A Chinese Chicken and Pork Stock

A quick and rare photo-free post here with a dish that uses it to follow.

I'll be the first to admit to using powdered stocks quite frequently, the Marigold organic bouillon makes its way into lots of European dishes and the Chinese supermarket tins of Knorr Chicken powder make up most of my congees and quick noodle soups, for that instant Chinese flavour it is hard to beat.  When the stock is the star of the show though it is nice to make from scratch and in a Chinese dish you want a Chinese stock, so say good bye to your chicken carcass, carrot, celery and onion and root around in the veg drawer for some garlic and spring onions. 

Bones make a good stock but if you really want some flavour you have to get some meat in there too so I turn to pork ribs and chicken wings. There's also no substitute for that mouth feel of a bit of gelatin and nothing provides that like the pigs trotter.  The fragrant ginger and sweet spring onion make a stock whose perfume is perfect for a pork mee or won ton soup and the three meats may push the price up but leave something deeply savoury that you won't leave a drop of behind. 

Like any stock this will keep for a few days in the fridge but I tend to bag it up and get it in the freezer where it keeps pretty much indefinitely.

Chinese Chicken and Pork Stock

1kg chicken wings

750gr pork ribs

2 pigs trotters

2" ginger

4-5 spring onions

Method

Take a cleaver and chop you wings in half and your ribs into 3 or 4 bits each, the main reason for this is to expose the marrow in the bones.

Crush the ginger and the spring onions then put everything into a stock pot with 6 litres of water.

Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 2.5 to 3 hours, skimming any impurities from the surface as they rise. 

I tend to get left with about 3 litres of well flavoured stock, and this is what you should aim for, but the intensity of your simmer may change this though so feel free to top up or reduce it down at the end.

Comments

[Lizzie]

Pigs trotters! Genius. I bet it sets into a nice satisfying jelly too.

I currently have a pot of pork stock sat in the freezer; made from the bones of two suckling pigs from Chinese new year. It's so porky and special I still haven't worked out what to make with it yet.

[Joshua Armstrong]

The pigs trotter certainly left it setting well. I ate them in a noodle soup with said stock, little gem lettuce and ho fun. Was tasty if not a tad messy and it wasn't much of a looker so didn't make it on to the blog. Not a bad dish for the pigs trotter fan though.

I bet your suckling pig stock is full of flavour, with a different element from the roasting too. I'm intending to put a pork mee recipe on the blog at some point that could be a good match for it.

[Helen]

I agree totally on the stock front. I don't care what anyone says, most people use a powdered stock every now and then. No need to be a stock nazi. Nothing on home made though is it? Will give this a go.

[Joshua Armstrong]

Helen, anyone that doesn't must have a serious commitment to stock making, or not use much stock. You certainly get a different effect but there's only a finite amount of time in your life and so I turn to the powders.

Good luck with your lunch this weekend.

[Sasa]

Gret blog! Nice clean layout and interesting recipes and stories - my stepmother (Japanese) used to marvel at how people in NZ wouldn't pick the bamboo shoots springing up (the waste!) and pick 'em herself, surreptitiously.