Creamed Chicken over English Muffins
Time: Total 1 day, 90 prep, 30 cook
Difficulty: Moderate - cook chicken the night before, remove bones, chill stock in pot overnight.
Hardware: large stock pot, large skillet, baking sheet pan, garlic press
Yield: 10 servings
Accompaniments: None, eats like a meal.
Creamed Chicken over Toasted English Muffins
Onion and Celery
Skimming the fat
Ingredients
1 Whole Chicken
1 Onion Diced
5 Celery Ribs Diced
4 oz jar diced or sliced Pimento
3 tbsp butter
2 cloves Garlic minced
3-4 tbsp all-purpose Flour
1 tbsp Chicken Base concentrated paste
2 tbsp fresh Parsley chopped
½ cup Heavy Cream
Finishing Ingredients
Salt and Pepper to taste
English Muffins, split and toasted
Step By Step
Place whole chicken in large stock pot and cover with water. Make sure the cavity is empty.
Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 60 minutes, flipping the chicken over once half way. Keep it just barely boiling, but not boiling over.
After 1 hour, turn off heat and remove the pot from the hot burner, but leave it on the stovetop. Remove the chicken from the pot and place on a plate.. Allow both chicken and stock to cool for 30 minutes.
Once cooled, use your clean hands to remove the chicken from the bones and carcass. Pull apart larger chunks into bite size pieces. Place is a large container and cover with lid. Refrigerate.
Retain any juices from the carcass plate and dump them back into the stock pot. Dispose of the bones and carcass, retain the stock in the stock pot.
Cover the stock pot and place it in the refrigerator. If it is still warm on the bottom, place a pot holder underneath.
Allow chicken and stock to chill overnight. This will cause the fat in the stock to solidify on top.
When ready to cook, remove the stock from the fridge and place on the stovetop. Remove the cover.
Place the chopped onion and celery in a large skillet.
Carefully skim the fat off the top of the stock and add it on top of the onion and celery.
Heat the stock over medium high heat.
While the stock is heating up, cook the onion and celery over medium high heat, covered. Stir often.
When the onion is translucent and the celery soft, add in the pimento with juices. Stir for a minute.
Add Butter, Chicken Base & minced Garlic. Stir for a minute.
Reduce heat to medium. Slowly add up to 4 tbsp flour, stirring constantly, coating the onion and celery in a paste.
Slowly add add 2-4 cups of broth, 1 cup at a time to the mixture. Stir constantly to turn the paste into a thick gravy. Remove from heat.
Once the stock is approaching boiling, slowly spoon the thick gravy mixture into the stock stirring constantly to combine. This will thicken the stock. It should be much thinner than gravy, but not like soup.
Season with Salt and Pepper to taste.
Add the chopped Parsley. Simmer for 10 minutes, Remove the chicken from the fridge while simmering.
Add the chicken to the mixture and bring it back to a near boil.
Remove from heat. Stir in the cream.
Spoon over toasted english muffins, garnish with more fresh parsley if desired.
