I find that store bought stocks are rather bland, so I make my own. I took pictures of every step so you'd believe that literally the only thing I cut is the onion, but I hate it when I have to scroll through ten pages of images to get to the recipe, so those are at the end of the stock recipe. Be sure to read the notes for a couple tricks to make this stock as cheap and unwasteful as possible.
What you need:
12 quart stock pot
Bones and skin/fat scraps of two roasted chickens that were at least 4lbs raw
2 large carrots, broken into thirds
2 stalks of celery, broken into thirds
1 onion, sliced in half
Enough cold water to fill your stock pot
What you do:
Put the bones and veggies in the pot. Fill the pot with cold water, leaving about an inch from the top empty. Put the pot on the stove and bring to boil over high heat. Lower the heat to low and let simmer for at least 3 hours. Strain into a large bowl, cover, and place in the fridge over night. Remove any fat that hardened overnight on the surface and store.
Notes:
***BONUS RECIPE! The Perfect Roasted Chicken
What you need:
A chicken, at least 4 pounds
Your favorite chicken spices
What you do:
Preheat your oven to 500°F.
Cover a large cookie sheet with at least inch deep sides in aluminum foil.
Cut the chicken along one side of the spine to open it up. Sprinkle the inside and outside with your favorite chicken spices. Lay the chicken on the pan, breasts up, with the back spread open and the legs laid flat (like this). (It's called spatchcocking. Traditionally, you'd remove the spine, but I find the tail and the medallions of meat on the spine to be absolutely delicious, so I leave it in.)
Place in oven for 20 minutes. Turn chicken.
Reduce heat to 325°F. Continue cooking until the chicken temps at 165°F (between 30 minutes and an hour).
Notes:
What you need:
12 quart stock pot
Bones and skin/fat scraps of two roasted chickens that were at least 4lbs raw
2 large carrots, broken into thirds
2 stalks of celery, broken into thirds
1 onion, sliced in half
Enough cold water to fill your stock pot
What you do:
Put the bones and veggies in the pot. Fill the pot with cold water, leaving about an inch from the top empty. Put the pot on the stove and bring to boil over high heat. Lower the heat to low and let simmer for at least 3 hours. Strain into a large bowl, cover, and place in the fridge over night. Remove any fat that hardened overnight on the surface and store.
Notes:
- I don't peel my veggies, or chop my carrots or celery. I do cut the onion in half, but I leave on the skins.
- I roast my own chickens. Usually the day before I make the stock. It allows me to let the meat cool completely before I remove it from the bones so I don't burn my fingers, and I'm not rushed to get the stock cooked and cooled and in the fridge. The (ridiculously easy) recipe follows these notes.
- When I originally started making stock, we were pretty strapped for cash, and I found it a little wasteful. At the time, I was using the entire chicken, meat and all. Then I started watching Good Eats, and realized YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THAT! You don't even have to buy two chickens and roast them the day before you make it. If eating bone-in chicken is a thing you like to do, you can save the bones and scraps in the freezer until you have enough to make stock. Just make sure you mark the ziplock bag with the date you started and don't let it sit in the freezer longer than six months from that date.
- In fact, you don't even have to use the whole vegetable. If you cook with fresh carrots, celery, and onions regularly, you can save the ends you cut off of those in the freezer, too, and make the stock entirely from scraps.
- I usually let my stock go much longer than three hours. I usually start it around noon, and let it simmer until 8 or 9pm, depending on how long it takes to reach the flavor I'm going for.
- DO NOT put your stock in the fridge hot. It'll heat up the fridge and spoil your milk (among other things).
- To store my stock, I buy a whole bunch of ziplock 1 quart freezer bags, label each bag, measure out 2 cups of stock for each bag, and then lay them flat in my freezer to freeze. Any brand of bag will do (most of the time, I use store brand), but I find Glad freezer bags to be a horrid excuse for a storage option. They're way too thin. The "ziplock" doesn't really hold as well as other brands. And the last time I bought them in bulk, an entire box was leaky and some of the bags had giant holes in them. So maybe don't buy those.
***BONUS RECIPE! The Perfect Roasted Chicken
What you need:
A chicken, at least 4 pounds
Your favorite chicken spices
What you do:
Preheat your oven to 500°F.
Cover a large cookie sheet with at least inch deep sides in aluminum foil.
Cut the chicken along one side of the spine to open it up. Sprinkle the inside and outside with your favorite chicken spices. Lay the chicken on the pan, breasts up, with the back spread open and the legs laid flat (like this). (It's called spatchcocking. Traditionally, you'd remove the spine, but I find the tail and the medallions of meat on the spine to be absolutely delicious, so I leave it in.)
Place in oven for 20 minutes. Turn chicken.
Reduce heat to 325°F. Continue cooking until the chicken temps at 165°F (between 30 minutes and an hour).
Notes:
- I'm pretty sure I got this cooking method from Alton Brown. I've been doing it for a really long time, though, so I'm not certain.
- Buy a meat thermometer. Preferably a digital one with a probe that can be left in your meat while it's cooking. They're not all that expensive, and you can order them from any online retailer. We have two. I can set the temperature I'm going for, and the alarm goes off when the meat reaches that temp. I definitely got that tip from Alton Brown.
- I rarely ever season my chicken with anything more than my own seasoned salt, but if you want something a little more herby, you can throw on some thyme or rosemary. Preferably fresh. I find that dried stays kinda dry and gets stuck between my teeth and in my gums.
- If you're using this chicken for stock, and you're not going to eat the meat right away, the meat can be stored in your freezer for up to 6 months. And you can use it for just about anything. Chicken pillows, chicken soup, chicken salad, chicken sandwiches, chicken pizza, chicken gumbo, chicken stew...I'll see myself out.
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