Chicken Broth

This chicken broth recipe is one of the easiest recipes you’ll find on this site. We make this all the time and freeze it for use with risotto and pastina. There’s no substitute for homemade broth when making risotto – it makes all the difference in the world. My wife freezes the large (dull, non-pointy) bones from previously-made chicken broths and uses them the next time(s) to give it more flavor - I can attest that this improvement is noticeable. These bones can be reused multiple times.

It’s also possible to create soup variations with little meatballs, crepes, and croutons. Below I’ve also included a variation my mother made with escarole and rice, to which she often added the little meatballs.

Whole young chicken, organs removed

optional: frozen large bones from previously-made broths

1/2 cup salt for soaking brine

3 Tbsp salt, more to taste

5 ribs celery

5 carrots, peeled

4 Tbsp curly parsley, chopped

1. Place chicken in a large pot with enough water to cover it. Add about 1/2 cup of salt. Let the chicken soak in this brine for 30 minutes, then rinse thoroughly. 

2. Now place chicken in a 16-quart or 12-quart pot. Fill pot with water, leaving at least an inch at the top. Add any large (dull, non-pointy) chicken bones that you had saved from previous broths. Add the 3 tablespoons of salt and cook over high heat until water boils.

3. Spoon off any foam.

4. Add celery, carrots, and parsley and bring to boil.

5. Lower heat to boil softly (stronger than a simmer), with lid slightly ajar, for 3 1/2 hours. Stirring is unnecessary. After 3 hours of cooking, taste and adjust salt level, 1 teaspoon at a time as needed. Normally, I do not need to add any salt at all.

6. Allow the broth to cool. Once the broth can be handled, pour it through a strainer into large containers suitable for freezing.

7. Cut up cooked carrots and put them into containers along with the broth. Discard celery and parsley.

8. Pick as much meat from the chicken as you’d like and distribute among the containers. Optionally freeze the large (dull, non-pointy) bones for subsequent broths. Discard the rest of the chicken carcus.

Make ahead: This broth can be frozen for months. Let it defrost before reheating. Fat will have accumulated at the surface. If you’d like, you can remove it before reheating the broth; however, as is usually the case, there’s a trade-off between flavor and healthfulness

Optional addition:

2 heads escarole

2 cups white rice

1. Rinse escarole thoroughly. In a separate pot from broth, boil escarole for 10 minutes.

2. Remove from heat and let sit for 10 minutes.

3. Squeeze excess water from escarole, then very coarsely chop it.

4. Add escarole and rice to broth 1/2 hour before serving and cook at a slow boil.