Chicken and Ginger Bone Broth

Having lived in Singapore till I was 10, I didn't grow up drinking these beautiful creamy chunky soups that are very popular in the Western world. I grew up drinking broth wayyy before bone broth was trending! Chicken and corn, Pork Bone Ba Ku Teh and the broth that comes with Hainanese Chicken rice. There is something about a good broth that warms your being from the inside out. Ginger is one of those super foods which I love. It's anti-nausea, anti-inflammatory and fights infections. This broth was definitely consumed during my pregnancy (everything made me want to barf) and of course in winter when the toddler comes home with every bug possible from kindy. 

I serve this broth on its own, with rice porridge if someone in the family has fallen prey to a tummy bug, use it as a base for my broccoli and potato soup (halving the amount of ginger) or serve it with my favourite pork and mushroom wontons. 

I'll share my favourite wonton recipe and my garlic bak choy recipe with you all some other time. 

But for today, here's the broth!

• 500g chicken bones (frames, backs or necks are pretty good) I normally buy about $4 worth per broth at my local butcher
• 1 onion halved
• 3 stalks of celery chopped roughly
• 2 carrots chopped roughly
• 2 (lady) thumb sizes of ginger, 1x bruised, 1x grated finely
• 10 cloves of garlic whole
• 1 t of sesame oil
• Spring onion chopped roughly
• 1 T of whole black pepper corns 
• 1 star anise
• white pepper
• salt

A big stock pot would be handy, I'm itching for a 12l one but for now 5l one has to suffice

1. Boil a jug a water
2. Heat your sesame oil on a medium heat and sautee celery and onion till semi-soft
3. Add in Chicken bones, onion, bruised ginger, garlic cloves, spring onion, pepper corns and star anise to the pot
4. Pour boiled water over everything until the chicken bones are just submerged
5. Bring to the boil* 
6. Remove scum from the top with a slotted spoon
7. Reduce heat and simmer for about half an hour, removing additional scum that might surface as required 
8. Once the veges start going soft, remove the stock from the heat.
9. Pull out the chicken bones first and set aside
10. Strain the rest of the stock. You can use a strainer and/or cheese cloth
11. Return the stock to the heat and add in finely grated ginger, white pepper and salt**
12. Bring stock to the boil and let it reduce to about 2/3s of the original amount. So if you started with 3l of stock you want to reduce it down to 2l. Be sure not to over reduce the broth as you will be left with seawater. The key is to keep tasting it
13. For a quick meal, pull off some of the chicken meat from the bones and chuck in dried noodles and some bok choy to cook in the broth. 

*This step is really important as it brings all the scum or froth to the top, once you remove this you get a much clearer broth 

**Don't add in too much as you are going to reduce this down, start minimally and add as you go