Panko Crusted Stuffed Chicken

Who doesn't love a quick dinner on a Friday? We all have better things to be doing tonight, am I right?

Unless you're me, then you're blogging and working on a Friday. Touche.

This is a super quick dinner you can mix up and throw into the oven and be done with it. It's tasty, it looks great and you can make a little, or a lot!

The filling for the chicken is super easy, it's just ricotta, chopped cherry tomatoes, chopped spinach and some seasonings.

To stuff the chicken, use a sharp knife to split the breasts length wise, creating a little pocket. Don't split them all the way through. Stuff them until you're just able to secure them with a couple of tooth picks so they don't fall apart. Then, roll them around in a mixture of panko and regular bread crumbs, so they're well coated.

Heat a skillet with some oil over medium high, you're going to want to fry these babies so you get a nice golden color on the outside. Only about 4 minutes per side.

When they're nice a brown, transfer into a baking dish and into a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until they're cooked through.

 Enjoy!

  

P.S.,

Don't forget to check out (and like!) my new Facebook page for my personal cheffing/bartending/event business!

The LAST Tomato Sauce You’ll Ever Use…

That is a little impending doom-ish. I just mean it’s the last way you’ll ever make a ragu, marinara, chili, pasta sauce, tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, whatever sauce…. Ever! There’s no easier or tastier way to start this out. Trust me, if you scan back into my blog, you’ll see I’ve done everything from using cans to calling it “roasted” when nothing was roasted. See?

It’s lunacy. I mean, I love to see my progress, as a home chef, through this blog. I wouldn’t dare call myself a “chef” or use the word in reference to myself if I didn’t look back at my processes and grow in my cooking and my ways of eating. We shouldn’t stay stagnant in the way’s that we eat. We should evolve. Always evolve.

I went from filling giant pots with boxes of chopped tomatoes, peppers, onions and celery, just to end up with a sauce I was pleased with, in taste, but not in consistency or versatility.

This, I can truly say, is my most versatile, easiest sauce.

I’m proud of it’s simplicity and while I’d never claim originality, I only hope to light the way for others who did things the way I use to, and show them that opening a can isn’t the easiest option. That taking the time, on a day that allows, and planning for meals ahead, makes a world of difference in the way you feel, the way you cook and the meals you make.

 

There’s about as many ways to make this as you’d like. The point of the blog is really, the technique. The roasting. It cooks, but without annihilating. Like my aforementioned post. Which basically, if you cook the marinara, ragu, sauce, or whatever you want to call it, as you’re making it, thoroughly, then when you cook it in a dish later, it’s being pummeled with heat. The nutritional content is null and the taste is void. Avoid the noid. Wait, what?

Anyway, it’s just TOO much. This way, I feel like the tomatoes break down, just enough. The charred skin of the veggies is a welcome addition to all dishes I use this in, so I don’t de-skin or seed. I like my foods whole. I use this in chili, jambalaya and other things I don’t have links to, yet…

INGREDIENTS:

4lbs of Roma tomatoes, stem scars removed. Really, whatever’s on sale, because I get these for either 2 or 3 lbs for $.99.
2 white onions, quartered.
2-3 heads of garlic. I love garlic, and I pile it on.
2 big red bells, half’d.
4 stalks of celery, sliced thin, but not too thin, set aside for later.
1 tbs salt

I don’t season it with oregano and basil, like I would a pasta sauce. I don’t season it any particular way, except for a little salt and pepper. I add seasonings to the dish that I’m adding THIS to, so that the taste doesn’t change or morph in the freezer. It just stays it’s basic ingredients.

Use a metal baking dish, NOT like I did in this photo, or a tin foil, disposable baking dish, again, NOT like I did in this photo, to roast your veggies, everything except the celery, which, while this is roasting, can be sautee’d up on the side with a bit of olive oil, or if you’re a baddie like me, some bacon grease. Because, well, duh. It’s BACON GREASE.

*********I have to post a warning here, about Pyrex. Apparently, it’s happened before, so says the internet. But, I usually roast veggies in my 90 year old grandmothers hand me down Pyrex dish. I line it in tin foil and roast away, under the broiler, to my hearts content. Not during this dinner, but during a dinner I had after this was posted, I was roasting green chiles, took the dish out to flip the chile and the dish exploded all over. I was cut, really badly and needed stitches. Which I did not go get, I finished dinner because a friend of ours was fresh off hiking the Appalachian Trail and “trail-doctored” me up and after 4 hours and a house full of blood, dinner resumed. I now use tinfoil, disposable baking dishes. Lesson learned. Don’t cut your foot off like me. We bartenders needs the feets.**************

Now that’s done, let’s…

This next step is, really, really hard.

