"chicken broth" news and stories

Making your own chicken or turkey broth is easy and cheap -- and is bound to beat any canned variety you could pick up at the store.

Photo: Elana's Pantryl, Flickr.

Ruining the flavor of an entire dish with overpowering canned stocks is a preventable tragedy. Instead, save money (and the dish!) by making your own using little more than a leftover chicken carcass.

Flickr user Elana's Pantry created this standard Gluten-Free Roasted Chicken Stock recipe by roasting a few vegetables (onion, garlic and carrot) then adding them to a pot of water with the carcass and herbs (parsley, bay leaves, thyme and celery leaves) and simmering the concoction for a good hour. She then strained them into these mason jars for attractive storage. Feel free to adjust the herbs to taste when making your own, which will keep well in the refrigerator for extra flavorful sauces, soups and more. They're even flavorful enough to be sipped on their own.

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Do you often make a roasted chicken and have leftovers? One of the best things about roasted chicken is that you do not have to waste any piece of the bird. Find out some quick and easy ways to get the most out of roasted chicken.

Last night I had some people over for dinner. Despite the fact that I got a late start on the main dishes, everything turned out perfectly and a good time was had by all. The only slightly-embarrassing moment in the entire evening came when, before I could stop him, my friend's husband opened my freezer in pursuit of ice for his drink (I had forgotten to put any out).

The door open, he stood and gaped for a moment and said, " Who eats all this food?" I quickly tried to explain that I like to keep a fairly stocked freezer so that I can pull meals together easily. I also tend to have three or four varieties of nuts, some summer fruit and homemade chicken broth stashed away as well. He shrugged and said, "Often when you open our freezer, all you see in there is a bottle of Skyy Vodka."

The picture above is my very own freezer, complete with half a bag of Trader Joe's string beans, a pound of chicken legs from Whole Foods and more frozen chicken broth than you can shake a stick at. In return, I want to know, what do the rest of you have in your freezer? Please share the mundane the quirks as inquiring minds want to know (and be assured that they aren't all that strange).

• Recipes made with homemade chicken broth, including Chicken Soup with Chinese Dumplings.
• Everything you need to know about quinoa and other grains, from cookbook author Lorna Sass.
• A simple table makes the food look good.
• Boston is baked bean territory.
• A new book, The Diet Detective's Countdown, lists the calories of 7500 foods, including Double-Stuff Oreos, the rice dish at PF Changs, and even Breathsavers!
• San Pellegrino bottles have gotten thinner.
• What's the ButterWizard? It's an "electric temperature controlled portable butter dish."
• More recipes this week: Spiced Apple Muffins, Farro Risotto, and Far Breton (Flan with Dried Plums).