Chicken Broth
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken
Dress the chicken and singe off any feathers.
Wash the chicken in cold water and place it whole in a soup kettle.
Add enough cold water to cover the chicken.
Simmer the broth
Bring to a boil, skim off any foam, cover the kettle, and cook slowly for 5 hours.
After 2 hours, turn the chicken and replenish with boiling water if needed.
Once done, lift the chicken out, skim off the fat, and season with coarse sea salt.
Serve
You should have about 1½ pints of broth.
Serve with double baked rusk or crackers. If using rice, cook it in the broth for 1 hour.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Old chicken
- Provides the meat and bones that give the broth its body and flavour as it simmers.
- Cold water
- Extracts flavour and gelatin from the chicken slowly as it heats, forming the broth.
The step that matters
Bring to a boil, then keep the heat slow. Boiling hard emulsifies fat and clouds the broth, while a gentle simmer keeps it clear. Skimming foam as it rises removes impurities that would otherwise cloud and sour the flavour.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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