I personally find it disgusting to handle raw meat. When meat is raw I not only dislike the feeling of having "raw-meat-germs" all over my counter and utensils, I also find it very difficult to separate the actual meat from the skin, bones and fat. Which is why boiling chicken is by far my preferred method for providing myself with chicken for my recipes. It's so simple... take the chicken out of the bag, maybe rinse it (maybe not!), and put it in a pot with water. So easy!
The nicest part of this method is you can use a refrigerated chicken... or you can just put a frozen chicken right into the pot!!! No thawing!!! Only be careful if you use a frozen chicken to remove the bag of gizzards and other chicken parts from the cavity of the bird after it has loosened up in the hot water.
You can also put it into a crock pot. The key to this method, I find, is the longer it boils, the better tasting the meat will be. I've often boiled it on the stove for 2-5 hours, and in the crock pot for up to 10 hours. However, it's not necessary, as the meat will fully cook within a half hour for a pre-thawed bird. You can also do this with a carcass after you have eaten the goodies off and you want to get the rest of the remaining meat. Just be careful not to leave the house if you decide to boil it on the stove--a boiling over pot could start a fire!
After you decide the chicken has taken a long-enough beating in the water, you turn off the heat and let it cool for a while. Actually, letting the meat cool in some of it's own stock will make it juicier and more flavorful. When you go to remove the bird from the pot you will find that it literally falls apart, like in my picture above. It's difficult to get all of the meat out of the pot, so I use my handy-dandy strainer and pour the rest of the water (which is now stock) off.
But don't just pour that stock down the drain! You can use it to boil noodles for your chicken casseroles, and it is an essential ingredient in your chicken soup! However, before using the stock you may want to put it in the fridge for several hours so that the fat will rise to the top and you can scrape it off.
Your next step is to remove the meat from the skin, bones and fat. You'll find that there is not a lot of fat because most of it has boiled off. And the meat separates very easily from the skin and bones. This process is way easier than you might expect. After separating the meat, you only need to get out your kitchen sheers and cut the pieces to your desired size.
When I boiled a 6-1/2 pound chicken, I found that it gave me 8 cups of meat. I often use the bags of skinless boneless frozen chicken breasts for this process as well. So stock up on them when they are on sale ($3-$4 for a 2.5 or 3 pound bag is a good price).
Posts
I'd like to know what to store the stock in if you plan to keep it for some time. Would it work to just pour it in a freezer bag and stick it in the freezer door? How well would putting it in a used glass jar work (for refridgerating and/or freezing) I don't have the tools to can for real, and I don't have the space (or patience rearraging requires sometimes) for a big container in the fridge all the time.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to keep the stock, I would just put it in a freezer bag. Be sure to lay the freezer bag on a flat surface while it is freezing, then once frozen you can slide it into any crevice in the freezer (like stacking books on a book shelf). Another possible use for the stock (especially if you leave the fat in the stock) is chicken gravy... but it might take quite a lot of thickener... that might be better made with the scraped fat from the top of the refrigerated stock. I don't know, I've never tried.
ReplyDelete