ronnie_suburban wrote:

boudreaulicious wrote:In addition to producing the best stock I’ve ever made by far . . .

Yes. This, I want to try soon. You're not the first person I've heard this from. What's your method?

=R=

You’re gonna laugh. Dump about a dozen skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs or leg quarters in the pot, fill with water (I use Dasani), hit the poultry button, natural release. If the chicken is frozen, I put it through the poultry setting twice, though if you let it sit long enough (I often do this right before I go to bed) you don’t even need to do that. I don’t add any seasoning or veg to the pot unless I’m using the stock for a specific purpose. And I use the chicken for a million things—mostly, I bag it up in portions that I can later use for chicken and rice, soup, tacos, etc. And my very spoiled dogs get their share as well, since it’s part of their daily meal.

boudreaulicious wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:

boudreaulicious wrote:In addition to producing the best stock I’ve ever made by far . . .

Yes. This, I want to try soon. You're not the first person I've heard this from. What's your method?

=R=

You’re gonna laugh. Dump about a dozen skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs or leg quarters in the pot, fill with water (I use Dasani), hit the poultry button, natural release. If the chicken is frozen, I put it through the poultry setting twice, though if you let it sit long enough (I often do this right before I go to bed) you don’t even need to do that. I don’t add any seasoning or veg to the pot unless I’m using the stock for a specific purpose. And I use the chicken for a million things—mostly, I bag it up in portions that I can later use for chicken and rice, soup, tacos, etc. And my very spoiled dogs get their share as well, since it’s part of their daily meal.

Okay, thanks. I'm with you on meat and water only. That's how I almost always make stock unless, as you wrote, it's for a specific purpose that requires something additional. I read this years ago from Thomas Keller; the advantages of keeping stock as neutral as possible to maximize its versatility, and it really stuck with me.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

boudreaulicious wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:

boudreaulicious wrote:In addition to producing the best stock I’ve ever made by far . . .

Yes. This, I want to try soon. You're not the first person I've heard this from. What's your method?

=R=

You’re gonna laugh. Dump about a dozen skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs or leg quarters in the pot, fill with water (I use Dasani), hit the poultry button, natural release. If the chicken is frozen, I put it through the poultry setting twice, though if you let it sit long enough (I often do this right before I go to bed) you don’t even need to do that. I don’t add any seasoning or veg to the pot unless I’m using the stock for a specific purpose. And I use the chicken for a million things—mostly, I bag it up in portions that I can later use for chicken and rice, soup, tacos, etc. And my very spoiled dogs get their share as well, since it’s part of their daily meal.

Okay, thanks. I'm with you on meat and water only. That's how I almost always make stock unless, as you wrote, it's for a specific purpose that requires something additional. I read this years ago from Thomas Keller; the advantages of keeping stock as neutral as possible to maximize its versatility, and it really stuck with me.

=R=

The IP sucks every last ounce of flavor and gelatin out of the bones, skin and meat. Super simple. Same for beef tho I don’t make beef stock often. I use the chicken fat when I make rice as well.

If you do that method, you also end up with rendered chicken skin that you can freeze, then bread and fry at you convenience.

gnarchief wrote:If you do that method, you also end up with rendered chicken skin that you can freeze, then bread and fry at you convenience.

Seems I'll be making chicken stock in the next day or two. First I have to blow the dust and spider webs off my IP.

12 frozen Costco organic bone-in skin-on thighs and four 16oz Dasani bottles, programmed for 20 minutes and a manual pressure release—sat for probably 2-3 addition hours on warm. Delicious!

Boudreaulicious,

How is the water in Valpo? Is it well water?

Before Wheaton's water source was Lake Michigan, I had friends whose shopping list always included water for cooking. Since their water source changed, they almost never buy bottled water.

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:Boudreaulicious,

How is the water in Valpo? Is it well water?

Before Wheaton's water source was Lake Michigan, I had friends whose shopping list always included water for cooking. Since their water source changed, they almost never buy bottled water.

