Is eating chicken responsible for the low sperm count in young men? A pertinent question, and someone may know the answer. We need a competent bioscientist. With a third of all chickens sold allegedly contaminated with one dire bug or another it may be time to look at what we eat.
Our chicken from Michael's Butchers in High Road East has already provided one good, and simple to prepare, meal - see that recipe in the archive.
Now strip all the remaining skin and flesh from the bones. Put the attractively edible parts into a dish: the breast, legs, and don't forget to turn the bird over - towards the back end you'll find two pieces of flesh lodged in indentations on the carcase bones. They'll slip out easily, giving you two oysters, probably the sweetest meat on the whole bird. Put this dish of meat in the fridge, or pop the oysters into your mouth, as chef's treat.
The bones, skin and all other pieces of the bird should be placed in a saucepan, and barely covered with water. Add a chopped onion, a carrot, chopped celery and any herbs you find attractive. On the stove let this simmer for a while, perhaps an hour, on a low heat.
Turn off the heat, don't remove the lid, and allow to cool to room temperature. When cool, stand beside the kitchen bin, with a clean saucepan beside the stockpot. If the chicken is really good,and you haven't swamped it with water, you may find that all has turned to jelly. Lucky you!
Pick out the skin and bones, each in turn and strip of any jelly or scraps of meat into the clean pan. Throw the bones in the bin. Chicken bones are not suitable food for dogs, as the silly pooch will crunch it up and try to gulp it all down far too quickly. Splitered chicken bones act like fish hooks, and will stick in the animals throat. So throw the bones away.
You should be left with a rich chicken stock, with plenty of scraps of meat floating in it. Purists may strain this mixture if they wish. I think that's mad and can see no real attribute in consomme (clear soup). I want all the goodness I can get.
Either leave the stock as it is, or bash it in a blender. I use a handheld whizzer, which is easy to clean - it works in the saucepan, and is effective.
Use as stock - and we'll come up with a few ideas for that in other recipes later, or use as a soup.
Soup is much under-rated. We'd all be much better off if we ate more.
And more of that will come next.