Stocks came about to use leftover bits and pieces to add flavour to other dishes, and so the ingredients vary from cuisine to cuisine and even cook to cook. Chicken stock (nahm gai in Thai) is as popular in Asian cuisines as it is in European ones, only the flavourings are slightly different. An Asian cook will often have trimmings of ginger, scraps of green onion and stalks from bunches of coriander leftover, so these are what tend to go into their stockpot. Feel free to add a slice or 2 of galangal, a slice of daikon or some shiitake stalks to your Asian chicken stock too if you have them handy. If the stock simmers too fast and reduces to less than 1.5 litres, top up with a little water as the flavour will have been concentrated. Recipes for stock usually direct you to discard the solids once the stock is made, but that can be unnecessarily wasteful. The picked meat from the chicken wings tossed with some mayo is a great sandwich filling. Try this brown chicken stock for European dishes.
Makes about 1.5 litres (6 cups)
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