Regards,
Cathy2

We have a well—and it’s pretty fragrant, no matter what filter we use. It’s perfectly safe and we use it for boiling and cleaning things, but that’s about it. We had the well sanitized recently and the smell is a bit better but I still don’t use it for stock and I don’t drink it (neither do the animals).

Cathy2 wrote:
Before Wheaton's water source was Lake Michigan

When did this happen and how did they make this happen? I thought the compact with Canada prevented Lake Michigan water from being used by communities outside the watershed that feeds into the lake. I thought the drainage into Mississippi started well east of Wheaton, or am I wrong?

The reason I ask is that some Wisconsin communities also wanted to tap into the Lake Michigan water for drinking and were sued by the Canadian Govt to prevent that.

Indianbadger wrote:
When did this happen .

Not sure of the "how" part of your question:

Source of Wheaton’s Water

Since 1992, the City of Wheaton has purchased Lake Michigan water from the DuPage Water Commission. The water is treated at Chicago’s Jardine Water Purification Plant, which is the largest potable water filtration plant in the world.

* snippet from Wheaton Water District website

One of the best things that Instant Pot does for Indian cooking is make one pot rice+lentils dishes. Khichdi and Pongal, specifically.

For these one pot meals, usually Mung Dal is the preferred dal as it cooks about the same time as the rice. I used the Rice button on my Instant Pot Duo to make ven pongal yesterday, and it worked well cooking wise. The only problem was my own fault. I usually cook long grain rice, but used medium grain yesterday as most of South Indian rice recipes use medium grain rice. Looks like I added too much water as the water requirement for medium grain seems to be a bit lower than long grain. Turned out a bit too mushy for my taste. Still tasty. Next time I will reduce the water.

Have others noted that the water ratio is different from long grain vs. medium grain, when cooking rice in the Instant Pot?

Willkat98 wrote:
Not sure of the "how" part of your question:

Source of Wheaton’s Water: Since 1992, the City of Wheaton has purchased Lake Michigan water from the DuPage Water Commission.

Wow, learned something today. The Wisconsin story was similar, where they were trying to buy Lake Michigan water but were prevented. I want to read how this Wheaton sale went down.

Thanks!!

There is no mystery about Wheaton water. I have lived there since 1989 when we had well water. At some point in time, there was an opportunity for some municipalities to connect to "Chicago" (Lake Michigan) water and they did. Some didn't, such as Warrenville, which I hear still has crappy water. So we have had Lake Michigan water thankfully since l992. Since then, the Great Lakes states entered a compact which prevented other states and municipalities from connecting to Great Lakes water. You can read about it on this link and many other places.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_Compact

I read recently Lake Zurich, IL is considering going to Lake Michigan water.

Regards,
CAthy2

boudreaulicious wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:

boudreaulicious wrote:In addition to producing the best stock I’ve ever made by far . . .

Yes. This, I want to try soon. You're not the first person I've heard this from. What's your method?

=R=

You’re gonna laugh. Dump about a dozen skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs or leg quarters in the pot, fill with water (I use Dasani), hit the poultry button, natural release. If the chicken is frozen, I put it through the poultry setting twice, though if you let it sit long enough (I often do this right before I go to bed) you don’t even need to do that. I don’t add any seasoning or veg to the pot unless I’m using the stock for a specific purpose. And I use the chicken for a million things—mostly, I bag it up in portions that I can later use for chicken and rice, soup, tacos, etc. And my very spoiled dogs get their share as well, since it’s part of their daily meal.

I keep meaning to try this. I can think of a million good uses for proper rich chicken stock, but I'm hung up on what to do with all that poached chicken thigh. You mentioned all the flavor gets sucked up into the stock. I imagine it retains a pretty tender texture at least.

Throwing the meat back into soup seems like the obvious move. I love chicken salads, but I'm not sure the texture and spent flavor would be ideal for that. Pulled and doused in a spicy sauce a la chicken tinga?

Jefe wrote:Throwing the meat back into soup seems like the obvious move. I love chicken salads, but I'm not sure the texture and spent flavor would be ideal for that. Pulled and doused in a spicy sauce a la chicken tinga?

