Caitríona Redmond: Save money when cooking a chicken by making your own stock

If I was to use lots of lemon or flavoured herbs when roasting the bird, I would end up with an awful stock.

Where's the best place to get your food and save money each week?

A common piece of advice bandied about is to go from shop to shop to get the best value. This makes sense if you have time, energy, and can afford the shoe leather/fuel. If not, like me, you’ll stick to one local supermarket that offers the best value. Then it can be as much as four weeks between special offers so on the weeks that the ‘stewing beef or whatever offer’ isn’t available, I stock up on other staples from my shopping list instead.

That doesn’t answer the question I’m regularly asked though. The truth is there is no gold standard and every supermarket and shop stands on their own merits. Brand loyalty and discount vouchers have a part to play in your choices too. The Dunnes Stores money off vouchers from the till are a good incentive to keep on returning, just as Tesco’s clubcard offers are, and even Aldi’s zero-club policy.

There is one place that I can rely on to save me money every week. It’s as close to you as it is to me, and that’s the kitchen. As consumers, it’s easy to fall into the myth that we should buy food, ingredients for specific recipes. But ingredients are multi-purpose, just like the desiccated coconut that I buy to make macaroons with. I bought a large bag and I used some of it to make macaroons and then I’ll place a little clip on the bag and use it another time. I don’t want the ingredients that I buy to language in the back of the press until I need them next, I want my ingredients to work for me.

Before I go to the bricks and mortar supermarket or to the online shop, the first place I need to browse is my kitchen. I have a couple of presses that I keep my food in, and I don’t have a stand-alone space for my food, so I’m not going to tell you that I go to my larder.

As I set out my meal plan for the weeks ahead, I’m basing my meals upon what I have in stock and not what I would like to eat. This doesn’t always work because there are often meals that I would like to eat, and I don’t have any of the ingredients. I wait until I have more disposable income to buy what I need for that promised meal. The more I use from my kitchen stocks the less I have to buy. That is why I describe my kitchen as the best supermarket. The next time you think about going shopping, or worry whether you can save money, step away from the front door and go back to your kitchen to check what you have. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Home Truths

I used to roast a chicken, pick the two breasts off and then discard the rest. Oh my goodness, the sheer waste of it now turns my stomach!

I don’t flavour the chicken at the roasting stage apart from a little salt, pepper, and butter wrappers. If I was to use lots of lemon or flavoured herbs when roasting the bird, I would end up with an awful stock. Instead, I add a flavoured butter at the end when serving the chicken.

A large bird will serve a hungry family three times, once with a roast dinner, a second time with the leftover meat, and a third by using the carcass to make chicken stock. If I was to buy a whole chicken for just a roast dinner alone it would be an expensive purchase, but spread over three family meals it’s a bargain.

Homemade Chicken Stock

recipe by:Caitriona Redmond

This will make 1.5L of stock

Preparation Time

 5 mins

Cooking Time

 1 hours 20 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 25 mins

Course

 Side

Ingredients

• 1 picked over chicken carcass

• Water

Method

1. I often see jars or cartons of chicken stock in the supermarket and I cannot get over the price that you have to pay for them when it is so cheap and easy to make at home.

2. There is nothing like the smell of a pot of chicken stock bubbling on the hob. It fills the house and makes us all feel amazing. It is one of those smells, just like baking bread, that brings a smile to your face.

3. The key to making good stock isn’t to do with the flavourings you use, far from it; chicken stock should be pure, without any other flavouring.

4. Once you’ve had a lovely roast chicken meal and used up the leftover meat for another meal, you’re left with a carcass. If you like you can freeze the carcass and wait until you have three at once to make a large batch of stock. I prefer to have fresh stock on the go once a week.

5. Take the picked-over carcass and using either your hands or a sharp knife, split it into about four pieces. Splitting the pieces isn’t essential, but it helps to reduce the cooking time and increase the surface area for caramelisation and, therefore, flavour. Put the carcass on a baking tray lined with tinfoil and roast in the oven for 20 minutes at 200°C.

6. Boil a kettle and grab a large saucepan with a lid. Tumble the roasted bones into the saucepan, cover with hot water and put on a low heat.

7. It should immediately start to simmer. Cover the pot, then leave to simmer for 60 minutes.

8. While still warm, strain away the bones and decant the liquid into a sealed, sterilised jar and allow to cool before refrigerating.

9. Home-made stock will keep in the fridge for up to two days or in the freezer for a couple of months.