Now that you have used your chicken meat for a tasty recipe, it’s time to decide what to do with the bones. In the past, I’ve always just thrown the bones away because I thought making a broth was “too much hassle.” Now that we have switched to buying organic meats, chicken is pricey and I’m eager to get as much use out of it as I can. I guess that means it is time to learn how to make chicken stock.

Have no fear – this is an easy process! Just toss the carcass, some veggies, and a healthy amount of water into a pot and within an hour you have delicious homemade chicken broth! Had I known that it was this easy, I would have started making stock long ago!

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. The most interesting part is the addition of the egg at the end. I had never heard of anyone adding egg to their chicken stock, but the recipe creator promised that it would clarify the chicken stock. He was absolutely right! My stock went from looking like a weird gelatinous mess to a nice, clear liquid. I asked my chef friend Dave the reason this works. He explains:

The protein strands in the egg whites are really all you need; the egg shell just helps to give the mixture some body for easier filtering after the magic, while the water just helps it distribute better before the magic happens.

Basically what’s going on is that the proteins (which are, or can be, relatively long chemical chains) in the egg are forming a “net” that catches all the bits that you don’t want. This net is actually called a “raft” and, with stocks that include knuckle bones and such, can form naturally without the egg addition.

So there you have it! Food science at its best!