Anyone following this blog will know I've been focusing on chicken for the last almost two weeks. The sale ends on Wednesday so my husband picked up another twelve chicken breasts (4.286 kg, $18.64) yesterday and I told him to pick up more today. So it was a surprise when I saw someone was googling to find out why their chicken stock was not clear and stumbled upon my blog. I thought that would be a great post since I have been canning a lot of stock lately.
Quick Cool
I posted earlier on how I make stock. For those who do not wish to go back a couple of posts, I use chicken bones, skin, onion with skin on, celery, carrot and a bayleaf.
I wanted a clear chicken stock for part of this batch. By far the majority of he chicken stock I make is not clear as seen in the following picture. That doesn't bother me but there are sometimes you want a nice clear stock. The first trick to a clear stock is a quick cool. The way to do this is remove the stockpot from the burner and immediately immerse it in a sink filled with iced water.
The second trick to a clear stock is to remove all the chicken fat. Once well chilled, peel off the the chicken fat without disturbing the stock. When the fat has been removed, carefully pour the stock through a fine mesh strainer double lined with cheese cloth. Try not to disturb any solids during this process. Return the solids and water to make regular chicken stock.
Clarified and Regular Chicken Stock
This photo shows the difference between clarified and non-clarified chicken stock. I canned up seven pints of regular and six pints of clear chicken stock. As you can see the regular stock is cloudy likely due to a slower chill but the biggest factor to the cloudy appearance is I mush everything. Then I bring the much to a boil and pour the strained liquid into the stock. The clarified chicken stock has this step eliminated and a quick chill so the result is a much clearer appearance. As far as taste, both stocks are fairly similar but the regular may be just a bit stronger. The clear stock will be slightly lower in fat if that is a concern. Processing time for pints for both is 25 minutes at 10 lb pressure.
6 food lovers commented:
It's a wonderful post. I get all jealous-like when I read your blog, coz I am totally disabled domestically
Hi Leia-ann! Thanks for visiting and your very kind comments.
Thanks for the tips. I always thought that I could just boil any part of chicken and that would be the chicken stock. However, I didn't know there are so many things I need to watch out...
I wish that I had had some of that stock for my risotto last night!
Windy, you can boil any part of the chicken but it is better to just use the bones, skin and bits saving the other parts for something else. The addition of the vegetables enrich the stock. How you cool it will affect the clarity as seen in the picture. Hope this helps and I look forward to hearing about your chicken stock results.
Natalie, a good supply of chicken stock is really nice to have in your pantry. If you don't can this stock can be made then cooled and froze into pint or quart sizes.
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