Chop chicken leg bones?

[TdeV]

Wondering about the value of cutting through chicken bones when making a stew. When I'm making chicken or duck stock, I cut through the bones so that the marrow can become part of stock fluid. When I'm making stock, I filter it eventually, so any fine bone particles get removed. I know in Asian cooking that the chicken thigh gets chopped into 3, but I'm assuming that's to make the pieces smaller.

 

What's your opinion? Is there value in chicken bone marrow getting into the stew? If one picks out the bits of broken bone ends, is that good enough?

[chromedome]

I often do that when making soup or stew. I *believe* it adds flavor - don't see how it wouldn't - but was never curious enough to attempt any sort of empirical comparison. 

[HungryChris]

I sometimes like to make stuffed boneless chicken legs, using leg quarters. When I do, I usually make a nice gelatinous stock with the leg and back bones. I have often wondered if I roasted the bones in the oven first, how the stock would be. Now I have a new curve to think about too.

HC

[btbyrd]

Chicken bones are so small that you can get full extraction without needing to hack them up. Most of the contribution that bones make to broth comes from their collagen, not from the marrow. Bones add "body" or gelatin to the final stock. Marrow is largely fat and doesn't contribute much in the way of flavor. If you've ever made a stock with only bones (and no meat or skin) then you'll know where the flavor is. And it ain't in the bones.

 

1 hour ago, HungryChris said:

I have often wondered if I roasted the bones in the oven first, how the stock would be.

 

Good lord, man... roast those bones! Bone roasting is the difference between lighter, "blonde" chicken stock and the darker, richer roasted chicken stock. They're not really the same product, but I almost never make blonde chicken stock because I prefer the taste from roasted bones. I also find that pre-roasting the bones mostly eliminates the need to blanch and rinse the bones first. 

Edited January 18, 2018 by btbyrd (log)

[Martin Fisher]

Depends on what flavor you prefer.

I don't favor cooking chicken or turkey stock for a long time because lengthy cooking sort of imparts an unpleasant sanguine flavor, IMO.

Fine with red meat meat/bones, but not white meat, especially from young birds—which most are.

 

Which is why I, generally, prefer Edna Lewis' method of chicken stock making, which is very quick and simple.

Edna said, and I agree: "I do not believe in cooking stock for a long period of time; it loses it's good flavor."

 

Even better when combined with Scott Peacock's chicken stock method.

Edited January 18, 2018 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[TdeV]

1 hour ago, HungryChris said:

I sometimes like to make stuffed boneless chicken legs, using leg quarters. When I do, I usually make a nice gelatinous stock with the leg and back bones.

 

@HungryChris, can I ask for the recipe?

[Kerry Beal]

Cook's Illustrated March 1996 had a chicken stock that was made with chopped chicken pieces and a technique that sauteed the pieces until they gave up their juice before adding any extra water that made a lovely rich soup.

 

 

[TdeV]

51 minutes ago, btbyrd said:

Chicken bones are so small that you can get full extraction without needing to hack them up.

 

@btbyrd, is that true even when the bones are surrounded by chicken leg meat?

[btbyrd]

31 minutes ago, TdeV said:

 

@btbyrd, is that true even when the bones are surrounded by chicken leg meat?

 

Depends on the size of the chicken and how you're cooking it. But yes, you can get near-full extraction from legs without hacking them up. If they're super thick or you're concerned for some reason, you can always run a knife down the leg and thigh bones to expose them. But after 45 minutes in the pressure cooker (or a few hours on the stovetop) chicken legs will be falling apart anyway. If you're using low temperatures or short cooking times, smaller pieces will help things infuse quickly. But within "ordinary" chicken stock-making parameters, you'll be cooking for a long enough time that it doesn't much matter.

Edited January 18, 2018 by btbyrd (log)

[HungryChris]

15 hours ago, TdeV said:

 

@HungryChris, can I ask for the recipe?

@TdeV, I have stuffed them with a number of things. My 2 favorites are garlic cooked spinach, pine nuts and blue cheese, and ham and Swiss. I am unable to post the link because of server overloading, but if you do a search for Pine nuts blue cheese and pick my post of January, 2016 you will find that one, and another search for chicken legs ham Swiss and pick my post dated Dec 6, 2017 you can see what I did there. Good luck!

HC

Edited January 19, 2018 by HungryChris (log)

[Martin Fisher]

1 hour ago, Kerry Beal said:

Cook's Illustrated March 1996 had a chicken stock that was made with chopped chicken pieces and a technique that sauteed the pieces until they gave up their juice before adding any extra water that made a lovely rich soup.

 

Yeah, that's inspired by Edna Lewis' recipe! 

"For a full-flavored chicken soup recipe that could be made in less than 90 minutes, we borrowed an idea from an Edna Lewis recipe, beginning by sautéing a chicken, minus the breast (which we used later as meat for the soup), hacked into small pieces, rather than by simmering chicken bones, aromatic vegetables, and ..."