Golden Chicken Broth with Turmeric and Garlic by Alison Roman

For several months, I’ve been saving chicken bones. I’d come to save several backbones from spatchcocked chickens, a couple of wings from recipes that just wanted thighs and breasts, and cooked, uneaten scraps that no one wanted. I was saving them all to make my very first homemade chicken broth. 

What better occasion to make this broth than in preparation for my second Covid-19 vaccine. We knew from friends and family that the second Moderna vaccine could warrant some less than desirable symptoms. The alleged window to appear was 8-12 hours post shot. So as soon as I returned home from my early morning vaccine, I got to work making this broth. 

First step is to place an onion, cut in half crosswise, and two heads of garlic, cut the same way, and a large piece of peeled ginger, cut-side down in the stockpot over shimmering canola oil. The goal is to get these ingredients a bit toasty, which takes only a few minutes. Alison specifies that she likes to keep the onion skins on for the added color they provide. 

Next, the other vegetables and spices are thrown in for softening: celery, chopped fennel bulb, bay leaves, whole star anise, and turmeric. Once these are slightly softened and equally coated in oil, the water and chicken bones get added. 12 cups of water and 3 lbs. of chicken bones to be exact. My bones were all frozen, so they were rather bulky at first, and I was afraid they wouldn’t fit in the stock pot. After several minutes of thawing, they eventually got unglued from one another, and sank to fit nicely in the pot. 

Since some of my bones still had meat left, I removed them after 30 minutes of simmering to pull the meat off so it didn’t dry out. I saved these little scraps for the chicken noodle soup I’d make next. Bones, fat, and cartilage all go back in the pot, and the stock simmers for another 2-2.5 hours, or until it’s reduced by about a third. 

The final step is to strain the broth. I used a large colander at first, just to catch all the chunky vegetables and bones. And then I used a smaller fine mesh strainer to catch any bits of bone or garlic that made it past the colander. 

The broth was indeed a golden yellow, and had a really pleasant taste. There was certainly a layer of oily fat on top, which in hindsight I would probably try to scoop away partially. But the flavor of that fat is important, too. And all the rumors are true, you can definitely tell the difference between a homemade broth and a store bought box of broth. 

Once the broth was ready, I made a simple chicken noodle soup, using Ali Slagle’s NYT recipe as a guideline, utilizing the broth and chicken scraps leftover from the bones. All of this was done by about 7 hours after my vaccine. 

At hour 12, things got real. I suddenly had a high fever, terrible body aches, chills and sweats, and a throbbing headache. This lasted through the night (I didn’t sleep much) and I had a milder version of it throughout the next day. I spent that whole second day on the couch, and at one point fell asleep for four hours in the afternoon. I’m so grateful for the privilege of gaining immunity, but it sure wasn’t all smooth sailing. The chicken broth and noodle soup sure came in handy. 

46 recipes cooked, 179 to go.

oh, she glows

Special Beans in Tomato Broth and Slab Bacon by Alison Roman

Special Beans are a long game kind of dish. The game takes little active time, but you have to keep your eyes on the special prize if you want to win. 

What makes these beans so special? Alison says it’s the use of dried beans. Yes, dried beans. I’d purchased dried beans only once before during the early pandemic grocery frenzy because all the canned beans were gone. That bag of black beans is still sitting in my grain basket, untouched. 

There’s an entire essay and multiple recipes devoted to dried beans in Dining In, so I couldn’t avoid them forever. But I was hesitant. Dried beans demand a lot of forethought. These special beans needed 2 full days of soaking before they were ready for cooking. Dried beans also require commitment. There’s no sure way of telling if they’ll fully soften, so you have to soak and cook them, hoping for the best. 

Where I live, dried beans other than black or pinto are hard to find. When I went on my sumac hunt, I came across a Middle Eastern market that carries 2lb. bags of dried large lima beans. So two days before I wanted to eat my special beans, I began soaking 1lb. of lima beans in cold water. 

This being my first time around the dried bean block, I was mistaken about what would happen during this soaking period. I was under the impression that the beans would become totally softened to the point they resembled canned beans. So soft that you could eat them straight out of the bowl without cooking them. Instead, soaking just loosened the proteins in the beans, helping them expand to their true size. The beans were still rather hard and needed to be cooked for several hours before becoming edible. 

This recipe is meant to make flavorful beans, and while they can be eaten on their own, they’re best used in something else (Alison suggests her Best Baked Beans or soup). By the time I finished cooking these beans, it was 7:15pm (again, long game), so I wasn’t about to whip up another recipe. I also didn’t have time to use them in something else the next day; I travelled to Cincinnati the next morning to see my BFF / designer of my website logo (thanks, Rachel!). 

On cooking day, I began by heating the bacon in my Dutch oven with a good bit of olive oil. The key here is not to brown the bacon, but to heat it slowly so the fat has time to seep out. It’s the fat you’re really going for so it can infuse the beans with porky flavor. By this point, there should be a lot of oily fat at the bottom of the pot, enough to soak a bunch of tomatoes, shallots, and heads of garlic. (Here is another example of an Alison recipe that requires minimal chopping, if choppin ain’t your thang.) Add in some anchovies, a parmesan rind, fresh herbs, and water, and you’ve got a flavorful cooking liquid to soften your beans. 

The beans spent a little over 3 hours on the stove before they were softened to my liking. I served them in their cooking liquid with homemade sourdough and herbed goat cheese. The cooking liquid doesn’t have a super strong flavor, so we added some more salt, and even a bit of lemon juice to liven it up. 

I’ll make these beans again soon and plan to turn them into Alison’s Best Baked Beans. But next time, I’ll plan for an even longer long game. I bet it will be worth it. 

9 recipes cooked, 216 recipes to go.