Bag, tag and freeze.

Simple.

I also make a red onion version, that I’ll make a lesser version of, when tomatoes go crazy on sale, that I use just for turkey pastas and shrimp pastas that’s a bit sweeter, due to that red onion. Either way, yum.

Do you still buy sauce out of the jar? If not, what was your motivation to stop and make your own?

Freeze That Pork!

There’s not much that’s more versatile than pork. From the breakfast pan to the taco shell to the sammich to the ball park, you’ll find pork.

We eat a lot of it in our house and when I find it on sale, I never walk away.

A while back I posted about freezing pork stock and cooking up a big pork booty. That’s what you can do with the bones and fat from this hunk of meat, once it’s been cooked, chopped, bagged and tagged.

This is what to do with ALL THAT MEAT.

 

First off, I’ve got to praise Food City for their prices. Seriously, hands down, my favorite store to shop at. Plus, the staff is so freaking friendly they cut up fruit for me to snack on while I shop. Um, thank you! (I’m always hungry.)

8.5 lbs of meat will make me about 6-7 dinners with leftovers, so maybe less than double that in actual meals, let’s say 13. The broth, I get about 8 quarts from a roast this size, and about a quart each gets used every time, in something like rice or refried beans or chile verde. Since I make those in bulk and use a quart in each, the rice is split into about 4 quarts, the beans make 5-6 and the child verde, about 6. So, between 20 and 30 dinners with leftovers… Do you see where I’m heading? Cents on a meal for this pork.

The trick is to not eat it all while it’s cooling, fresh out of the oven…

There’s no trick to storing this pork. Once it cools, you’ll find as you’re breaking it apart that parts shred easily, other parts are better diced. Dice and shred accordingly. I use the shredded meat for knock off Chipotle carnitas, chipotle carnitas chili, bbq pulled pork sammies, green chile carnitas tacos. The diced pork I use for nachos, other chili’s and pork chile verde.

Throw everything in the freezer and voila! You’ve got “fresh” pork for your favorite dishes, with like, none of the hassle. It’s truly a life saver around here when I’ve got a night shift or have worked my tukus off all day. Rawr. I said tukus whilst blogging about pork ass. Oops.

We’re about done here.

What’s your favorite way to use pork and what’s your favorite cut?

Bourbon, Lentil & Bacon Chili

There are few things better in this world, than bacon and Jim Beam. FEW. So when they come together and form something not only absolutely decadent and delicious, but somehow, healthy, it’s nothing short of a glorious miracle.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…

I started doing some research on lentils and found that they’re a great substitute for beans, really, anywhere you need beans. Now, my family loves some refried beans, so we won’t be subbing anything out for good, but for chili, when the other ingredients can get pretty fatty and caloric, it’s nice to contrast that with something like lentils.

When compared to beans, say, black beans, because that’s what I was going to use in this recipe. For having such little fat and calories, lentils maintain a good amount of nutrients.

Also, like beans, they add significant volume to a meal, so if you’re short on ingredients or funds and need to stretch a meal, these are GREAT!

It was REALLY easy to get the Man to eat this, he wanted to give lentils a try and LOVES Jim Beam and, of course, bacon, so there wasn’t much arm twisting. He said he felt fuller off of less food and enjoyed the taste as well, so we’re sold on lentils!

So, let’s get started!

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey
12 pieces (1pkg) of bacon, diced
3 c of COOKED lentils
1 sm yellow onion, chopped
1 head of garlic, minced
3 lbs of roma tomatoes, washed and chopped
3 c kidney beans, totally optional, I had some left so I used them up
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 tbsp chili powder
Jim Beam, about a cup
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Start by frying the bacon in a large heavy pot, when it’s got a sizzle and has started to release some fat, add the turkey. Cook, covered, over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the turkey is browned and the bacon is done.

Throw in the garlic and onion and let that get sexy for a few minutes until it’s fragrant and tender. Don’t stir too much, you want that crusty love to form on the bottom, because we’re going to deglaze with alcohol and then fill with liquid you don’t have to worry about the burn.

