Today’s sad story is brought to you by my poor hapless friend who once roasted an entire chicken and then THREW OUT ALL THE LEFTOVER STOCK when she was done.

I know.  I had to have a chicken intervention with her pronto, and it went like this:

(Cue REM, “Everybody Hurts” Listen to the chickens cluck woefully along.)

 

Me:  So, you roasted an entire chicken and then threw out the stock?

Her: Yes.  Why?

Me:  (Eyes slowly fill with tears and I look pensively off into the distance.  The very sad, chicken-stock-less distance.)

Oh you poor dear.

Her:  Don’t call me that.  That’s as bad as saying, “Bless your heart.” You know that.  What’s the deal with the chicken stuff?

Me:  Honey,  sit down.  We need to talk.

Her: Don’t SAY that.  That’s as bad as saying, “It’s not you, it’s me.”  You KNOW that!  And what’s with the REM music?  This song is killing me!

 

Anyhow.  We had a long talk about chicken and stock and alllllll it’s majillion uses and why we never, ever EVER throw it out.  It’s like throwing the baby out with the bath water, which really is a horrible, awful saying.  If you’re a sensitive type, like me, you will always wonder,what shwub came UP with this phrase because you KNOW it was founded on some truth back there somewhere, and somebody obviously really needed some basic parenting classes because really? That’s just appalling.

 

But I digress.

Listen, anytime chicken clucks into your kitchen and is roasted or boiled, GET THE STOCK.  And do this:

1.  Pour leftover chicken juices through a sieve into a measuring cup – allow to cool a bit.

2.  Poor cooled broth into ice-cube trays, and freeze.  Make SURE your trays are flat in the freezer, unless you want to festoon your freezer with chicken juice. I might speak from experience.  It was the toddlers’ fault.  They ‘estracted’ me.

3. And voila!  Little gold nuggets of chickeny goodness!

Throw ’em in a freezer bag and add one or two to:

sauces

soups

casseroles

spaghetti (even if you use red meat, use one cube as a flavoring agent)

stir fry

beans

blueberry muffins… (Just kidding. Although with my track record with baked goods perhaps a little chicken stock is a good idea.)

 

 

I don’t know… the options are endless.  Chicken stock has a richness and flavor agent that really adds OOMPH to cooking, and I need as much OOMPH as I can get these days.

 

And so ends our sad tale.  There was a happy ending.  She found some old ice-cube trays in her pantry, made me a cup of tea and we switched over to ABBA.  And we all lived happily ever after.

Speaking of sad stories, did I ever tell you the one about how my husband went shopping at Kohl’s and he ended up buying himself a mock turtle neck?

 

Sigh.  Cue the REM again.

TRAGEDY OF EPIC PROPORTIONS