At the one lonely market they had no whole chickens, but I found a volume pack of drumsticks.

4.4 pounds at $1.79 equals just under eight bucks. For this price, forget organic or even free-range–the best they can say is: “minimally processed”, “no additives”, and “USDA prohibits the use or hormones and steroids in poultry”. Very comforting I’m sure.

The package wanted me to hit a QR code for recipes. I did not do that. I’m the kind of rebel who seeks culinary advice from random Germans on Googlevision. I tole you, tole you once already, Anarchy.

Melt a stick of butter in a bowl and spice it how you like. (Salt and pepper. Onion and garlic powders. Cayenne and oregano. Poor useless paprika.)

Brush one side of the drumsticks with the buttery mix. Put them in your cast iron skillet (with or without porcelain over it), brush the other side of them the same, fry them four minutes on each side, and then take them out of the pan.

In the warm fatty mess of the pan, brown a chopped onion and then toast some tomato. (The Germans say zucchini and asparagus too but I didn’t have them.) Add back the chicken.

Add some broth or even water to submerge the meat and vegetables. Boil it low for twenty minutes, covered, but turn the meat halfway through, at ten. (Optionally, use a meat thermometer to make sure the drumsticks are up near 160 Fahrenheit. In my pan on my stove at this elevation they were closer to 200, so theoretically, no worries.)

Eat.

But save the bones and scraps, and save the liquid stock from the pan. Because …

The main reason I ended up with drumsticks is because I wanted bones to make into broth.

I’m still deciding on How. The choice is essentially between the stovetop and a stock pot, or a pressure cooker, or a crockpot. My early bias is for the first one because it is the simplest.

But research is still in progress.

More later.