Reduce the heat just a little and add a cup of bourbon, slowly, getting all the bits off the bottom of the pan as you stir.

Add the tomatoes and bell peppers, cooking over medium heat, covered, stirring occasionally. When everything is heated and starting to bubble add the chili powder, kidney beans and lentils.

At this point you can transfer everything to a crock pot to simmer for the day. High or medium, you’re not going to over cook chili. You can also keep cooking stove top until your tomatoes break down to the consistency you want.

Salt and pepper to taste and you’re done!

Enjoy!

Valentines Day Man Meal–Man Approved

Ever want to make a romantic meal for your man, but his “favorite” gets overdone and you want something new? Well, this might be the trick.

I had NO idea what to make this valentines, it literally snuck up on me and I wasn’t going to serve another booger and fries like I had planned…

So, with booger defrosted, I went at something new.

It’s a burger, covered in cheese and topped with a spicy gravy like sauce that has a huge black pepper kick. It’s made with chicken broth, from scratch and is pretty quick to whip up from your standard roux. The bed of fries is my tried and true baked fry recipe found here.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey
1 c bread crumbs, any kind
1 egg
1 tsp garlic powder/ onion powder
2 c chicken stock
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp butter
cheese of choice

Ingredients for potato wedges are in the link, don’t forget about those!

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix the meat with the bread crumbs and egg and seasoning. If it’s too wet, add more crumbs, if it’s too dry add another egg, but the chances of that are sliiiiim Jim.

Now, shape those burgers like hearts. Over exaggerate the shape, because they’ll “meh” as they cook and loose shape.

I like to fry my turkey burgers in bacon grease. Because turkey doesn’t give off the essential oil that burgers get fried in, it’s a great alternative and you don’t have to use a flavorless option like vegetable oil or whatever else you were planning to use… Don’t have bacon grease? You will soon enough. Whenever you make breakfast, save your sausage or bacon grease in a glass bowl with a lid, in the fridge. It’s great for lots of things and stays good for longer than it’ll take you to use it.

Fry the burgers in a skillet over medium high heat, covered until they’re cooked, flipping a few times. There’s no “too done” with turkey, thus, no rare. They’ve got to be cooked THROUGH. If they crack, well, shit. That’s just the way the universe unfolds and it can’t be fixed. Don’t press the burgers, ever. Turkey tends to crack very easily because of less fat strands holding the ground meat together.

Prep those fries and get them in the oven asap. As soon as you throw down the burgers, preferably.

Then, start the sauce.

In a medium or small sauce pan, over medium high, melt the butter and add the flour, whisking until a hint of golden appears, making a proper roux.

Add the chicken stock, which I make from scratch, the recipe can be found here. (aaaah, future link!) Also add about a tablespoon, seriously, of black pepper. Salt to taste, if at all.

Whisk constantly until a gravy like consistency is formed, keeping in mind it’ll thicken as it cools.

When your fries are almost done, throw some cheese on those hearts. Literally and figuratively, because this meal’s a brick.

To assemble, pile fries on a plate, place a burger on top and smother with the sauce.

No garnish, to fancy pants, nada. Just some sexy deliciousness.

Enjoy!

Baked Mac N’ Ham

No, this is not good for you. Nor is it low in calories, vegan, vegetarian or gluten free. This, is just plain ole comfort food. Because life is meant to be lived. Sure, you may fit into your skinniest jeans, but do you want to look back on a life of sad salads and fruit-ish smoothies, peppered with the stalks of nutrient rich weeds? I think not. But, that’s the Southern woman that raised me talking. Honey.

This dish is totally freezable, making it pretty easy. Sure, the sauce is roux based, but when made in bulk, it’s not that bad.

Ingredients & Directions: No exact measurements here, it depends how much you want to make and most of this is eyeballing anyway. I’ll amend with measurements…. Maybe? About a pound of shells and two cups of ham works for this recipe, using a large casserole dish.

Cooked and diced ham, I buy the big ass hams when they’re on sale, I use everything including the bone. For more on this click here.
Shells, cooked al dente and drained
Grated extra sharp cheddar cheese about 2 cups
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of garlic powder or minced garlic

For the sauce: It’s a roux, so you’re going to start with some butter and flour over medium to medium-high heat. Equal parts butter and flour, so if you’re starting with 2 tbsp of butter, use about 2 tbsp of flour. Melt the butter, whisk in the flour and keep it moving until it’s just started to have a hint of goldenness to it. If you’ve got fresh garlic, add it now, incorporating it fully. Garlic powder can be added with the flour initially.

