"Get your vegetables" Photo: Sue Jefferson
Don’t throw away the liquid from your boiled chicken! It can be used to make a lovely broth.
Simply cover the base of a pot with olive oil or butter and heat. Add in a finely chopped onion, a chopped leek, a few celery sticks, a few chopped carrots, and a pinch of salt. Cover with a lid and sweat for ten minutes, stirring occasionally.
If you have a slow cooker, transfer the vegetable mixture to it and cover it with the chicken broth. Add in some fresh herbs: parsley, thyme, rosemary, a bay leaf, or even some chopped sage will all work well. I used rosemary, parsley and thyme. Let the slow cooker do its work and leave it on a low heat overnight.
Slow cookers are well worth the small investment. You can throw a load of ingredients into them in the morning or late at night and let it cook slowly until you’re ready for your lunch or dinner. You’ll find them in the usual places: Argos, electrical stores, supermarkets etc.
If you don’t have a slow cooker, just simmer the broth on a low heat for a few hours. Serve with some buttered bread, and enjoy.
Friday 24 April, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Would you put in the chicken in the morning to avoid overcooking or would you put in the chicken overnight?
Friday 24 April, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Hi Tadhg. The broth is simply to make use of the water the chicken has been cooked in. You’ll hopefully have eaten the chicken already!
Once it’s on a really low heat, you can cook it for up to 24 hours and you’ll get a really delicious flavour in your brothy soup.
If you’re having a roast chicken, follow the same instructions but cover the chicken carcass with water and add the sweated vegetable (miripoix) mixture.
Tuesday 28 April, 2009 at 10:32 am
I use a pressure cooker, I want speed not slow! but the idea is the same. I put in about a litre of water, couple of onions, celery, few carrots and anything else that looks like it’s not going to last much longer…
One tip though if you’re using a pressure cooker or a big pot with your previously roasted chicken is to put the chicken carcass in a metal container (that has holes in it) so that the flavour can come out but all those grissly bits and bones won’t. I can’t stand picking out all those bits after. then just pull out metal container, pick over the chicken to remove any further pieces of meat and tip the rest into bin after. Then I blitz my soup and add in those chicken bits to get a lovely soup.