Merlin Labron-Johnson's ode to a family favourite

‘Broth has been a constant on my life’s table. When I was a child, we’d have a broth at home every week; now, as an adult, it’s a staple in my own home and I serve a hot cup of it to every diner at my restaurant. It feels reassuring and makes a humble start to their meal.

‘A broth can be made with almost anything – a bird, oxtail, bones, marrow, all manner of veg – and is a starting point for so many meals. It’s generous yet thrifty, and can feed a family handsomely but is also very cheap to make. What I love most is that it lasts and can have more than one life.

‘When I was growing up, my mum would make a basic broth which would take on new guises over the course of the week. One day it would be a vegetable bouillon, another day she might combine it with rice left over from another meal, or cook barley or pasta into it. And if we’d had a roast chicken, she might pull the remaining meat off the bones and add that.

‘We never had expensive ingredients, but my family believed in good food. My parents would try to shop at farmers’ markets and were early advocates of veg boxes. I grew up in Buckfast Leigh, near Riverford – now famous for its veg-box scheme – so we always had high-quality vegetables available. Meat was expensive and they preferred having no meat to bad meat; we’d have the occasional chicken or pheasant, which I can remember my dad picking up for £1 at market. That would sometimes go into the weekly broth.

‘I’m sure my mum learnt the art of broth making from my granny, who’s a pro at getting lots of meals out of one thing. I think that’s a skill that’s been forgotten – people don’t cook like that now. Granny’s broth is always the thing made out of all the leftovers. She raised a family of five in a caravan with very little money and learnt to be resourceful with food.

‘I have a strong memory of her feeding me broth when my parents had gone away. She called it “ship soup” and told me it was what the captains and sailors ate on their boats, enticing me to eat it with stories of the sea. I also remember trying to reheat my bowl of broth for myself at Granny’s house, over an electric heater. Granny’s broth was always more heavily seasoned than my mum’s – I think it was eating her broth that taught me about the power of salt and how it brings ingredients to life.

‘Nowadays, my girlfriend and I often have a broth on the go. She read that high-collagen foods like bone broth can help skin problems, of which she’s had a few, so she likes to make it with things like trotters that are high in gelatine. After a 17-hour shift in the kitchen, when the last thing I feel like doing is cooking, I look forward to reheating this broth with some noodles or vegetables. It’s very restorative.

‘At [Osip], we always have some poultry on the menu – duck, chicken, guinea fowl – which forms the basis of our broths. We roast the bones, along with some onion and garlic, to make a light brown broth, then infuse it with lapsang souchong tea. We season it with a fermented mushroom soy sauce, then add an oil (at the moment it’s a burnt garlic oil). Every diner is served a cup of this immediately. It’s our way of saying welcome.

‘I also love to cook broth as the French make pot au feu. They boil chicken or ham hock or oxtail, then poach vegetables in the meat liquor, before removing the solids to eat with mustard and salt and herbs alongside a cup of the broth. Or you can eat the whole lot together from a bowl. Osip is inspired by French country auberges, so serving a cup of broth to our diners is as much a nod to that idea as it is to my own culinary heritage.’

‘In this recipe, I’ve used a whole chicken as a starting point for the broth, which will provide a hearty meal for four to six people. You could substitute the chicken for other reasonably priced cuts of meat such as beef brisket or ham knuckle, although the cooking times will vary. Alternatively, make the broth from the carcass of leftover roast chicken and pick the meat from the bones, returning it to the broth at the last minute with the final seasoning.

‘I’ve had variations of this dish in Spain where they add chickpeas, black pudding and piquillo peppers, which was truly delicious, and in Italy as bollito misto where they literally put everything in there and eat it with mostarda. The version below is mostly French.’

1 medium-sized organic chicken, giblets removed

1 bulb of garlic, cut in half

2 leeks, green parts separated

Small bunch of thyme

2 bay leaves

2 carrots

2 turnips

2 potatoes

2 red onions

Sel gris or Maldon salt

Pepper

Handful of tarragon, chopped

Dijon and wholegrain mustard

Cornichons

Optional: smoked sausage, bone marrow, cooked spelt or barley

1. Find a pot large enough to accommodate a whole chicken with a bit of extra space. Place the chicken in the pot and add enough cold water to just cover it. Add the garlic, leek greens, thyme and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and skim any scum or froth that rises to the surface. Cook on a lowest possible heat for 25 to 30 minutes, then remove the bird from the liquid and let it rest on a plate. Remove the herbs, leek and garlic and discard.

2. While the bird is cooking, peel the carrots, turnips and potatoes and cut into three to four-inch pieces. Chop the onions and the white part of the leek into similar sizes without worrying too much about the shape of your vegetables – they should be rustic.

3. Taste your broth and season generously – it’ll need to be salty enough to permeate the vegetables. Add your vegetables and bone marrow/ sausage/ grains, then simmer until the vegetables are cooked through but still retain their structural integrity.

4. While the vegetables are cooking, cut the chicken up into sections and put back into the broth with the cooked vegetables. Taste again for seasoning, and add some black pepper and a little more salt if needed.

5. To serve, place the pot in the middle of the table accompanied by the chopped herbs, cornichons, mustards, salt and pepper. Enjoy the chicken and vegetables with the accompaniments, and drink the excess broth separately or use for future soups, broths or braises.