Recipe-ish: Homemade Chicken Stock

Homemade chicken stock in my chicken noodle soup.

One of my favorite things to make from scratch is chicken stock.  This was a favorite of mine to make since long before I had kids and got all crunchy and cheap.  Something about throwing a bunch of bones and root vegetables into a big boiling vat and letting it simmer appeals to the mad scientist in me...or maybe the old crone (toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble...and all that).

Anyway, Shakespeare and old crones aside, chicken stock is great to have on hand at all times for various recipes or for actually making soup.

I almost never start with raw chicken.  Typically I make my stock from a chicken that I roasted for dinner.  So here's the usual routine: Day 1: Cook a chicken, eat chicken for dinner.  (A side of stuffing and a green vegetable makes for a reasonably healthy meal that pleases everyone.)  Day 2: Throw the remains of the chicken into a big stockpot with an onion or two, a few garlic cloves, a couple carrots, some celery stalks, a bay leaf and salt and pepper.

Now here's the beautiful thing about stock making, it's an art, not a science...very open to interpretation.  About the only thing I do that makes it seems "work-like" is peel the carrots.  I peel them because otherwise they can add a note of bitterness to your stock and no one wants that.

Otherwise, you can quarter the onion and leave the peel on, halve the garlic cloves, again you don't need to de-paper them if you don't want to.  Rinse the carrots and celery and trim the root end of the celery.  Include the celery leaves because they have a lot of flavor.  Throw in the bay leaf, add some salt and pepper...and let it roll.

For real, that's it.

Bring it up to a boil, then reduce it to a simmer.  Cover and let simmer for 2-ish hours.  After that time, turn off the heat, push it to the back burner and leave it to cool.  After it's cooled, strain the bones and veggies out.  You can strain with cheesecloth if you want to, but I usually just use a fine mesh sieve.

I like to let the stock cool completely in the fridge before I skim the fat because once it's cooled, the fat solidifies and lifts right off the top of the stock.  Canning jars are super useful for storing stock in the fridge.  If you're going to can it, though, make sure you pressure can.  Water-bath canning is not sufficient to make chicken stock shelf-stable.

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, peel all the chicken you can off the bones.  Use it to make chicken salad or shredded chicken tacos or enchiladas. You can even freeze it to use at a later date.

Since I went ahead and made chicken soup with mine, I'll include a recipe for that in an upcoming post.

ETA: So it occurred to me after reading a more professional and better written blog today that I left the water out of this post!  I'm a genius.

Homemade Chicken Stock Recipe

Leftover whole chicken
2-3 carrots
2-3 celery stalks
1 large onion
3-4 garlic cloves
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper

Place the chicken, carrots (peeled and trimmed), celery (root end trimmed), onion (quartered or roughly chopped), garlic cloves (halved), and bay leaf in large stock pot.  Add enough water to cover everything.  Add salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cover.  Simmer for 2 hours.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.  Strain and defat stock.  Store in fridge or freezer or pressure can and store in a cool, dark place.

Remove the chicken meat from the bones and store for other usage.