Leftovers Chicken Brawn

Last weekend my partner and I had friends round for dinner and, to make life easy and to avoid my spending the whole time in the kitchen, I made some coleslaw, mint, tarragon and parsley potatoes, tore up some bread, and roasted a couple of chickens. As ever, I was left with the carcasses and uneaten meat, both of which needed to be used in some way. As usual, I turned much of the leftover meat into soup using chicken stock I’d previously made. But what to do with the carcasses? Make more stock?

Yes and no. I decided to make brawn – after all it’s just meat set in stock. Not a fashionable thing I know, but easy to make, requiring nothing more than the chicken carcass, a bit of leftover meat, water, and herbs. What’s more, it’s packed with flavour and really just a softer version of a terrine, perfect for spreading on bread with pickles.

Normally you would want to remove all the meat left on the carcass, but for brawn leave the meat on so that it just falls off as it boils.

Ingredients:

• Chicken carcass and leftover cooking juices
• 3 stems of tarragon
• 3 stems of rosemary
• 3 stems of thyme
• Tenderstem broccoli
• Handful of cornichons
• Salt
• Pepper
• Enough water to cover the carcass in the pot
• Toast and piccalilli to serve

Preparation:

Start by making chicken stock – put the carcass and cooking juices into a large pot, along with the herbs, salt and pepper and enough water to cover the carcass. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat so that it simmers and leave for 3 hours with the lid on, giving it an occasional stir.

Allow the stock to cool for 20 minutes. At this point also add the tenderstem to the cooling stock so that it can poach gently.

Place a colander in a large bowl or container and transfer the contents of the stockpot into it, one ladle at a time. After each ladle pick out the meat, tenderstem and the herbs (minus the stalks) and put into a bowl. Into a second bowl put the bones and other remnants from the colander. Keep doing this until you have emptied the stockpot.

Place the bones and other items from the second bowl back into the stockpot along with the stock and boil for 10 minutes. Then turn off the heat and leave to cool for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cover a suitably sized dish with half the chicken. Then lay on the tenderstem and the cornichons and season with salt and pepper. Then cover with the remaining half of the chicken.

Once the stock has cooked, pour it through the colander back into the bowl/container (you can throw away the contents of the colander). Then pour the stock over the chicken so that it is all just covered. Leave the brawn to go cold, then cover in cling film and place in the fridge to set overnight.

Freeze any stock left over to use as normal chicken stock.

Serve with toast and piccalilli.

 

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