Dark Chicken Stock

Sometimes you want to bring extra flavor to a dish, and while light chicken stock tastes great, and homemade stock even better, it lacks the deep roasty notes that can really help some dishes shine. Dark or roasted chicken stock has a deep flavor of roasted chicken and caramelized vegetables. It can bring an extra layer of depth to tomato-based sauces and is key to making a rich, brown gravy for roasted preparations.

This recipe will help you make a dark stock with all those roasted flavors and if nothing else, can be the backbone of a great gravy.

You can find recipes for other chicken stocks used on this site here:

Dark Chicken Stock

Recipe by DrewCourse: SoupsDifficulty: Easy
Servings

4

servings
Prep time

15

minutes
Cooking time

1

hour 

45

minutes
Total time

2

hours 

Ingredients

  • 4 qts plus 1 cup cold water

  • 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

  • 1 medium carrot

  • 1 medium onion

  • 1 rib of celery

  • 1 tsp black peppercorns

  • 1 bay leaf

  • 1 small sprig of thyme

  • 3 small sprigs of parsley

  • 1 sachet unflavored gelatin (opt)

Directions

  • Preheat your oven to 500° or to its highest temperature setting.
  • Wash the carrots and celery, and trim the root end from the onion.
  • Tie the parsley, thyme, and bay leaf together into a bouquet garni.
  • Using poultry shears or a large knife, break each chicken thigh into 2-3 pieces.
  • Quarter the onion and break the carrot and celery into 4-6-inch pieces.
  • Arrange the chicken pieces and vegetables on a sheet pan.
  • Roast until the chicken is very brown and the edges of the onion start to blacken and char. This can take anywhere from 5 -15 minutes.
  • Fill a stock pot with 4 quarts of cold water. Transfer the chicken and vegetables from the sheet pan into the cold water.
  • Carefully drain any chicken fat from the sheet pan before pouring 1 cups of water into the pan and using a steel spoon or spatula to scrape up as much of the ‘fond’ (the tasty brown bits) as possible. These little bits will truly make your stock more flavorful. Carefully pour the water from the sheet pan into your stock pot.
  • Add the peppercorns and bouquet garni, bring the stock to a low simmer, and cook for 2-4 hours.
  • If you are using additional gelatin, bloom it in ¼ cup of water for 10 minutes, and add the bloomed gelatin a few minutes after bringing the stock to a simmer.
  • After 2-4 hours, reduce to the lowest possible heat setting and allow stock to settle. This will permit much of the sediment, etc. to settle to the bottom of the pot.
  • Carefully ladle the stock from the pot and strain through several layers of cheesecloth or through a flour sack towel or butter muslin.

Be sure to check out my other food project, The Weekly Menu!

2 Comments

  1. Pingback: Homemade Chicken Stocks – The Chicken Thigh Guy

  2. Pingback: Chicken Thigh Kapama – The Chicken Thigh Guy

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