Chicken Stock

Make, don’t buy!

Chicken stock is essential to so many recipes, and we have found that using homemade stock takes our dishes to the next level. While time consuming, the process is actually very simple and only requires a few ingredients. Pro tip - keep the fat for use in future dishes!

Ingredients

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 5 hours

Yield: About 5 cups of stock

• 7 Quarts of water (24 cups)

• Chicken Giblets: pre-baked

• 1 medium onion

• 4 carrots

• 4 stalks of celery

• 3 bay leaves

• 10 sprigs thyme

• salt & pepper to taste

Preparation

1. Bring 5 quarts of water to a boil while prepping the remaining ingredients

2. Heat oven to 425F

3. Wash and chop vegetables: I cut the carrots and celery into thirds, and quarter the onion.

4. Remove the giblets from the chicken and place on a baking sheet and bake at 425F for 15 minutes (see photo for cooked giblets)

Cooking the Stock

1. Add all of the ingredients to the boiling 5 quarts of water and wait…..

2. As the stock comes together and the water continues to boil, some if it will evaporate and you will need to add some additional water. We added another quart (4 cups) after 2.5 hours of boiling, and another quart (4 cups) after an additional hour.

3. Boil for a total of 4.5-5 hours and remove from heat

Straining

1. Once your stock is done cooking, strain out all of the vegetables. We did this in 2 parts - used a large slotted spoon/strainer to get out all of the big pieces of vegetables and chicken, and then used a fine strainer to create a clear stock

2. Once strained place your stock in the fridge, ideally overnight

Canning

After the stock has cooled and settled, you will have a “puck” of fat at the top. Skim this off before using the broth. Note, you can save it and use it like you would butter in a future recipe!