Nathan Zucker
If you’ve ever slurped through a bowl of soul-soothing ramen at one of Sarah Gavigan’s Otaku Ramen outposts, you already know this is a woman passionate about her craft.
But get her talking on the subject—from the ingredients to the culture to the mind-stimulating science of umami—and you’ll quickly discover that Otaku (loosely translated as a person who is obsessed) is not only the name of her growing ramen empire, but aptly defines the chef herself.
The backbone of those savory bowls is a deep, rich (fatty!) bone broth; a food which has become a marketing maelstrom over the past year, making appearances on both menus and grocery store shelves. But most of the bone broths you see in the store are missing one really important thing.
Nathan Zucker
“They’re missing all the fat,” Gavigan says matter-of-factly. “The fat is where a significant portion of all the goodness lives.”
The goodness: collagen, magnesium, and calcium, which are known for their anti-inflammatory properties, come out in that last hour of cooking.
“The bones will actually start to disintegrate once they’ve leached,” she explains.
And with a recipe as simple as bones, vegetables, and water, the ingredients matter more than ever.
“You want a nice, fat hen,” she advises.
And much the way you wouldn’t use a cheap wine to build a sauce, she stresses that pure, clean water is key for making a stock with the best clarity and flavor. Bone broth can be sipped (Gavigan likes to add a couple dashes of Bragg Liquid Aminos to the stock and sip in the morning when she can’t settle on breakfast) or seasoned and used as a building block for a variety of dishes.
CHINTAN “clear soup” (all chicken clear stock)
Courtesy of Sarah Gavigan, Otaku Ramen
For a 10 quart or larger pot (Makes about 6 cups)
Ingredients:
- 1 5-6-pound chicken (remove breast meat)
- 2 cups thinly sliced ginger, skin on
- 1 12 x 12-inch piece of kombu seaweed
- 2 yellow onions, cut in half
- 2-3 large carrots, cleaned and cut in half
- 2-3 celery stalks, cut in half
- 8 cups of water (or 2:1 water-to-bones ratio using weight)
Nathan Zucker
Chef’s notes on ingredients:
- Use organic hens if possible as they are plumper and have more delicious fat.
- Have your butcher quarter your chicken for you, but be sure they give you the whole bird—you want the spine and skin as well, as they add flavor and collagen to the stock.
- Don’t be afraid of blood from the carcass, it helps clarify the stock and makes it sweet.
- Kombu seaweed is dried and stiff. You can find it at Whole Foods or Asian markets.
- Use a large (8-12 quart) stock pot with a heavy bottom if possible—the taller and skinnier, the better, which limits the broth’s exposure to air.
Directions:
Step 1: Prep Ingredients
- Remove breast from chicken and reserve for another use.
- Butcher chicken by removing wings and thighs.
- Prepare all vegetables.
Step 2: Load Pot
- Add chicken parts and water.
- Bring to 190 degrees and not over (never boil chicken!).
- Cook for 5 hours.
Nathan Zucker
A filmy brown foam will begin to rise to the top at this point— ignore it. Don’t skim the stock. Trust me, you want the foam. It has essential amino acids in it, plus it acts as a “raft” to help clarify the stock for the next 30-45 minutes. When you start to see a layer of the fat coming up, you can cover the pot to keep oxygen out. (Oxygen will oxidize your stock, giving it an unappealing dingy color.)
Step 3: Strain
- Strain the stock off the bones, reserve bones.
- Clean pot and add stock back to pot.
- Add ginger, onion, carrot, celery and cook at 190 for 1 hour.
- Add kombu for last 30 minutes.
- Strain stock.
Chintan will last one week in the refrigerator or two months in the freezer. In the ramen shop, we don’t season the stock until you order your bowl, but at home you can season the batch how you see fit. I will usually take a portion of my batch and season it for sipping and reserve the rest for soups. Once you salt a stock it becomes a broth. Best to keep some as stock for other projects and dishes.