cooking under pressure: awesome chicken stock

How To Make cooking under pressure: awesome chicken stock

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  PREP/PREPARE
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  What will you need? An Insta Pot, or pressure cooker, and some non-reactive jars (freezer safe) for storage (like Mason jars).
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  What Are the Differences Between Stock and Broth? Broths are flavorful liquids that are used to make sauces and soups. Because of the rich flavor of broth, you can drink broth plain (which I do; especially in the Winter). The traditional way of making broth is by simmering meat in water, often with a few vegetables and herbs. Common versions of broths are made with chicken and beef, but other meats can be used. Since broths use a combination of meats and veggies, the cooking times are relatively short, and in most cases no longer than a single hour. Stocks are thicker, use mostly bones, and take longer to make. Natural stocks are simply bones and water with a bit of salt and are intended to be a neutral base for dishes like soups and stews. With that said, you can add a variety of veggies and spices to give it a bit of flavor. In order to fully extract the collagen from the bones, stock can take 6 – 8 hours to make. Like broth, beef and chicken are common stocks; however, pork bones can be used, and even fish.
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  Additional Items for this Recipe It you want to add a bit more flavor to your stock, you could always throw in a chopped stalk of celery, and/or chopped medium onion, and a chopped carrot or two. Most stocks are fairly simple when it comes to spices, so salt and pepper are about all you will need. The batch that I am making in the recipe is for a friend that has to do three-days of post op, drinking only clear liquids, so the photos do not show any veggies.
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  Important Cooking Note When you are finished with the cooking process you can choose to do a Quick Release, or a Natural Release of the pressure. !!! DO NOT DO A QUICK RELEASE !!! If you perform a quick release, it will cause the liquid to begin boiling, which in turn will break down the proteins in the chicken, release them into the stock and make it cloudy and slightly bitter. Allow the vessel to cool down for 30/40 minutes until all the pressure has been naturally released through the cooling process. Then and only then open the cooker and remove the chicken.
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  What to serve with it? Stocks make a great base for things like soups and stews. With the collagen from the bones, they have a smooth, silky mouth feel. If you have ever had a bowl of chicken soup made from stock (not broth) you would know the difference… Yummy is the word that comes to mind.
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  How to store it? It will last 4 – 5 days in the fridge; however, if you go the freezer route, it can last 6 – 8 months. Freezing is totally the way to go.
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  Gather your ingredients (mise en place).
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  Add the whole chicken, water, and salt to the bowl of your pressure cooker.
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  You will want to rinse off the chicken (inside and out), and remove any giblets, if present. You can always freeze those items and use later to make a good base for gravy.
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  Set cooker to high and pressure cook for 15 minutes. Then allow to do a natural cool down for about 30 – 40 minutes.
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  Remove the chicken from the liquid, remove all the meat from the bones, then reserve the meat (freeze) for another recipe.
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  Return the bones and skin to the liquid. If you are adding veggies, or additional spices, do so now.
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  The skin will add a bit more depth of flavor, plus we are going to remove all the excess fat after we finish cooking. However, if you want to make it with less fat, you can leave the skin out.
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  Set to high and pressure cook for 60 minutes. Then allow to do a natural cool down for about 30 – 40 minutes.
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  Strain though a fine-mesh strainer with some cheesecloth and discard the solids.
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  Allow to cool for about an hour and skim the fat off the top. This stock looks and smell AWESOME.
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  Get some non-reactive containers, like mason jars.
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  Pour into the containers (leave a bit of space at the top for expansion) then seal and freeze until needed.
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  PLATE/PRESENT
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  Use in any recipes that call for chicken stock. Enjoy.
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  Keep the faith, and keep cooking.
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  Namasté
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