, at the ready. And off I went.

It was a bit of a mess. I had to keep returning to the video for guidance and stopping to take pictures — not an easy task when you're working with raw chicken. I washed and dried my hands over and over so I could pick up my camera and hit rewind on my laptop without contaminating the entire kitchen.

At one point in the video Jacques looks up at the camera and says (with a straight face!) "It should not take you much more than a minute to bone out a chicken." Maybe if you're a classically trained French chef who regularly cooked alongside Julia Child. It probably took me closer to 45.

It wasn't pretty. And it wasn't as easy as Jacques made it look. There were a few little bones that didn't want to leave their cozy, chicken home. At these points, I admit, Jacques' finesse and technique gave way to my brute force. But in the end, the chicken was deboned. And I was able to pick up my pencil and do this:

• Debone a chicken

I started with this whole chicken. 

First, I cut off the wings and what I believed fervently hoped to be the wish bone (it wasn't).

I put the chicken breast-side down, and cut a slit down the back.

Now it was time for the main event, pulling out the carcass. Doing that, according to Jacques, barely involved the knife. In fact, the knife would only be used to cut through four joints — the two shoulder joints and the two hip joints. And you don't need a lot of force, either. When you find that sweet spot, the knife slides right into the joint and separates it away. Once the joints are dealt with, it's more a matter of peeling the meat off the carcass than cutting anything away. 

Here's what it looked like once the carcass was out.

The hardest part was probably removing the bone from the leg and thigh. Let's just say it involved a lot of scraping. It wasn't pretty. Not while I was doing it. Or, really, even once I was finished. I'll spare you that picture and just show you what the chicken looked like when all the bones were out.

The bones!

Finally, it was time to stuff the bird. The stuffing was a simple mixture of spinach, garlic, cheese, and cubed bread. I spread the stuffing over the chicken and down into the leg/thigh area.

Then rolled the chicken up, slightly overlapping the sides so the stuffing couldn't escape.

All tied up with kitchen string.

Glazed with melted butter, salt and pepper. Then into the oven she went.

Only to emerge an hour later, beautifully golden and perfectly cooked.

Sliced. And ready to serve.

Ballotine of Chicken

1 whole chicken (about 3-3/4 pounds), boned
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Spinach, Cheese, and Bread Stuffing (see recipe below)

Sauce:

1/3 cup water
1/2 cup dry red
1 celery stalk, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1 small onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1/2 tsp cornstarch, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
1 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1.    Preheat the oven to 400°F.

2.    Lay the chicken skin side down on the work surface and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Spread the cool spinach, bread and cheese mixture evenly over the chicken, stuffing the legs too.

3.    Roll the chicken up, tie it with kitchen string, and place it in a roasting pan.

4.    Roast the ballotine for about 1 hour or until the temperature is 160-165 degrees F in the center of the ballotine. Lift it from the pan and place it on a platter.

For the sauce:

5.    Skim off and discard most of the fat from the drippings in the pan. Add the water and wine to the drippings to deglaze the pan, and heat over medium heat, stirring to loosen and melt the solidified juices.

6.    Strain the juices into a saucepan. Add the celery, onion, and carrot and bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and boil gently for 5 minutes. Stir in the dissolved cornstarch and soy sauce and bring the mixture back to a boil, stirring, to thicken it. Remove from the heat.

7.    Transfer the ballotine to a cutting board and remove the string. Cut half of it into 4 or 5 slices. Return the uncut half of the ballotine to the serving platter and arrange the cut slices in front of it. Serve with sauce. Cut additional slices of ballotine as needed at the table.

Spinach, Cheese, and Bread Stuffing

1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp finely chopped garlic
5 ounces baby spinach leaves
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 cup (grated Gruyère or mozzarella cheese
1 1/2 cups cubed bread

1.    Heat the oil in a large saucepan or skillet. Add the garlic, spinach, salt, and pepper and cook for 1 minute to soften the garlic and wilt the spinach.

2.    Transfer to a bowl and let cool to room temperature.

3.    Stir in the cheese and cubed bread.

Serves 4 to 6

Google's Braised Chicken and Kale

  

I came across this recipe in Bon Appetit. It caught my eye because my brother-in-law works for Google and I've heard tales of the food. There's a salad bar of course, and soups and sandwiches and pizza and burgers and pasta. But there are also Chinese and Indian stations, serving noodles, tofu stir fry, daal and saag paneer. You can get carnitas burritos, bi bim bap, sushi and empanadas. Nuts, berries, and freshly squeezed juices. And did I mention that it's all free?

With such a strong reputation for their food, I figured any recipe that Google shared with Bon Appetit would be a winner. But I was stuck on the kale.

My long lost friend, kale.

