Use Your Leftover Store-Bought Rotisserie Chicken For An Easy Broth

A rotisserie chicken is one of the best grocery investments a person can make. Famously on offer for just a few bucks at Costco, they're typically pretty affordable elsewhere, too. With little more than a dash of spicy seasoning or a scoop of a creamy dressing, you've got the makings of at least a few chicken-centric meals. Best of all, you can make it last even longer with an aromatic, improvised broth.

Once you've made the most of all your rotisserie chicken leftovers, fashioning them into tacos, chili, and casseroles, that poultry carcass still has one more flavorful cluck to give. All you really have to do is cover it with water and simmer it in a big pot for a lazy 3 hours to create a semi-homemade soup base. Technically you can create this broth with the carcass and water alone, but, like all other foodstuffs, it benefits from a generous addition of aromatics for maximum success. Salt and pepper are compulsory, but alliums and herbs certainly won't hurt either. This base broth will increase in deliciousness with every simple mix-in thereafter.

You likely have an elder relative, friendly neighbor, or favorite food influencer who has a foolproof broth recipe. But you can also more-or-less wing it. It's a good idea to crack the bones a bit before dropping the whole carcass into your big stock pot to give the interior marrow more exit points from the bird to your broth. After you've covered it with cold water, the flavorful fun begins. If you've reserved any chicken skins, drop those in, too, as the collagen within will also help create a tastier broth. The same goes for any drippings found at the bottom of the tray the chicken came in. 

As for flavorful additions, plenty of folks like to add a couple of aromatic bay leaves. For spices, you can tinker with adding traditional (ground ground black pepper or whole peppercorns) and outside-the-box options (ground ginger, turmeric, or curry powder). Celery, carrots, and onions are almost as important to include as a dose of salt. 

Speaking of salt, always be a little conservative with how much you initially incorporate, as you can add more later, but not take it away. Other great vegetables to add are fennel bulbs and garlic (crush the cloves before adding to maximize their flavor). A couple of hours of simmering later, you'll have a rich broth that just needs a quick run through the strainer to remove any chunky solids. Just like that, you have a soup base that's as good as if you'd roasted the chicken yourself.