Basic Chicken Stock

Basic Soup recipes

1 gallon ziplock chicken bones 4 ribs celery 1 med. onion, halved 2 carrots water

Get the most out of your chicken - reinvent! Make your own broth for soups, gravies... Yield: Depends on how much water you start with; from a 6 qt. pot I get 1 qt. of stock. Place bones in stockpot with celery, onion, and carrots. Cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Simmer approximately three hours. Remove from heat. Remove bones and vegetables. Chill three hours or overnight. Skim fat from stock. Package in useful portions, like one cup, and freeze - handy for use in all sorts of recipes - like Basic Gravy. On Thrift This is about as thrifty a recipe as you can get - for bones, save the carcass from one of those rotisserie chickens you get at the grocery store, or the bones from 25 cent wing night. Throw them into a gallon freezer bag and save them until you have enough...and a free afternoon. By the way, if you fancy hot wings, the stock takes on a dark and spicy note. How Long To Simmer Taste a bit of chicken from the pot - if it's devoid of flavor, its work here is done, turn off that heat. A Tip on Draining Place a colander over a pot large enough to hold the stock you've made. Pour your stockpot, bones and vegetables and all into the colander. Once the broth has drained into the lower pot, place a plastic shopping bag over the colander and dump the bones and such into the bag. Watch It Wiggle, See It Jiggle Chilled stock made from bones is, well, jiggly. It kinda creeps me out, to be honest. But once it heats up again, it acts like broth.

Submitted by Gretchen Grant
Contributed on: Saturday January 21st, 2006 and modified on Thursday May 6th, 2010