Fond Blanc de Volaille (White Poultry Stock)

My first class in culinary school was Stocks and Sauces 101. I made all sorts of different stocks in huge pots the size of bathtubs.

Now, whenever I debone chicken and have no use for the bones, I stick them in the freezer. I had a nice collection of various chicken, turkey and duck bones. I even had the carcass of a chicken I roasted the other day. When I do not have enough bones collected and need to make stock, I will go out and buy chicken feet and chicken wings for the stock. They both make a very nice gelatinous broth.

The difference between stock and broth is stock is made using primarily the bones and broth is made using primarily meat with some bones. Broths are used for soups and stocks are used for sauces. I find it weird that you mainly find broth in grocery stores and we never made broth in school. We only made stocks. We made fifteen different types of stocks but no broths.

A few years ago I felt a little ambitious so I made duck demi glace starting by making duck stock and then espagnole and then demi glace. I could have reduced it more to make glace de viande but I stopped there. I froze the demi glace in little ice cube trays and stored them in a little baggie. I had instant sauces for many many meals.

When making chicken stock or fond de poulet, I stick with the classic mirepoix for the aromatics. When making a brown poultry stock (fond brun de volaille) we usually roasted the mirepoix with the bones and when making a beef stock we also roasted a tomato product such as tomato paste with the bones and mirepoix. When making a delicate fish stock, we used something called a white mirepoix, which omits the carrots and subbed leeks for the onions.

Poultry bones (combination of chicken, turkey and duck)
Water, to cover
Celery
Carrots
Onions
Parsley (I had some parsley that I needed to use up. We usually threw all of our parsley stems into the large stockpot that we usually had simmering.)
Peppercorns
Bay leaves

In a large stock pot, add all the ingredients and cover with water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a low simmer. Simmer for several hours and skim off the foam (depouiller). Strain through a chinois. Pour into freezer safe containers and lable with name of stock and date.

(I reduced mine a little longer for a more concentrated stock because freeze space is very precious to me. I usually dilute it a bit with more water when I use in recipes. I also never salt my stocks like how I never cook with salted butter. This way it allows you to have more control when seasoning.)