Chicken Wing Gravy

Wings are the cheapest way to a properly sticky chicken stock. They are almost all skin, cartilage and small bones, which is exactly the ratio you want, and unlike a big carcass they give up everything in about two hours. This is the gravy to make when you want restaurant body from a supermarket shop.

Ingredients

Makes about 500ml with a real cling to it

• 1kg (2lb 4oz) chicken wings whole, jointed at the middle
• 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 1 large onion quartered
• 1 stick celery
• 1 leek top washed well
• 4 black peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• 1.8 litres (3 pints) cold water
• 25g (1oz) butter
• 20g (0.75oz) plain flour
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• salt and white pepper

Kit

• Roasting tin
• Saucepan
• Fine sieve
• Whisk

Method

1. Heat the oven to 220C fan (240C conventional, gas 9). Joint the wings at the two joints so you have three pieces from each, which triples the amount of cut cartilage exposed to the water. Toss with the oil.

2. Roast in a single layer for 35 to 40 minutes until deep golden and the tin is sticky. Add the onion, celery and leek top for the last 10 minutes.

3. Tip everything into a saucepan, deglaze the tin with a mug of water and scrape it in.

4. Cover with 1.8 litres of cold water, bring up slowly and skim the foam off in the first 15 minutes. Add the peppercorns and bay.

5. Simmer very gently, uncovered, for 2 hours. It will reduce to roughly 1.2 litres and by the end the liquid should feel slightly sticky if you rub a drop between your fingers. That stickiness is the gelatine and it is the whole point of using wings.

6. Strain, pressing the wings only lightly, then leave to settle and skim the fat. Keep a tablespoon of the fat back for flavour.

7. Melt the butter with that spoon of chicken fat, stir in the flour and cook for 90 seconds to a pale roux. You are using less flour than usual here because the stock is doing half the thickening on its own.

8. Whisk in 700ml of the hot stock in three goes, simmer for 5 minutes, then finish with the lemon juice, salt and white pepper. It should coat a spoon and taste unmistakably of roast chicken.

Tips worth knowing

• Jointing the wings really does matter. Whole wings give you a noticeably thinner stock because so much of the collagen stays sealed inside the joint.
• Pull a few of the roasted wing tips out after straining and pick the meat off for a cook's snack. It is the reward for the washing up.
• Because the stock is gelatinous, go light on flour. Too much and you get a heavy, pasty gravy that masks what you built.
• Wings are usually cheaper than any stock cube in real terms. Buy them when they are reduced and freeze them raw.

Keeping and reheating

Stock keeps four days chilled, gravy three days. Both freeze for three months. The stock will set to a firm jelly in the fridge, which is a good sign, not a fault.

Questions people ask