My mother would no sooner toss out a roasted chicken carcass than she would rob a bank. Consequently, neither would I. But I’m shocked at the number of roast chicken remains I’ve seen go in the trash over the years (mind you, I’ve rescued some, too). Is it because the cooks don’t know how to make chicken stock? Or because they think it is too much work? People, listen. Even if it’s a store bought roasted chicken that came home with you in one of those end-of-the-day-what-will-I-feed-my-family moments of panic, you can use it to make chicken stock. And I promise it’s easy.
Making your own stock means that you will eliminate the cans that store-bought stock comes in along with questionable ingredients and the environmental issues that come with purchasing a product that may have been shipped halfway around the world.
You could follow a specific recipe, but you know how I feel about measuring. My method probably wouldn’t be approved by Julia Child, but it works and it’s easy.
Photo by Flickr user TheCulinaryGeek under Creative Commons
Homemade Chicken Stock Recipe
- 1-2 chicken carcasses
- 2-4 handfuls of vegetables, roughly chopped (This is where you clean out your refrigerator crisper. Pull out the limp veggies you haven’t used all week; celery, carrots, onion, garlic, greens – they’re all fair game.)
- water
Place the chicken carcasses in a stock pot along with the vegetables. Fill the pot with water to within 3″ of the top. Bring to a low boil, then simmer (with the lid on, of course) for 2-3 hours. Use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove the chicken bones and vegetables. If you want pristine broth, you can strain it, but I rarely do. Refrigerate the broth for several hours or overnight, and skim off the fat. Divide into the freezer container of your choice (mind the head space if you’re using glass) and freeze for later use. I use this homemade broth when I make polenta, risotto, and soups.
If you have a slow cooker, you can toss your ingredients in and let it cook on slow heat all day. That’ll work, too.
I often make straight veggie stock, using essentially this method. It adds such depth to dishes.
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Love this post. I’m definitely going to try it. Also, I’d love to get your recipe for risotto. So far, I haven’t had much luck making a yummy risotto for my family.
Okay. Duly noted. I’ll see if I can get a risotto recipe up for you!
I REALLY want to encourage people to try this. I just started making homemade chicken broth this year, and I am amazed at how easy it is. Plus, it is practically free, which is a huge savings over the grocery store.
BTW, I only started doing it this year, because, believe it or not, I never thought about making it from scratch, because I honestly thought it was from scratch out of the can!
Isn’t it funny (well, funny and kind of sad) that even when we think we’re cooking from scratch, some of our ingredients are those of convenience? We’ve been so used to using these items for so long, they seem like they’re the “original” product. Happy to hear you’re doing it!
I’ve been making my own broth for a couple of years. I actually can most of mine. It is the easiest pressure canning project and great for beginners. I actually wrote posts about chicken, beef and vegetable broth on my blog and how to can it. What I don’t can I freeze. My favorite part is it makes my house smell like Christmas dinner. I freeze both turkey carcasses from thanksgiving and Christmas and do one huge batch in january. I also will stockpile chicken carcasses in the freezer until I have enough to do a batch big enough to can. Make sure the broth doesn’t boil while you are cooking the bones and your broth will stay clear.
Thanks for pointing out that this could be canned with a pressure canner, as well.
P.S. it makes your house smell FANTASTIC
also, if ppl haven’t done this before you don’t have to skin the onions or whatever. You’re going to strain all of that out. Just roughly chop and throw in there for flavour.
After the initial few hours, and straining, we take the lid off and reduce the stock for a bit. Makes it more concentrated. It takes up less space in freezer and you can then add water when you use it
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Yes, I should have pointed out that not only do the onions not need to be peeled, vegetable trimmings can be used. Toss the ends of veggies like carrots, celery, parsnips in a freezer container and then toss them in when it’s time to make stock.
Another note, you can save chicken carcasses and veggie peelings in the freezer until you have enough to make stock and/or the inclination to do so. It doesn’t have to be a perfect storm of ingredients. Shove it all in the freezer, it’ll keep.
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Yes! (Also, the perfect storm rarely happens in my kitchen.)
I make this and was with you all the way until you mentioned freezing. I never think to freeze it! What a good idea. But, remember not to freeze it in plastic.
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A lot of times I’ll just turn around and make a delicious chicken soup, but I have a LOT of recipes that call for chicken broth, so I’ve been trying to keep my freezer stocked with homemade broth.
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