Imagine you’ve just roasted a whole chicken.
You’ve eaten all the delicious meat and soaked up the juices with some potatoes. Now, you’re left with the carcass and that strange bag of chicken giblets. What to do? Make homemade stock out of the carcass and make pâté out of the liver. In other words, don’t waste a thing.
Let’s start with the stock. You may be asking yourself, is it worth making your own homemade chicken stock? Does it taste better? Is it economical? My answer is this: if you have the left over bones to make it from scratch, you should. If not, there are plenty of store bought brands that are excellent. Yes, homemade stock is cheaper, but only if you discount the price of the chicken itself (since that’s a separate meal).
In addition to the left over bones (preferably with a little meat on them), you’ll need an onion or two, some carrots, thyme, parsley, and a bay leaf. You can always add celery or other herbs if you’ve got them, but this minimal list will get you there. Feel free to choose the ugliest carrots and onions. This is not a beauty pageant. This is stock.
You barely need to chop anything either, just cut the onions and carrots in half and toss them in a big dutch oven. Then, add a bunch of water and let it simmer for some time. The result is a lovely and flavorful stock that can be stored in the fridge for a couple weeks or otherwise frozen.
Part two is the chicken pâté. If you’re not familiar with pâté, it’s a spread made out of chicken liver, onions, eggs, butter and some seasonings. I realize that organ meat may not be the most appealing item than makes it’s way through your kitchen, but trust me (and trust the French), spread this baby on some bread and you’ve got a fine appetizer.
This particular recipe is an adaptation of my mother’s, who always makes pâté from the Thanksgiving turkey. Speaking of Thanksgiving, it’s so close, and you know what’s going to happen soon. But I digress.
The recipe below assumes about a 1/4 pound liver (coming from about a 5 pound bird), but this recipe scales nicely, so if you’ve got way more to work with, just double or triple the additional ingredients.
So there you have it: make a roast and then reuse the carcass and liver. And if you need a plan for the other giblets, there’s some interesting ideas here.
- Bones and carcass of one roasted chicken, preferably with some meat still intact
- 2 carrots, cut in half or quartered
- 2 onions, cut in half or quartered
- handful of fresh thyme
- handful of fresh parsley
- 2 bay leaves
- 10-12 cups of water
- 1 egg
- ¼ lb chicken liver
- 2½ tablespoon butter, divided
- ½ yellow onion, chopped
- ½ teaspoon red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
- dash of salt
- dash of cayenne pepper
- Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan. Make sure there is enough water to fully cover the chicken and vegetables. Bring to a boil, cover, and lower heat. Cook over medium-low heat for an hour and a half, checking occasionally. Stock should reduce by about half.
- When it's done reducing, strain stock through a fine mesh sieve to remove all solids. Store in the fridge in an airtight container for up to three weeks or freeze and keep for longer.
- First, hard boil your egg. Place egg in a small pot. Cover with cold water. Bring water to a roiling boil, cover, and remove from heat. Let stand in hot water for 10 minutes, then remove egg and run it under cold water to stop the cooking. Peel and chop egg.
- Next, melt 1 tablespoon butter in a small skillet. Add onions and cook until soft. Add in chicken liver and cook for about 5 minutes, flipping occasionally. Liver should be nicely browned and easily broken down with a fork. Let cool.
- In a small food processor, combine liver and onions, hard boiled egg, red wine vinegar, thyme, remaining 1½ tablespoons butter, salt, and cayenne. Pulse until smooth. Adjust seasoning to taste. Transfer pâté to a small jar and let cool for at least an hour in the fridge, until butter has time to firm up again.
- Serve with crusty bread.
The pate looks delicious! I used to eat pate all the time when I was living in Vietnam but I can’t find one that’s comparable in the state. Maybe it’s time to make my own!
writes TrangThanks Trang! Making it from scratch is so much easier than people assume! Hopefully it’ll stand up to what you were eating in Vietnam.
writes Vicky[…] you can make additional meals out of the bird, like pâté and chicken broth, which means nothing goes to […]
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