I think the key word here is "spent." I do love making stocks in the IP (thanks, Jen!) and I'll run it for hours to extract absolutely everything out of whatever it is I put in there. But after that, the resulting solids don't have much to them. They're all but flavorless at that point, though they do have some aroma. When thinking about making something else with them, it never seems worth it because it would take an awful lot of whatever else to turn it into something palatable. That's just my .02, though.

=R=

Jefe wrote:

boudreaulicious wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:

boudreaulicious wrote:In addition to producing the best stock I’ve ever made by far . . .

Yes. This, I want to try soon. You're not the first person I've heard this from. What's your method?

=R=

You’re gonna laugh. Dump about a dozen skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs or leg quarters in the pot, fill with water (I use Dasani), hit the poultry button, natural release. If the chicken is frozen, I put it through the poultry setting twice, though if you let it sit long enough (I often do this right before I go to bed) you don’t even need to do that. I don’t add any seasoning or veg to the pot unless I’m using the stock for a specific purpose. And I use the chicken for a million things—mostly, I bag it up in portions that I can later use for chicken and rice, soup, tacos, etc. And my very spoiled dogs get their share as well, since it’s part of their daily meal.

I keep meaning to try this. I can think of a million good uses for proper rich chicken stock, but I'm hung up on what to do with all that poached chicken thigh. You mentioned all the flavor gets sucked up into the stock. I imagine it retains a pretty tender texture at least.

Throwing the meat back into soup seems like the obvious move. I love chicken salads, but I'm not sure the texture and spent flavor would be ideal for that. Pulled and doused in a spicy sauce a la chicken tinga?

It still has full flavor and texture—it definitely makes for a very rich collagen-heavy stock but the meat is still delicious —and we usually have a bowl of it over rice with homemade “green sauce” ala Sun Wah (green onion, ginger, salt, sesame oil) and Asian veg or broccolini the first night. But other uses are pot pie (been on a bit of a kick with that lately!) and chicken enchiladas (quick sauté with some of my frozen verde sauce from my end of year harvest). I have tamales on my to-do list. And Chicken tinga or butter chicken sound great!

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Jefe wrote:Throwing the meat back into soup seems like the obvious move. I love chicken salads, but I'm not sure the texture and spent flavor would be ideal for that. Pulled and doused in a spicy sauce a la chicken tinga?

I think the key word here is "spent." I do love making stocks in the IP (thanks, Jen!) and I'll run it for hours to extract absolutely everything out of whatever it is I put in there. But after that, the resulting solids don't have much to them. They're all but flavorless at that point, though they do have some aroma. When thinking about making something else with them, it never seems worth it because it would take an awful lot of whatever else to turn it into something palatable. That's just my .02, though.

=R=

I don’t leave it in overnight anymore unless I’m specifically making it for my pups—yes, I cook for my dogs—they get a mix of chicken, pumpkin and rice with their dry food every day

The stock from just cooking 10 nice-sized thighs with about 80 oz of water (high pressure for 30 minutes then manual release and let sit for an hour or so on warm) yields a stock that is pretty much the same as the overnight version.

boudreaulicious wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Jefe wrote:Throwing the meat back into soup seems like the obvious move. I love chicken salads, but I'm not sure the texture and spent flavor would be ideal for that. Pulled and doused in a spicy sauce a la chicken tinga?

I think the key word here is "spent." I do love making stocks in the IP (thanks, Jen!) and I'll run it for hours to extract absolutely everything out of whatever it is I put in there. But after that, the resulting solids don't have much to them. They're all but flavorless at that point, though they do have some aroma. When thinking about making something else with them, it never seems worth it because it would take an awful lot of whatever else to turn it into something palatable. That's just my .02, though.

=R=

I don’t leave it in overnight anymore unless I’m specifically making it for my pups—yes, I cook for my dogs—they get a mix of chicken, pumpkin and rice with their dry food every day

The stock from just cooking 10 nice-sized thighs with about 80 oz of water (high pressure for 30 minutes then manual release and let sit for an hour or so on warm) yields a stock that is pretty much the same as the overnight version.

Well, it was YOU who sent me down this rabbit hole!