I haven't eaten kale for almost two years. Not because I don't like it. I do. I did. Until I joined a CSA and got a fat bunch of kale in my box every week for five straight months. I ate it shredded, torn and tossed in salads. I stir fried it with olive oil and garlic, and I served it steamed, with a pat of butter. I made kale chips. And then I just couldn't eat any more kale. 

But now here it was again. And I was considering it. Seriously considering it. When I tasted it in this recipe, it was as if we'd never met before. I'd forgotten its rich earthy flavor. And how it stays just a little bit crisp even when it's cooked.

The recipe was a winner. And kale is back on my grocery list.

Start with bone-in chicken thighs. I bought thighs with skin and bones, then just pulled the skin off. (It's easy if you just grip the skin with a paper towel and pull.)

Sprinkle with paprika, salt and pepper.

Cook until the chicken is golden brown. It won't be cooked through yet. Give the chicken enough space to brown; you may have to do this step in two batches, as I did.

Cook garlic and onion until tender and golden brown.

Add the chicken (and any chicken juices) back to the pot.

Then add broth, wine, and herbs.

Bring to a boil, cover and simmer...

...until the chicken is cooked through.

 Add the kale. Cover and simmer for about five more minutes...

...until the kale is wilted but still bright green.

I served the chicken and kale over polenta, which was perfect for soaking up the tasty sauce.

Google's Braised Chicken and Kale

Recipe slightly adapted from Bon Appetit

4 chicken legs, drumsticks and thighs separated (I used 8 chicken thighs with bones, skin removed)

1 Tbsp paprika

Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, sliced

6 garlic cloves, sliced

2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 cup dry white wine

2 sprigs rosemary

2 sprigs thyme

1 large bunch kale, center ribs and stems removed, leaves cut into 1-inch strips

Lemon wedges

1.    Sprinkle chicken with paprika; season with salt and pepper.

2.    Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add chicken skin side down and cook, turning occasionally, until brown on all sides, 8-10 minutes; transfer to a plate.

3.    Add onion and garlic to pot and cook, stirring often, until softened, 8-10 minutes.

4.    Return chicken to pot. Add broth, wine, and herbs. Bring to a boil; cover. Reduce heat; simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 40 minutes.

5.    Add kale to pot. Cover; cook until wilted, about 5 minutes. Discard herbs.

6.    Serve chicken and kale with lemon wedges.

Serves 4

Turkey Meatloaf

Now that the election is safely behind us, I can admit it. My husband likes meatloaf. No, he doesn't request meatloaf cakes for his birthday every year like a certain not-so-successful politician we know. But he does look forward to eating it when the weather gets chilly.

This meatloaf is a little healthier than most because it's made with turkey rather than beef. It's flavored with a mixture of onions, thyme and lots of Worcestershire sauce. (I usually sprinkle on some extra Worcestershire and Tabasco once it's cooked). And it's topped with a simple coating of ketchup whose flavor deepens while the meatloaf cooks.

Serve this hot or warm, or even cold in a sandwich.

Saute the onions and other seasonings until translucent.

Stir in the Worcestershire sauce, chicken stock and tomato paste.

Combine the turkey, bread crumbs, eggs and onion mixture. 

There's no way around it. You have to use your hands for this.

Shape the mixture into a rectangle on a baking sheet.

Spread a layer of ketchup on top. It sounds weird, but don't skip the ketchup. The flavor changes when you heat it and it makes a nice sauce for the meatloaf.

Bake until cooked through.

Slice and eat!

  

Turkey Meatloaf

Recipe from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

3 cups chopped yellow onions (2 large onions)

2 Tbsp good olive oil

2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp fresh thyme leaves (1/2 teaspoon dried)

1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce

3/4 cup chicken stock

1 1/2 tsp tomato paste

5 lb ground turkey breast (I used regular ground turkey)

1 1/2 cups plain dry bread crumbs

3 eggs, beaten

3/4 cup ketchup

1.    Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

2.    In a medium saute pan, over medium-low heat, cook the onions, olive oil, salt, pepper, and thyme until translucent, but not browned, approximately 15 minutes.

3.    Add the Worcestershire sauce, chicken stock, and tomato paste and mix well. Allow to cool to room temperature.

4.    Combine the ground turkey, bread crumbs, eggs, and onion mixture in a large bowl. Mix well.

5.    Shape into a rectangular loaf on an ungreased sheet pan. Spread the ketchup evenly on top.

6.    Bake for 1 1/2 hours until the internal temperature is 160 degrees F and the meatloaf is cooked through. (A pan of hot water in the oven under the meatloaf will keep the top from cracking.)

7.    Serve hot, at room temperature, or cold in a sandwich.

Serves 8 to 10