Add milk 2% and about 1-2 cups, whisking until it’s fully incorporated into the flour mixture and there are no lumps.

Whisk almost continuously, until milk starts to simmer and roll a low boil. Adding the cheddar cheese and whisking to mix it fully. In addition, about another cup of milk, whisking and boiling to reduce. Keep in mind that the sauce reduces slowly and not much volume is lost, so however much milk you add, is about how much sauce you’re going to get. Reduction is only about 1/5 total.

Mix pasta, sauce and ham in a large casserole dish. Cover with crushed ritz crackers or bread crumbs, whatever kind of crumbles you’ve got, but a nice crunch on top is key! I like to add a little cayenne kick on top too.

Bake, uncovered at 350 until bubbly and brown, serve with a crusty bread or a fresh salad!

Enjoy!

Sizzling Steak Stir Fry & White Rice

So, I discovered the restaurant supply store the other day and copped myself a new wok. I literally only cook in them for stir fry, but, I just… Needed one.

Then last night, I had a girlfriend over for dinner and I decided I’d make us a quick and easy stir fry. Well, while it was delicious, I got a little side tracked with the wine and just cooked dinner. There’s suppose to be a bit of a definitive crunch to your veggies and I went ahead and cooked that right out.

So, pardon my photo if it’s a bit… Limp. It was delicious anyway.

INGREDIENTS:

1lb of skirt steak/flap meat (I use this cut, because it’s thin, lessening cooking time and it’s always cheap.)
2oz Kikkoman Teriyaki Sauce
1oz Kikkoman Soy Sauce
1/2 head of garlic, minced
1/2 c dry white wine

2 large carrots
1 pkg of bean sprouts
2 stalks of celery
1/2 lb fresh green beans
1/2 white onion
1/2 head of broccoli
1/2 red bell pepper

There’s no science to this. You can marinate the meat or not, just make sure than when you’re ready to cook, you’ve got a well oiled wok. That’ll help the food to skid around and get evenly cooked THROUGH, quickly.

Basically, chop the meat and then chop your veggies, cook the meat first, leaving the majority of the marinade in the bag or bowl.

Once the meat is cooked, add the veggies and a little additional teriyaki and a splash of wine to the hot wok and toss around until they’re crisp, but cooked through. I usually add carrots and broc first, then the less dense veggies, that way I don’t have raw carrots and caramelized onions.

The rice, I just cook on the side, using either white or brown and chicken broth. I make my own broth, so I know my rice is packed with vitamins, not sodium. Take the time and do the same for your family, the benefits of bone broth are endless.

This is a quick meal for the week days, while being really fresh. If you have older kiddies or a helping husband, let the veggie chopping to someone else and make a team effort out of dinner!

And, above all, ENJOY!

Meatball 101

I love pasta. Who doesn’t? And at any quality restaurant here in Scottsdale, a pasta addiction will break the bank. Fortunately, I figured out how to hack many of my favorite dishes as well as create my own. And what’s easier than a meatball?

Mainstream meatballs are often all beef, fatty beasts, riddled with Lord knows what if you’re buying the pre-cooked, freezer babies that are every college kids bff. (“I’ll boil the water, you microwave the balls, we’re getting fancy tonight!” –Said no one, ever.) But a good meatball? Well, that’s just a fine art.

Let’s get to the balls, shall we?

I use to make all turkey meatballs… But they’re a little plain for my taste, so whenever I find a good quality, spicy Italian sausage on sale, I grab a pound or two and make some meatballs. Turkey can usually be found for pretty cheap, although this new brand from Smart and Final has me a little creeped, because I can’t find shit about it online. “Where’s the turkey from?” “Idk, I just found it on the shelf!” Yum….?

Anyhoo, creep turkey aside…

I like my two kinds of meats, turkey’s for the bulk, the spicy sausage for the flavor. I use granulated onion and garlic, because once frozen, those two ingredients, diced and mixed into the balls, would be gross, I feel. Loss of moisture, transfers of moisture upon cooking, random moisture where there shouldn’t be moisture… What a gross word. So, granulated is the way to go.

Use whatever kind of Italian seasoning you want, a mix of oregano, basil and thyme kind of work universally for me. Basil can get overpowering as HELL, so go lightly.

