Chicken Broth To The Rescue

Taste buds sending out an S.O.S. ?  That's typical on the Brentwood Diet. The endless parade of white fish, white-meat poultry and plain vegetables will cause that kind of distress. Plus, steamed, grilled and boiled everything gets old real fast. OK, the grilled stuff isn't bad. But, who can do it all time? And not surprisingly, the Brentwood Diet forbids frying, sauteing or cooking with wine. Luckily, chicken stock/broth adds flavor and makes for a great cooking medium as well as an excellent base for sauces and soups. 

Since salt is a concern, canned broth is out.  That leaves homemade, which tastes a lot better anyway.  Cooking up chicken stock/broth is easy, but it takes time. Open any recipe book for chicken stock or broth recipe and omit the carrot, because it's a taboo vegetable on the Brentwood Diet.  Or you can use this recipe, which makes a heavy-duty stock/broth that works great as base for sauces or soups. 

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken carcasses (or 4 pounds necks and backs or combo of bones and whole chicken)

• 1.5 pounds chicken feet: optional, but recommended 

• 1/4 cup vinegar

• 1 onion

• 3 stalks celery

• parsley: optional 

Save the chicken carcasses from when you roast chicken and freeze them for later use. You may ask, what about the prohibition against dark meat on the Brentwood Diet? Ah, it helps to have chicken-loving dogs around to eat the legs and thighs or a non-dieting family member who prefers dark meat. Once you've racked up a few carcasses or buy the required amount of necks and backs, you're good to go. 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Roast the chicken carcasses for half and hour or so, stirring once in a while, until they're browned.  You can then roast the vegetables, if  you feel like it.

Put everything into a large stock pot and add water about three inches from the rim of the pot. Boil and skim the scummy stuff that floats to the top. Reduce to a low simmer, cover and let it bubble away for about six hours. That's right, six hours. Long cooking makes for a full-bodied stock/broth with lots of calcium. After it's done, cool it down a bit, strain it and put it in the fridge overnight or for several hours until the fat on top hardens. Remove the layer of fat and discard. If all went well, you're left with chicken-flavored jello. That's good. Spoon the jelled stock/broth into little plastic containers and freeze. Use two cups of stock/broth for sauce bases or to cook with. Use larger amounts for soup.