DIY Chicken Stock

Soup weather is upon us! There may not be much better than a warm bowl of soup on a cold, winter day. All of my favorites start with a chicken broth/stock base (Sausage and Sweet Potato Soup and Buffalo Chicken Chili). If you make a lot of soups, you will probably be going to the grocery store to buy the ingredients- especially veggies and broth/stock. (NOTE- Broth is made from meat and stock is made from bones. I usually use stock for everything, even if it calls for broth.) Why not skip the expensive chicken stock purchase and use the scraps of your veggies to make your own chicken stock? Besides saving money, you actually know what is in your stock AND you can control the sodium.

It is souper super easy to make your own chicken stock. When I'm eating healthy (which will be now more than ever), I usually buy one or two of those rotisserie chickens that the grocery store has cooked on Sunday. I pick all the meat off the bones and set aside for salads, wraps, snacks, etc. Then I take the rest of the carcass and put it into a gallon sized ziplock baggie and put it in the freezer. I will usually make chicken stock once I have three or four carcasses saved up.

Besides the meat bones, you will need veggies, herbs, and spices. Whenever I'm cooking, I take all my scrap pieces of the veggies- bottoms and the skin peelings of carrots, leafy parts of celery, tops of peppers, papery skins of onions and garlic- and throw those in a gallon sized ziplock baggie. If I buy a whole onion but the recipe only calls for half, I chop up the remaining half in large pieces and into the baggie it goes. Do you have old frozen veggies that have developed freezer burn? Throw those into the baggie. Have fresh herbs or produce that needs to be used before they go bad? Into the baggie! I even throw pulp from juicing carrots and celery into the baggie. Keep these bags of scraps in your freezer until you have two full gallon bags. I've read to steer clear of freezing starchy veggie scraps like potatoes because they will make your stock cloudy. You can do a quick internet search to find out what types of veggies to NOT use when making broth....

A bunch of veggie scraps waiting to be frozen.

Freezer burned veggies? Perfect for making chicken stock!

Once you have a gallon baggie of bones (3-4 chickens) and two baggies of veggie scraps, it's STOCK MAKING DAY! Get the biggest pot you have. I use my 12 quart stock pot for this. Mine has a giant colander in it, which helps when it's time to strain all your bones and veggies out of the stock. Start by throwing in the chicken bones.

This is only one chicken. I knew I was going to the grocery store after I got the stock going. I added the other two carcasses after I got back.

Then throw in your veggies. Add enough water to cover everything!

I ended up only using two bags of scraps this time. The other went back into the freezer for next time!

I then throw in a handful of peppercorns and a handful of salt. ***If you don't add salt now, don't forget to add it later when using the stock for soup recipes. I went through a whole meal trying to figure out why my soup didn't taste like it normally did before I remembered the salt!***

I added about this much salt as well.

Have a few bay leaves? Throw them in! I didn't have any for this batch. The last item you need is 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar. Chicken bones (or bones in general) have a lot of beneficial minerals stored up in them. These are what help you feel better when you are sick and eat chicken noodle soup. The vinegar helps to leech the minerals out of the bones. Trust me....you won't taste the vinegar once the stock is made.

So once all your ingredients are in the pot, heat on high until it just starts to boil and then kick the heat all the way down to the lowest setting you have. Cover the pot and let this cook anywhere from 12-24 hours. From what I've read, you need to let it go at least 12 hours to infuse the flavor, but once you go longer than 24 hours, you start getting funky tastes. When I make stock, I let it go for 12 hours. 

After you've finished cooking your stock, let cool for awhile (I usually wait 30 minutes to an hour) and then strain all the solids from your stock (here's where that colander insert is handy). If you don't get all the little bits out at this point, that's ok. Put the stock in the fridge and let cool over night. 

The next morning, you'll find that all of the fat has congealed at the top of the stock.

Yummy.... 

Skim off the biggest globs of fat and then pour the stock through a cheese cloth to catch the rest (and to catch the little bits that you didn't get out the night before). At this point you can reheat your stock and then can it using a pressure canner. If you don't have all of that equipment, it freezes beautifully!

Use this method to make turkey stock after the holidays (you'll probably only need one turkey carcass)! It'll smell like Thanksgiving every time you open a new jar! Are you a vegetarian? Save your veggie scraps, omit the meat and vinegar, and simmer for 5-6 hours instead!