I Think I Can, I Think I Can…

March 6, 2014

On Wednesday, I threw together a recipe for some barbecued chicken (see recipe under the Gluten-Free Recipes tab).  That night I served the it over rice.  It was thick, sweet, and a bit on the spicy side.  Charming thought it was awesome as he loves spicy foods.  I’d rather it be a bit tamer for my sensitive tum tum.  Yesterday, I made some gluten-free bread in the bread machine.  (I’ll add the recipe for the gluten-free bread machine bread under the Gluten-Free Recipes tab.)  This bread is coarse, but works well for hot sandwiches, regular toast, and French toast.  Unfortunately, after many tweaks to the recipe, there still seems to be no way to get a rounded top on the bread.  (Oh, I do miss the nice rounded, fluffy, homemade bread that I used to make with regular flour, but making and eating that is not worth the stomach ache that would result.  So, it’s kind of like my nephew says, “I get what I get and I don’t throw a fit.”)

Getting back to the chicken…Since I boiled the chicken prior to putting it in the slow cooker, I decided to keep the remaining water in which it was cooked.  Because I’m a natural born recycler, we don’t throw much away in our household.  I threw a few vegetables in with the chicken water and made my own chicken stock.  I use my pressure canner to can the stock versus freezing it because I don’t like to use up precious freezer space.  However, since it’s late in the winter and we’ve used quite a bit of last summer’s canned bounty, we do have the extra shelf space for this.  Why in the world would I can my own chicken stock when I can buy it at the store for under a dollar a can?  There are a couple of reasons.  The chicken stock that I make is gluten-free.  Not every brand of chicken stock that you buy in the store is gluten-free.  If you’ve ever been on a low-salt diet, are watching your sugar intake or have any other reason to read labels on food items every time you shop, you know that it’s time-consuming to have to read every label on every food item that you purchase.  So having one less label to read is a blessing in itself.  Also, I know exactly what I put into the chicken stock.  I know there are no added chemicals preservatives and I control the amount of salt. 

As it so happens, the Ball Blue Book of Preserving has a recipe that works well.  The Ball Book is the “go to” book of food preservation and I think it’s an absolutely riveting read…I occasionally curl up by the fire with this book during the winter months and read, plot, adapt, and plan new canning recipes.  Walmart sells the Ball Book for about $6 or $7.  It's absolutely worth the money.  (I should work in the advertising/promotion department for the Ball Company!)  Although I like to throw a couple of carrots into my chicken stock, in addition to the other ingredients called for in the recipe, it tastes just fine without it.  Canning your own chicken or beef stock is really quite easy if you have a pressure canner.  However, do not try this in a regular water bath canner as any broth made with meat requires the higher temperatures of a pressure canner to ensure that the end product is safe to eat. 

Here’s the recipe for chicken stock as it appears in the Ball Blue Book of Preserving with pictures below the recipe:

1 (3 to 4 pound) chicken, cut into pieces

4 quarts water

2 stalks celery

2 medium onions, quartered

10 peppercorns (I just use ½ teaspoon of my favorite black pepper)

2 bay leaves

1 tablespoon salt

Combine chicken and water in a large saucepot.  Bring to a boil.  Add remaining ingredients.  Reduce heat:  simmer 2 hours or until chicken is tender.  Remove from heat; skim off foam.  Remove chicken from stock, reserving chicken for another use (like Slow Cooker Barbecued Chicken).  Strain stock through a sieve or several layers of cheesecloth.  Allow stock to cool until fat solidifies; skim off fat.  Bring stock to a boil in a large saucepot.  Ladle hot stock into hot jars, leaving 1-inch headspace.  Adjust two-piece caps.  Process pints 20 minutes, quarts 25 minutes, at 10 pounds pressure in a steam-pressure canner.

Yield:  8 pints or 4 quarts

The next time you’re making dressing/stuffing or need a base for soup or beans, you’ll be glad you took the time to make your own stock.

Onions, celery, carrots, and bay leaves...Yummmm!

Pouring the stock into jars.

Leave 1 inch of headspace.

10 pounds of pressure for 20 minutes for pint jars.  (Timer 

shows 19 minutes, but I used a minute dashing from the 

kitchen to my desk to grab my misplaced camera, pet 

Max The Wonder Dog, and leap over the cat who 

was taking his hourly tongue bath...double yuck...in 

the pathway leading back to the kitchen.)

Finished product...7 jars of gorgeous chicken stock.
(Recipe makes 8 pints, but Max The Wonder Dog asked for
one jar to go over his dry food for supper...I find it hard to
refuse those yellow puppy eyes and that pink nose.)