I use eggs and breadcrumbs, just like in my turkey burgers, to keep things together. Turkey can tend to fall apart when cooked, so breadcrumbs and egg act like a glue when they’re cooked, to hold everything together. Meatloaf magic, your mom knows all about it…

There’s really no exact science to the ingredients. Usually one egg does the trick per two pounds of meat or so. A large handful of bread crumbs is usually sufficient as well, if your meatballs won’t form well and are sticking to your hands, which turkey tends to do, add more breadcrumbs until it’s easier to work with. Seasonings are really just to taste, but I use about a table spoon of each herb, a teaspoon or two of black pepper, granulated garlic and onion and just a pinch of salt.

Since I freeze mine, I use a cookie sheet with foil or wax paper so that I can freeze these bad boys then throw them into a bag.

Mix all your ingredients with your hands, but wash them first, please.

Form yo balls, plop them down, freeze them.

To reheat, just thaw them and either boil them in a tasty marinara or bake them in the oven, which is what I did in the photo above. Either way, they’re perfect, every time.

Class dismissed.

Tortilla Soup

While the rest of the nation is stuck in a cold snap, I’m over here complaining that it’s just under 60 outside today…

But, winter is winter and here I am with my spicy take on a toasty and tasty tortilla soup!

This is pretty easy if you want to go with canned ingredients. Or if you’re a freezer lady, like me, it’s all out of the freezer or fresh, so it’s still pretty easy… It is soup, after all.

I have chicken broth, black beans, onions, corn, bell peppers and chicken ready to go in the freezer. I went out and grabbed a couple Roma tomatoes and used a leftover can of green chiles I had bought for a dip and never used. (Seriously, canned food is lonely in my pantry. It hangs out with the lingering cans of tuna but even that canned fish I grew up knowing and loving is making it’s way out of my diet.)

So, let’s get some ingredients, which are approximate, because I freeze crap in bulk and don’t measure much as I take it out.

About 16oz of shredded chicken
32oz of chicken broth
2cups of black beans, rinsed and drained
3 roma tomatoes, diced
1cup green bell peppers, diced
1cup onions, diced
2cups of corn, diced
A few cloves of garlic

Directions:

Dump it all in the crock pot. Just throw that shit in there all willy nilly like. You’re in a hurry, aren’t you? That’s what a crock pot meal is for… So dump that shit, turn it on low if you’re not that hungry or turn it on high if it’s time to eat.

While you’re waiting, either open a bag of tortilla chips or bust out a stack of corn tortillas, preheat your oven to something hotter than the pavement in the summer and grab a pizza cutter. Slice up the tortillas, however you want and throw them on a baking sheet. Salt, season, oil, spit shine those bad boys, however you prefer and pop them into the oven until they’re crispy!

Serve it all together, maybe a little cheese on top, maybe not, that’s okay too, but tortilla that soup up and you’re done!

Enjoy, guero.

Chicken Noodle Soup

No frills, nothing fancy, just down home, delicious, hearty, hot and sexy, chicken noodle soup.

 

I have this all ready to go in the freezer. I literally unpack the appropriate frozen ingredients, add to the crock pot and let it hang out as long as it wants.

 

I use my own chicken broth, I don’t buy it, ever. I’ll attach the recipe for that, I’ll be posting it soon…

 

I keep chopped onions, celery, carrots (I don’t blanch I just use small portions, they stay good in the freezer for about a month, but no longer.) shredded chicken and frozen broth in the freezer.

 

I add the veggies and chicken right to the crock pot, with about two cups of hot water and some frozen broth, which is about 16oz.

 

INGREDIENTS:

Since it’s soup, why pinpoint measurements? I never understood how you need, “3 carrots” or “1 onion”. How do YOU know what I like in my soup? So, I use about 16oz of each… I do all my portioning for freezing in solo cups, so the amounts I freeze of everything is about 16oz. It leaves enough head space in the bag for expansion for foods which do that and keeps all my portions the same.

White onion, always diced, usually frozen.
Carrots, coined and frozen.
Celery, chopped and frozen.
Sometimes, I use potatoes, diced, not frozen. That’s when I know Boo will be using it for lunches and I want to bulk up the soup a bit.
Chicken, cooked, shredded and frozen.
Broth, again, frozen.
About 2 cups, maybe 3 of hot water.
Egg noodles, about 2 cups.
Thyme, rosemary, basil, oregano, salt and pepper.

Add everything except noodles to crock pot, season well and let it simmer. It’s soup, you know how it’s done.

