Chicken stock. You can buy it fresh; you can buy it ready-made in tubs and you can buy it in the form of stock cubes, but you can easily make it yourself. In this video how to from Cookalong Live Gordon Ramsay demonstrates to how to make your own chicken stock.
You will really be able to tell the difference in flavour making your own chicken stock and if you make too much you can save it in the freezer.
You don't even need to buy a fresh chicken, if you have a roast dinner you can use the left over carcass. It really only takes minutes to put together.
Start off by making sure that you have a pan big enough to hold about 2 litres of liquid.
Once you have the right pan, place the chicken into it, whole, then add the mirepoix. This is a classic combination of onion, celery and carrot that forms the base of many stocks and soups. These three ingredients are also commonly referred to as 'aromatics'. Roughly chop the carrot, an onion and two sticks of celery, and add to the pan.
Next roughly chop a leek, cut a garlic bulb in half, some thyme and parsley, a few bay leaves and some lightly crushed peppercorns. Add some salt and then cover it all with cold water. Bring it up to the boil as quick as you can.
Once it's boiling, the stock needs to be skimmed. Just take a ladle and try and skim off any impurities that rise to the surface. This will stop the stock from becoming cloudy.
Now leave to simmer for 30-40 minutes.
Lastly take a fine sieve and drain your stock. Discard all the debris. Ideal for freezing.