So, as I did some more additional reading, poking around, youtubing, etc. I learned about a lot of different approaches and I've found that they're almost all worth trying. I also, when I can, further concentrate the IP stock on the stove top because it's much easier to store that way. I usually reduce it by 75%, which leaves it very intense but easy to store in small containers in the freezer, and easy enough to dilute back, too.

But no matter what the (IP) method, I find that the leftover solids aren't very flavorful. That's pretty much analogous to making stock more via conventional methods, too. In either mode, what's left behind is usually discarded, though if I had a pooch . . .

=R=

boudreaulicious wrote:

Jefe wrote:

boudreaulicious wrote:

ronnie_suburban wrote:

boudreaulicious wrote:In addition to producing the best stock I’ve ever made by far . . .

Yes. This, I want to try soon. You're not the first person I've heard this from. What's your method?

=R=

You’re gonna laugh. Dump about a dozen skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs or leg quarters in the pot, fill with water (I use Dasani), hit the poultry button, natural release. If the chicken is frozen, I put it through the poultry setting twice, though if you let it sit long enough (I often do this right before I go to bed) you don’t even need to do that. I don’t add any seasoning or veg to the pot unless I’m using the stock for a specific purpose. And I use the chicken for a million things—mostly, I bag it up in portions that I can later use for chicken and rice, soup, tacos, etc. And my very spoiled dogs get their share as well, since it’s part of their daily meal.

I keep meaning to try this. I can think of a million good uses for proper rich chicken stock, but I'm hung up on what to do with all that poached chicken thigh. You mentioned all the flavor gets sucked up into the stock. I imagine it retains a pretty tender texture at least.

Throwing the meat back into soup seems like the obvious move. I love chicken salads, but I'm not sure the texture and spent flavor would be ideal for that. Pulled and doused in a spicy sauce a la chicken tinga?

It still has full flavor and texture—it definitely makes for a very rich collagen-heavy stock but the meat is still delicious —and we usually have a bowl of it over rice with homemade “green sauce” ala Sun Wah (green onion, ginger, salt, sesame oil) and Asian veg or broccolini the first night. But other uses are pot pie (been on a bit of a kick with that lately!) and chicken enchiladas (quick sauté with some of my frozen verde sauce from my end of year harvest). I have tamales on my to-do list. And Chicken tinga or butter chicken sound great!

I was also thinking a Hainan style prep might work with rice cooked in chix stock & fat. Though HCR is all about full flavored chix (I always like the rice the best tho.) And yeah, shredded with adobo/tinga for Mex preps.

I know that homemade stock and the stuff in the box are apples and oranges. But doing the math – at Aldi I can get a quart of organic chix stock for $1.50. Elsewhere, I can pick up Miller chicken thighs for $1.75/lb, with each thigh weighing ~1/2 lb. So about $9 for 10 thighs to make ~3 qts stock or $3/qt. I wouldn't be surprised if the home made has 2X the flavor or concentrate, so probably worth it, spent chix or not.

I'm an obsessive no-waster though, so I simply would not be able to bring myself to discard the meat (tho I do have fun feeding the local beasts of the night out here in the woods.)

Jefe wrote:I'm an obsessive no-waster though, so I simply would not be able to bring myself to discard the meat (tho I do have fun feeding the local beasts of the night out here in the woods.)

Evil Ronnie would use the chicken meat leftover from making stock as enchiladas for a staff meal. Emulating this idea, I have made lasagna, where there are lots of other flavor going on.

Regards,
Cathy2

Certainly I wouldn't throw that away. I made turkey stock after Thanksgiving, and had about three cups of meat off the leftover leg, wing and carcass.
I made Japanese curry buns with most of it, the rest got doled out as turkey salad sandwiches, and supplement to ramen.

JoelF wrote:Certainly I wouldn't throw that away. I made turkey stock after Thanksgiving, and had about three cups of meat off the leftover leg, wing and carcass.
I made Japanese curry buns with most of it, the rest got doled out as turkey salad sandwiches, and supplement to ramen.

I hate throwing anything away but my enthusiasm for mostly flavorless condiment vehicles is not high. At some point it just feels like throwing good ingredients after bad but your and Cathy's approaches have piqued my interest.

