Chinese Chicken Stock is essential for making many authentic Chinese dishes at home. This recipe is easy to make and takes a few hours, but it's well worth the time investment!
Try using this homemade chicken stock in recipes like Chinese Chayote Soup.
🥡 About This Recipe
Homemade chicken stock is an easy way to elevate your Chinese cooking! I always keep fresh stock on hand for making stir-fries, soups, braises, and more.
Making stock is super easy. All you do is add chicken and aromatics to a pot of water and simmer for 3-4 hours until the flavor is extracted.
If you don't have chicken stock, chicken bouillon powder works well in most recipes. However, for dishes where stock plays a significant role, like soups, it's better to use homemade stock as chicken bouillon powder will always have an artificial taste.
The downside of stocks is they can take up a lot of space in your fridge. My trick is to boil the stock down until it's about 10% of its original volume. Then I freeze it into little ice cubes and store them in my freezer. Each cube has about a cup's worth of stock; you can add them directly to recipes or dissolve them with water first.
🍗 What Chicken to Use
When making stock, it's important to use both meat and bones. The meat adds flavor, while the bones add body and richness. Bones contain collagen, which melts into gelatin when heated. This gelatin is what gives the stock body and richness.
I recommend using any combination of skin-on, bone-in chicken, like chicken leg quarters, thighs, wings, drumsticks, necks, backs, and feet. You can also use an entire chicken.
🧂 Ingredients
- Chicken: Today, I'm using skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs because they were on sale at the grocery store. I usually use whatever is cheapest at the grocery store, and I recommend you do the same.
- Ginger and scallions: These are the two most popular aromatics for Chinese-style chicken stocks. But you can add anything, really. Shiitake mushrooms, carrots, and daikon are some other popular choices.
- Water: I just use tap water.
🔪 Instructions
STEP 1: In a large stockpot, combine all the ingredients. Bring them to a boil over high heat, then immediately reduce the heat to medium-low. Allow the mixture to simmer for 1 hour. At this point, I usually leave to do other things, and then every 15 minutes, I'll come back to skim off the scum that has risen to the surface.
STEP 2: After one hour, use a pair of tongs to break apart the chicken meat into smaller pieces. This will allow more of the flavor to be extracted. Simmer for another 3-7 hours.
I usually go for a total of 4 hours of simmering, but you can go up to 8 hours. Keep in mind that the longer you simmer it, the more "odd" flavors will be extracted as well. This isn't so much a problem with legs or breasts, but when the backbone is there, I find the stock gets a bit metallic or bitter-tasting after a long time.
STEP 3: If you're not using the stock immediately, let it cool completely, strain it, and transfer it to plastic bags or containers. You can keep it in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or freeze it later.
🧊 Freezer Method
If you want to save refrigerator space, I highly recommend using my freezer method. Continue boiling the stock until it's reduced in volume to about 10%. Let it cool slightly, then pour it into ice cube trays and freeze until solid.
Transfer the ice cubes to a freezer-safe bag, and you can store it for up to 6 months. Each cube is about 1 cup of stock.
🍽 Recipes That Use Chicken Stock
📋 Recipe
Chinese Chicken Stock
Ingredients
Instructions
- In a large stockpot, combine all the ingredients. Bring them to a boil over high heat, then immediately reduce the heat to medium-low. I usually leave to do other things, and then every 15 minutes, I'll come back to skim off the scum that has risen to the surface. Allow the mixture to simmer for 1 hour.
- After one hour, use a pair of tongs to break apart the chicken meat into smaller pieces. This will allow more of the flavor to be extracted. Simmer for another 3-7 hours. I usually go for a total of 4 hours of simmering, but you can go up to 8 hours.
- Let it cool completely, then strain it into plastic bags or storage containers. Keep it in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or freeze it for later. See notes for my freezer method to save space.
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