Cheap Beer & Chicken Stock

Chicken/poultry stock. Why (cheap) beer helps.

Roast your poulty carcass in the oven until you're getting some beautiful brown color on the bones and any remaining fat/meat.

Get your stock pot ready... that means enough (cheap) beer to cover the bones cold in the pot. I've gravitated to Pabst. That's just me.

Drop the hot bones into the cold beer. And leave it overnight. You may hear the bones crack when they hit the cold beer, that's perfect.

The soak in the beer pulls out the awesome flavors you created with the roasting, and the acidity and alcohol starts to break down the bones. That's calcium and other minerals in your "bone broth".

And the bit of sugar from the PBR or your own 'cheap' beer, with minimal added flavor, just adds complexity to that stock as it soaks those roast flavors off those bones overnight.

But cheap is perfect for this, because you need to submerge a whole poultry carcass in it, you don't want to add strong flavors, and who wants to pay $20 for six beers you are just drowning a bird skeleton in and then boiling off?

If I'm paying for six awesome beers, I'm not using it for the base of a stock. But 6 Pabst in a pot per chicken or until submerged...perfect.

Once that cheap beer has worked it's magic overnight:

Chopped onions, celery, a bay leaf or 3, Always a little more garlic than seems right, and then a long slow afternoon simmer. Add any other spices that seem right for where you are heading with your recipe. Cooking is art, not science.

I make a lot of stock. I'll save you the $ on your cooking, because what I suggest you drink with that meal might be $2 more than you usually spend on a wine or beer.

And I'll bet my reputation you'll love both what you cooked, and what you drank with it.

Tendered for your thoughtful consideration, as your Cheers Spirit Guide.