Darkening and chilling November days call for something hot and soothing to eat. This chicken broth fits the bill and can serve as the plain basis for a variety of dishes such as chicken noodle soup and can also provide the foundation to make sauce for a chicken pot pie or for chicken enchiladas. As it makes a generous quantity, the broth can be frozen, preferably in convenient pint containers, for use in future food prep. I recommend spending two days when making this broth (not counting shopping for its ingredients)—the first day for cooking and the second day for processing, i.e., reheating and re-straining the broth and skinning and boning the chicken after their overnight stay in your refrigerator. It’s like mixing cookie batter one day and baking it the next, thereby dividing the work. The broth can be enhanced by the addition of noodles or dumplings or simple egg drop. Science has proven it’s true that chicken soup can make us feel better if we catch a cold or flu. I wish it would work as well on covid. If we are still staying home most of the time, preparing this broth will give us something worthwhile to do for family and self. This recipe is based on the number three and so is very easy to remember. Basically, it is the way my Mother, Mary Unger, made chicken broth, but this one has measurements—especially for water, which I no longer eyeball, as too much can ‘thin’ the broth. Chicken broth today is not as rich as when I was a kid because chicken farmers no longer leave fat in the bird. I often rendered the chicken’s fat and used the resulting schmaltz to make a rich pie crust to top a chicken pot pie. Mom’s best trick for making chicken (or beef) broth came from her brother Franz, who was a cook in the WWI Austrian army. This trick is contrary to every recipe I have ever read for making broth. Franz said to bring the water to a rolling boil before adding the chicken, bring the water back up to a boil, and then lower it to a simmer. Almost always, one reads to cover the chicken with cold water, which results in the development of an ugly protein scum, which has to be skimmed from broth. Boiling water results in scum-free broth and flavorful chicken (or beef).
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