Making Chicken Stock

If my children get only one thing out of this blog I'm writing for them it's this: the importance of making their own stock. I can't even begin to list the ways is which homemade stock is beneficial to your health, so I won't. But google it, you'll be impressed. (Please note that homemade stock is far superior to anything you can buy in the store.) Hopefully impressed enough to make the process a part of your routine. Other than being one of the most nutritious foods you can consume, homemade stock is VIRTUALLY FREE and EASY to make. Like roasting a chicken, the instructions may seem dauntng at first, but once you get the hang of it there will be no stopping you!

You might be wondering what on earth you can use all this homemade stock for, so allow me to enlighten you. The obvious is soup, which we eat quite a bit of around here. Other than the obvious, there are a multitude of ways I use stock. Basically any time a recipe calls for water, I use stock. I use it to sautee onions, make rice, make spaghetti sauce, and even to cook broccoli and cauliflower in. I use it in fondue, chili, cooked or refried beans, sausage ziti, barbque chicken sandwiches, chicken tacos, and UNion rings... I'm sure there are several more I can't even think of right now. Also, I often drink it straight from a mug with lunch and dinner as a digestive aid. I make my husband drink it if he starts to come down with something. As far as I'm concerned, you can't have too much stock.

You can find a million different ways to do this on the internet, this is just the way I do it. Feel free to tweak my method until it works for you! If you're reading this and you have your own tips for making stock, please leave them in the comments. I'm stock nerd, and I love hearing other people's methods and tips.

Supplies

Large stock pot (I used an 8 quart pot forever, but I got a 16 quart pot for Christmas and I love it! You can also use a crockpot.)
Another large stock pot or large glass bowl (for straining your stock into when you're done)
Skimmer (or something to skim with)
Colander or strainer
Funnel with filter (or you can use a fine strainer if you don't have this)
Wide mouth mason jars for freezing

Ingredients

Chicken bones
Chicken skin
Chicken feet
Gizzards and neck
Vegetable scraps
Peppercorns
Bay leaves
Apple cider vinegar
Cold, filtered water

My Method

1. Put all of your chicken parts into the stock pot, add water until they are covered, and add the apple cider vinegar. Let the pot sit for an hour. This sitting time allows the vinegar to draw the gelatin out of the bones. This is good. The more geletin in your stock, the better it is.

2. After an hour, bring the water to a boil. Any scum will rise to the top. Skim it off and discard it. You don't want it in there. After I'm done skimming I add the rest of the ingredients to the pot. (You can add them before, but it makes skimming harder.) Lower the burner until you have a very gentle simmer - almost not even simmering! Allow it to simmer all night, all day, and all night again. I generally simmer for 36ish hours, but more or less time is fine.

3. On the second morning, after all that delightful simmering, turn off the burner. Set the colander over a large pot or bowl and strain the stock through it. You can now dispose of all the solids. Wash out the original pot really well and return it to the stovetop. Filter all of the stock through the filtered funnel and return it to the stockpot. (If you don't have a filtered funnel, just strain it through the finest meshy thing you can find in your kitchen. Some people use a reusable coffee pot filter.)

4. Bring the stock to a boil. The goal is to reduce the stock until it's very concentrated. I always reduce mine by half. Doing this will require less storage space in your freezer and fewer storage containers. Put the stock in the jars. Remember to leave plenty of head space in the jars or they will break in the freezer. I'm always cautious and leave more than enough space. Once your stock is in the jars, let them cool on the counter so your fridge doesn't have to work too hard. I promise it will be just fine there all day. Once the jars are cooled you can put them straight in the freezer, or cool them further in the fridge before moving to the freezer.

5. When you're ready to use your condensed stock can reconstitue it with filtered water. How much to add is your call. I usually reduce my stock by half, so I just double my stock when I'm ready to use it. Sometimes I just leave it condensed because it's more nutrient dense.

Mom Tips

* Ask your butcher for chicken feet. I've purchased them from Whole Foods. I've also purchased them from a chicken farmer at the farmer's market. I just email her ahead of time and ask her to bring some for me. They're super cheap and worth it or all of the nutrition they add to the stock.

* I keep a Ziplock bag in the freezer and every time I have veggie scraps (carrots, onions, celery, bell peppers, apples) from cooking throughout the week I put them in there to add to my weekly stock. This is also a great place to put all of those carrot and celery sticks that make their way back home in your child's lunch box. This way you get the vitamins from vegetables in your stock without using perfectly good veggies that you end up throwing away. If you don't have scraps saved, just chop up some veggies.

* Since I don't use plastic containers for storing our food, wide mouth, quart size mason jars are my favorite solution for storing stock. They are very affordable - about ten dollars for a dozen at Wal Mart - and they store really nicely either in the freezer or in the cupboard when you're not using them. They have to be wide mouth, though, or they'll break in the freezer!

* Some people remove the fat from the top of their cooled stock. I do not. We always eat the fat, and I believe fat from quality sources is highly nutritious and essential in our diet. And it tastes delicious!

* Perhaps you don't have time to make stock every week. In that case, just save your bones in the freezer until you're ready!

* One last tip! Sometimes when I boil a chicken I save the water. After harvesting the meat I put the bones in the cooled water with vinegar and start the process for making stock from there. I figure we're getting even more nutrition this way.