Making your own broth is an excellent way to use up vegetable scraps. Store all of your peels and trimmings in a bag in the freezer until they are needed. You can use the bones leftover from a chicken roast for this broth or purchase bone-in chicken thighs. This ingredients list is only for flavour inspiration and can be tweaked to suit what you have at home. The aim is to layer complementary flavours. Sip on this broth as-is or use it to cook our savoury rice porridge.
Serves: 8
Time: 1hr 40mins
Equipment
LARGE STOCK POT
STRAINER
Ingredients
4 bones – in chicken thighs or bones leftover from chicken roast
turnip peels
carrot scraps
celery trimmings
1 large piece pineapple rind
½ garlic bulb
½ onion
2 x bay leaves
1 x star anise
1 tsp white peppercorns or mustard seeds
1-inch piece of ginger
bunch fresh coriander
cold water
Steps
Toast the peppercorns in a dry pan on medium heat, swirling to prevent scorching, until they smell fragrant. Turn off the heat and set aside.
Roast the chicken (if using raw and not leftovers) on a metal tray at 175°C for 15 MIN. Remove from the oven and transfer the chicken to the stock pot. Pour some water onto the roasting tray and scrape all the juices and chicken bits into the pot. We want to extract as much chicken flavour as possible.
Slice the onion through the centre and place it, cut face down, on a very hot pan until it starts to brown. Cut the garlic bulb through the middle horizontally. Add the garlic + onion to the pot next, along with the remaining ingredients. Pour over some water until the broth ingredients are just submerged. Bring everything to a strong simmer and then reduce the heat to low.
Skim any foam from the surface of the broth with a spoon or ladle.
Once the chicken is tender, after about 20 minutes or so, remove and pull the meat from the bone. Reserve the meat for later and return the bones to the broth for further cooking.
Simmer the broth for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until it tastes ready. Strain the liquid and discard the solids.
STORAGE:
REFRIGERATE UP TO 3 DAYS
FREEZE IN BATCHES (6 MONTHS)