=R=

I did the thing – Instant Pot chicken stock, 10 chicken thighs : 80 cups water. Jen mentioned two different cooking methods above, so I split the difference – 15 mins on the poultry setting, then 15 mins natural release. Then manual release & I let the whole thing sit for an hour. My goal was not-spent chicken meat + reasonably rich stock. And it delivered exactly that!

The meat fell off the bone, though was plenty chicken-y. The stock was leagues better than the boxed stuff, though set with only the slightest jiggle. I made jambalaya on night one (w Wayne Jacobs andouille, mmmm) which came out saturated in glutamic savoriness. Throughout the week I've done classic chicken noodle – I thought the stock was perfect for that. And I just finished up the last quart in pozole rojo, which while tasty, I prefer with a bit more body.

The recipe yields up a whole mess of pulled chicken. I froze a good two cups worth submerged in stock for green chili over the weekend.

I know if I let it sit for a few more hours, I would have yielded more gelatinous jiggle. But I think the shorter cook time relieved my trepidation about lifeless stringy chicken. Best of both worlds!

Jefe wrote:I did the thing – Instant Pot chicken stock, 10 chicken thighs : 80 cups water.

Damn! How big is your Instant Pot?

Jefe wrote:The recipe yields up a whole mess of pulled chicken. I froze a good two cups worth submerged in stock for green chili over the weekend.

Yeah, I still don't think this bird is optimal in a lot of applications (though, I IP it for longer than you do) but I think it does perform best in more liquidcentric applications. For example, adding it to some Thai-style masaman curry the other night worked out pretty well. It soaked up and conveyed the curry nicely.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:

Jefe wrote:I did the thing – Instant Pot chicken stock, 10 chicken thighs : 80 cups water.

Damn! How big is your Instant Pot?

Jefe wrote:The recipe yields up a whole mess of pulled chicken. I froze a good two cups worth submerged in stock for green chili over the weekend.

Yeah, I still don't think this bird is optimal in a lot of applications (though, I IP it for longer than you do) but I think it does perform best in more liquidcentric applications. For example, adding it to some Thai-style masaman curry the other night worked out pretty well. It soaked up and conveyed the curry nicely.

=R=

LOL, I meant 80 oz! 10 cups!

I'm late to the chicken stock conversation, but I've taken to throwing rotisserie chicken carcasses in the freezer to later be used to make stock. I throw the frozen carcasses on a baking sheet with the lousiest looking carrots, celery and onions in my fridge and roast them at about 425 for 45 minutes or so before throwing them in the IP. Bonus...there are usually very crunchy pieces of chicken skin to nibble on before the rest goes into the IP. IP chicken broth rocks...so flavorful and gelatinous!

This thread is coming in handy after getting an IP as a gift in December. I've only used it once in 2 ½ months, but since my ceramic liner in my crockpot broke, I needed something to replace it. I did make chicken tetrazzini with everyone saying it was good. It had that crockpot comfort food quality. I subbed the pasta to penne, but won't do that again due to flat noodles that took away from the experience itself. The pasta was al dente so I was pleased. I did miss a crunchy cheesy topping, but you could easily do that with buttered toasted crumbs and some parm upon serving. Today it will be the corned beef. I might try the potatoes and carrots in it as well. I just love butter steamed tiny red potatoes and roasted carrots, but that would certainly buck the boiled tradition. Thanks to the hive for the recipe ideas! Edited to add: I did not saute anything and used whole milk. I used fresh onion and garlic. I am trying risotto next.

Any thoughts on making ham stock in the IP? I have a nice double-smoked ham bone with a tiny bit of meat plus a slightly meatier shoulder bone. Pressure cook for an hour or so? Longer? Shorter but let stand in the hot water?

Thanks for any advice or experiences.

tjr wrote:Any thoughts on making ham stock in the IP? I have a nice double-smoked ham bone with a tiny bit of meat plus a slightly meatier shoulder bone. Pressure cook for an hour or so? Longer? Shorter but let stand in the hot water?

Thanks for any advice or experiences.

I’d put in both and PC for 30 mins max, then let manually release and remain on warm for an hour or two.