Chicken stock. Bone broth. It’s a simple thing really. Making stock. Bones. A few aromatics. Water. Time. Super concentrated chicken stock is a whole different thing.
When you reduce the stock right down to a syrupy consistency it transforms into a flavour grenade ready to transform any chicken dish.
Think chicken demi-glace. If you only ever make one thing from this blog, make the concentrated chicken stock.
The best thing about this recipe is it’s dead easy. It’s even easier than regular stock. Regular chicken stock has carrots and celery you have to chop. Herbs. Peppercorns. Tomatoes even.
Concentrated chicken stock has 3 ingredients. And one of them is water. You don’t want the flavour from the aromatics and herbs.
This is about concentrating flavours. Concentrate celery and carrots in your stock and you get something horrible. More is not better here.
All you have to do is save the carcasses from roast chickens, the backbones you cut out or unused necks. Any chicken bones you would throw out you throw into a bag and chuck it into the freezer.
Anything really as long as it never saw a grill. When you figure you have a pot full of bones, toss them into a pot along with one unpeeled, halved onion. Fill it up with water. Turn on the heat and wait.
And wait.
Wait some more…
Wait until you have simmered that pot of stock down from a full 5 litre pot to around a couple cups. This can take a long time. But it’s so worth it.
It goes from what you’d call stock to this syrupy, magic elixir. I’m not overstating it. Try it, you’ll see. You want it to be solid like jello when it comes out of the fridge.
Concentrated chicken stock. It’s a game changer. Seriously.
concentrated chicken stock
Ingredients
- 5 lbs chicken bones or more
- 1 onion unpeeled and cut in half
- Water to fill the pot.
Instructions
- Toss the chicken and onion in a big pot.
- Add enough water to cover the bones.
- Simmer over low heat, partially covered until reduced to about two cups. This takes around 6-8 hours. Keep an eye on it. The last thing you want is for it to go dry and burn.
- Strain through a colander to catch all the bones.
- Strain again through a fine mesh strainer to catch any small bits.
- To store, pour 1/2 cup into a medium ziploc freezer bag, squeeze the air out and freeze. Place a cookie sheet into the freezer as flat as you can get it and put the ziploc bags onto the cookie sheet to freeze up. An ice cube tray is another approach.
- Concentrated chicken stock keeps a month or two in the freezer.
- When you need some extra wow just break off a piece and melt it into the sauce.
Nutrition
concentrated chicken stock
Ingredients
- 5 lbs chicken bones or more
- 1 onion unpeeled and cut in half
- Water to fill the pot.
Instructions
- Toss the chicken and onion in a big pot.
- Add enough water to cover the bones.
- Simmer over low heat, partially covered until reduced to about two cups. This takes around 6-8 hours. Keep an eye on it. The last thing you want is for it to go dry and burn.
- Strain through a colander to catch all the bones.
- Strain again through a fine mesh strainer to catch any small bits.
- To store, pour 1/2 cup into a medium ziploc freezer bag, squeeze the air out and freeze. Place a cookie sheet into the freezer as flat as you can get it and put the ziploc bags onto the cookie sheet to freeze up. An ice cube tray is another approach.
- Concentrated chicken stock keeps a month or two in the freezer.
- When you need some extra wow just break off a piece and melt it into the sauce.
Nutrition
Dry brined pork roast. Do it. It’s an easy way to ensure moist, flavourful meat. Spit roasting (preferably over charcoal) gives depth of flavour. Put them together for a killer pork roast.
For this recipe I used a whole pork sirloin but it would be even better with a boneless pork shoulder. A little extra fat adds a lot of flavour.
Serve it up with a bean recipe of your choice – pintos are nice – and a nice green salad and you have a dinner that screams summer time.
Dry brining
Dry brining, pioneered by Judy Rogers of Zuni Cafe fame is an easy way to add flavour and moisture without the drawback of odd texture promoted by wet brining. Simply sprinkle the meat with 1 Tbsp of kosher salt per 5 pounds of meat. Place meat in a large ziplock back (or just a couple grocery store bags if it doesn’t fit) and refrigerate turning ever 12-24 hours for up to 4 days. I’m told salt will penetrate at a rate of about 1 inch per day. Look at how far the salt has to go at an inch per day and that’s how long you need to plan ahead when you make this dry brined pork roast.
This technique is absolutely fantastic for your holiday turkey. Try it. You will be the Thanksgiving superstar.
If you don’t have time to dry brine just season the pork as you would normally as soon as you can. Don’t worry too much – this is BBQ…
The grill setup
This is all about indirect heat. If you are using a gas grill you do not want direct heat coming up from below the pork. Some have a burner along the back of the grill. This is what you want to use. You will need to find a way to add some smoke flavour (otherwise you might as well use your oven) – chips in tinfoil is a good option. Place a drip pan under the meat or you’ll have one wicked grease fire next time you fire up the grill.
If you are using a charcoal grill like a weber kettle set up your fire on either side of the kettle with the rotisserie running down the middle with a drip pan under the meat.
If you have a weber kettle and you don’t have the rotisserie ring you are missing out on something wonderful. I’ve had mine for probably over 20 years. Lasts forever.
dry brined rotisserie pork roast
Ingredients
- 1 pork loin - preferably with as much fat as possible
- 1 Tbsp kosher salt per 5 pounds of meat
Dry Rub
- 2 Tbsp butcher’s black pepper medium coarse black pepper
- 1 Tbsp pure mild chill powder New Mexican or Ancho
- 2 tsp paprika
Instructions
The Pork
- Dry brine the pork loin for 3 to 4 days using 1 Tbsp of kosher salt per 5 pounds of meat.
- Combine the dry rub ingredients.
- When ready to cook, remove from refrigerator and rub liberally with the dry rub.
- Thread the rotisserie spit through the meat lengthwise.
- Spit roast until the internal temperature of the pork loin reaches 135F Remove from your BBQ and let rest 15-20 minutes.
Board sauce
- Simply mix the board drippings with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. Depending on what you are roasting you can also add a bit of fresh lemon juice or some finely chopped herbs. Really, it’s up to your imagination.
