I love making homemade stock. I think it’s complex flavor rivals anything you can buy in a can or box. I try to make it at least once a month and then freeze it in 2 cup Ziploc bags to have on hand for a variety of recipes. This time I used all 6 cups of the liquid gold for chicken soup – yummy!
Necessities:
1 whole chicken, cut up (I prefer to reserve chicken breasts for cooking separately) You can buy a pre-cut up whole chicken or have your butcher chop it up for you, or you can be industrious and chop it up yourself. Alternatively, you can use the bones from a rotissire chicken that you have pulled most of the meat off of.
2-3 whole carrots
2-3 stalks celery
2 small onions
1 shallot
2 garlic cloves
4-5 bay leaves
10 whole black peppercorns
1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
Fresh Thyme 5-6 sprigs
12 cups cold water
Method:
Begin by cleaning and roughly chopping your carrots and celery – no need to peel. Chop the 2 small onions and shallot into quarters, and smash the garlic cloves.
To a 6 quart pot, add the chicken pieces or bones, herbs, seasonings, and the veggies – skins and all – this will all be strained out later. Fill with 12 cups of cold water and bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. If any foam comes to the top of the pot, just skim off gently with a spoon and discard. You will need to simmer uncovered and reduce the stock for 2 hours. It will end up looking something like this picture.
Remove the chicken pieces to a plate and strain the stock through a fine mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth. If you do not have a cheesecloth it is not a big deal. The resulting liquid should amount to 6 cups of golden stock.
If you used a whole chicken, after the chicken has cooled enough, discard the skin and remove the meat from the bones. You can use the chicken for soup or a delicious chicken salad.
As I mentioned earlier, I used this bath to make Homemade Chicken Soup. If I’m not using the stock right away, I portion them into 2 cup Ziploc freezer bags and lay flat on a baking sheet to freeze. Once frozen, you can store the bags upright in the freezer and have homemade stock ready anytime.