Brown chicken stock: a recipe for fond brun de volaille

Mes chéris, the recipe!

Brown chicken stock is one of those foundational recipes you simply have to know how to make. At first glance it looks like a lot of stages: roasting the bones, prepping the vegetables, a bouquet garni, deglazing, a long, slow simmer, and straining. In practice, though, you only need to make it once or twice to learn how the whole thing works, and after that you'll be doing it almost on autopilot.

The main difference between brown stock and white stock lies in what happens to the ingredients before they ever meet the water. For a brown stock, the bones and vegetables are first roasted to a deep golden color, which gives the stock a deeper, richer, fuller flavor and a darker color. For white stock, the bones aren't roasted, so it comes out paler, more delicate, and more neutral in flavor. We'll absolutely make a white chicken stock too, separately.

Brown chicken stock is the base for soups, risotto, braises, sauces, and gravies, for deglazing a pan, for stews, and for any dish that calls for a richer, meatier flavor. You can also reduce it, concentrating it further and turning it into the foundation for thicker, more intense sauces.

That's exactly why it makes sense to cook a big batch at once, divide it into small portions, and freeze it. That way your freezer always holds a ready-made professional base that lifts even the simplest dish in no time.

Recipe

1. 

   Roast the chicken bones. Preheat the oven to 210 °C. If the chicken bones are very wet on the surface, pat them dry with paper towels, then spread them over a sheet pan in a single layer. It's very important not to pile the bones on top of each other. If the pan is overcrowded, the steam they release will get in the way of browning, and the bones will stew rather than roast. Put the pan in the oven for about 20 minutes.

1. 

   While the bones are in the oven, prep the vegetables. Peel the carrots, halve them lengthwise, then cut each half into large chunks of roughly equal size. There's no need for a neat, fine cut here. The stock will cook for several hours, so even big chunks will have plenty of time to give up their soluble aromatic compounds to the liquid.
2. 

   Peel the onions of their outer skins and cut them in half. Cut each half into a few more large wedges, about the same size as the carrots. If you like, you can keep a little of the clean, dry onion skin: it really does deepen the golden-brown color of the stock. But the dirty outer layers must go.
3. 

   Wash the celery thoroughly. For stock, there's no need to string it: the celery gets fished out once the stock is done anyway. Cut it into large chunks, about the same size as the carrots.
4. 

   You can leave the garlic unpeeled. Lightly crush each clove with the flat side of your knife. Crushing breaks the garlic's cells and helps its aromatic compounds pass into the liquid faster.
5. 

   Assemble the bouquet garni. Lay two wide leek-green leaves on top of each other to form the base of a small “envelope.” Place the cilantro, scallions, rosemary or thyme, and bay leaves inside.
6. 

   Cover the herbs with another leek leaf and tightly tie up the bouquet garni with kitchen twine. If you don't have kitchen twine, plain undyed cotton string meant for food contact will do. If needed, trim the ends of the bouquet garni, so the bundle fits easily in the pot. Set the bouquet garni aside.
7. 

   Add the vegetables to the bones. After the first 20 minutes, take the pan out of the oven. Add the prepped carrots, onions, celery, and garlic to the bones. Spread the vegetables among the bones as evenly as you can and return the pan to the oven for about 10 more minutes. The vegetables should caramelize lightly and take on some color, but not burn.
8. 

   Take out the roasted bones and vegetables.
9. 

   Transfer the roasted bones and vegetables to a large heavy-bottomed stockpot. Don't wash the sheet pan just yet. Its surface is left with browned, roasted bits and juices — fond, the caramelized stuck-on bits. They hold a great deal of concentrated flavor, and throwing them away would be a mistake.
10. 

    While the pan is still hot, bring an extra 200 ml of water to a boil. Pour the boiling water over the pan and let it sit for 1–2 minutes. Then go over the whole surface of the pan thoroughly with a wooden or silicone spatula, scraping up all the browned bits.
11. 

    Pour the resulting brown liquid, along with all the dissolved bits, into the pot with the bones and vegetables. This is called déglaçage, or deglazing.
12. 

    Cover the contents of the pot with 2 liters of cold water. For stock, it's best to start with cold water specifically. Gradual heating lets proteins, gelatin, and soluble aromatic compounds pass slowly from the bones and meat into the liquid. Set the pot over high heat and slowly bring the liquid almost to a boil.
13. 

    As it heats up, a grayish or white foam will start to form on the surface. This is mostly coagulated protein and fine particles that have risen to the top. Skim off the foam with a skimmer or a large spoon, gliding it gently right along the surface of the liquid. Fat will also gradually collect on the surface. You can skim off most of it, but there's no need to get rid of every last drop: it's much easier to remove the rest once the stock has cooled.
14. 

    As soon as the liquid is close to a boil, turn the heat down to about 3–4 out of 10. The stock shouldn't boil; it should simmer very, very slowly. A lone bubble breaking the surface here and there is fine. There should be no rolling boil. The target temperature of the liquid is roughly 85–95 °C. Add the tomato paste and stir thoroughly with a small whisk or a spoon until it dissolves completely into the liquid.
15. 

    Add the prepared bouquet garni.
16. 

    Keep skimming off foam and excess fat as they appear. Cook the stock at a very gentle simmer for at least 3 hours. Brown chicken stock doesn't need to cook forever: about 3–4 hours already gives a very good result, especially if you're using necks, wings, backs, and other parts with lots of connective tissue.

1. 

   When the stock is done, turn off the heat. Set a large sieve over a big bowl or other suitable container and use tongs or a skimmer to lift the bones and vegetables into it. Let the liquid drain off in its own time. You can press lightly on the vegetables and bones with a ladle or tongs to help a little more liquid drain out.
2. 

   Strain the liquid left in the pot through a clean fine-mesh sieve into a separate pot or hotel pan. For an especially clear result, line the sieve with clean cheesecloth or filter cloth. After straining, you should have a rich, golden-brown chicken stock with a clean aroma and a pronounced roast-chicken flavor.
3. 

   Add the stock that drained from the bones and vegetables. Your stock is ready.

A word on salt. A professional base stock is best left unsalted. The reason is entirely practical. Today you might use it for soup, tomorrow for risotto, then for braising meat or making a sauce. When you make a sauce, stock is sometimes reduced several times over. If the original stock is already well salted, the salt will concentrate right along with the water cooking off. Salt goes into the specific dish, where you can control the final balance precisely.