Carefully tending a vat of stock used to account for a hefty chunk of the workload in fine-dining kitchens. Today, however, says the New York-based chef Yann Nury, “it’s a forgotten skill,” with many restaurants forced to rely on store-bought powder and cubes, owing to cost, time and space constraints. Nury, however, finds those alternatives lacking. “Homemade broth has a purer flavour,” he says. “It tastes more like chicken.” That’s especially true of the stock he makes in his professional catering kitchen in SoHo, where he uses it to deepen the flavour of both his expertly executed comfort food and his more intricate Northern European dishes.
To make his signature broth, Nury relies on an unusual first step that he learned from a client on the Upper East Side, after falling in love with the home cook’s matzo ball soup: He poaches a whole chicken, discards the poaching liquid, and then simmers the bird with lightly sautéed vegetables and herbs for about two hours. This method, he says, ensures that the coagulated proteins from the meat and bones “will already be cooked out,” resulting in an unusually clear, golden soup that doesn’t require constant skimming.
Nury’s winter vegetable soup calls for eight cups of the broth, along with root vegetables and a handful of sage. While the ingredient list is simple, the taste is complex, especially if you add a few Parmesan rinds to the pot — which ups the umami — and top it with sourdough croutons fried in sage-infused olive oil. Any remaining stock can be used to deglaze a pan, steam broccoli or cook rice or beans, says Nury, who also relies on broth to add a savoury note “and an extra dose of protein” to his pasta sauce. “It’s the greatest flavour enhancer,” he says — and not just for professional kitchens. At his Westchester County home, the fridge and freezer are brimming with quart containers of the stuff.
Yann Nury’s Chicken Broth and Winter Root Vegetable Soup
Chicken Broth
Makes approximately 6 quarts of stock
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken
- 1 head of garlic
- 2 large red or sweet onions
- 3 carrots
- 2 turnips
- 1 parsnip
- A few sprigs each of thyme, oregano and sage, tied together with string into a bouquet garni
- Salt and pepper to taste
- About 2 tablespoons olive oil
1. Peel the onions and garlic and scrub the other vegetables, then cut them into 1-inch pieces and set aside.
2. Slide the bouquet garni into the cavity of the chicken. Tie the legs of the chicken together with kitchen twine. Bring a 12-quart pot of water to a rapid boil, salt it generously, then submerge the chicken for 5 to 10 minutes, until gray scum, foam or bits of fat rise to the surface. (These can cause unwanted cloudiness in the broth and dull the flavour.) Remove the chicken and discard the water.
3. Add the olive oil and chopped vegetables to the pot. Seasoning to taste with salt and pepper, cook the vegetables until they are soft but not caramelised, about 4 to 5 minutes. Then add the chicken and cover it with water, letting the twine hang out of the pot so that you can easily remove the chicken later. Cover the pot loosely with a lid, leaving about a one-inch gap for steam to escape. Simmer gently for 1.5 to 2 hours. (You can cook longer if you prefer a more intense flavour.)
4. Remove the chicken. (You can shred the meat to use it in other dishes such as a potpie or taquitos.) Strain the liquid through a fine mesh strainer for a golden broth.
Note: The above steps can be followed with leftover roast chicken as well. Stock can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week, and in the freezer for a few months.
Winter Root Vegetable and Parmesan Soup
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients
- 8 cups chicken stock
- 3 or 4 dried Parmesan rinds
- 1 butternut squash
- 2 parsnips
- 2 turnips
- 2 large carrots
- 1 celery root
- 1 bunch of sage, tied into a bouquet garni as above
- About 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Garnish
- 4 slices sourdough bread, cut into small cubes for the croutons
- Shaved Parmesan cheese
- About 3 tablespoons olive oil
- Sage leaves, optional
1. Peel and cut the vegetables into approximately half-inch cubes. Warm the olive oil in a pot over medium-low heat and add the vegetables, seasoning with salt and pepper.
2. When the vegetables begin to soften and release moisture, cover them with stock. Add the bouquet garni of sage and the Parmesan rinds, and simmer until the vegetables are completely soft, about 30 to 35 minutes.
3. While the soup is simmering, fry your sourdough cubes. Toss the bread with olive oil and season with salt, making sure to coat the cubes evenly. Heat a pan to medium-high and add the bread, working in batches if necessary to avoid overcrowding. Flip once the undersides are light golden brown, after about a minute, and brown the other side. (For additional flavour, try frying a few sage leaves in olive oil for about 30 seconds, removing them from the pan with a slotted spoon and then frying the bread in the herb-infused oil.)
4. Remove the bundle of sage and the Parmesan rinds from the pot, then serve the soup topped with shaved Parmesan and croutons.