 

I serve it up with either homemade cheddar biscuits, which I’ll post a recipe for soon or these delicious garlic and herb biscuits.

I also got a few loaves of artisan bread at Sprouts and have kept it sliced in the freezer for quick garlic bread.

Enjoy!

Pork Chile Verde

The culmination of the last two posts, I bring you the Pork Chile Verde plate!

For the sauce, click here.

For the pork and pork stock, click here.

For the refried beans and Spanish rice, click here.

Directions, assuming you’ve got your sauce ready, pork chopped, beans refried and rice is a simmerin’ are as follows:

In a medium sauce pot, depending on how much you’re making for this particular dish, combine cubed pork and the chile verde sauce and simmer on low. That’s it. Let the pork get tender and let the reduce…

Serve, plated like this with corn tortillas, or in a flour tortilla as a burrito!

Enjoy!

Chile Verde Sauce

In my last post I showed you how to make homemade pork stock from a big ole honkin’ pork ass. You can find that, here.

Today, we’re going to take that ass stock and make a whole bunch of chile verde, for the freezer.

Chile verde is a green, chile based sauce that is served over pork, usually, but is great over beef or chicken and is usually served plate style, or in a burrito. The sauce can also be used to make soup, like green chile chicken soup, which I’ll be making, soon…

The sauce can’t get any more simple. If you want to use boxed stock, feel free, it should work just fine but I’m all about the bone broth here.

INGREDIENTS:

4lb Hatch chiles
2lbs Tomatillos
1lb/4large Onions
Jalapenos, to taste, depending how spicy you want it
1 head of garlic

DIRECTIONS:

Roast all the veggies.

 

Remove the tops and stem scars from the tomatillos and chiles.

 

I usually just do an assembly line of cleaned, prepped veggies with two casserole dishes alternating in the oven, with the oven on broil.

 

As one is roasting, the other is getting blended, the empty dish filled with veggies to roast and popped in the oven by the time the other is ready to pull out, dump in the blender and repeat.

 

Blend as well as you can, don’t worry if your veggies are still crunchy, you’ll be simmering the hell out of this in just a bit…

Once everything is blended. Add it to your stock pot and grab a whisk…

I like to simmer this, on medium low, until it has no “crunch” left to it when you taste it. Uncooked, even blended veggies will produce a “raw” taste to a sauce like this. Only after you cook and reduce it for a long time, will you taste the difference when the veggies get softer and the flavors get sexy… I add pork stock, about two cups or so, as I go along to improve consistency and richen the flavor.

Add cumin, salt, black pepper and oregano to taste.

You can add cilantro at this point, but I’m not a big fan.

 

 

 

This gets bagged, tagged and frozen as well.

I use it in Pollo Verde Enchiladas and of course, for pork green chile.

That will be my next post, but here’s a little preview:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

Homemade Pork Stock

This entry is going to kick off a bigger picture. Pork stock to make chile verde sauce to make pork chile verde from the pork that the stock was made. The stock is used in the chile verde sauce as well. It’s like the culinary circle of life…

 

This, is step one.

 

I went to the store and got my hands on a pork shoulder, on sale!

 

I brought it home and baked it up in the oven.

 

Shredded what was shred-able for bbq sammies and what couldn’t be shredded was cubed for chile verde. The big piece of skin was saved to flavor beans, as they cook, to use as refried beans. The bone was kept for step two!

 

Nothing went to waste!!

 

Step two is simple… Take the bone you’ve got left, with any undesirable fat, tendon, waste that was left and put it in a stock pot.

 

Since I was making chile verde that day too, I had veggies on hand to use in the stock. Onion pieces and such. Normally, I don’t use a bunch of veggies in my stock. You can use the granulated versions, because they’re only there for taste, but it’s up to you. I find cooking the seasoned skin and all that stuffs is enough.

I used the ends of the onions here, that’s what’s floating along with the bone, skin, fat, ect.

Fill the pot with water and boil away. As the water level goes down, I refill, tasting as I go. Once I have the desired amount and flavor, it’s done!

Quality over quantity!

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry for the shitty photo quality on the end here, but I didn’t Instagram the finished product for obvious reasons…

Maybe not so obvious, after all, I ig’d a shot of bones boiling in water.

My life… Is riveting.

 

 

 

Anyhoo, bag it, tag it and freeze it.

End o’ story! Enjoy!