It's a Stock Party!

A few years ago, I started making my own chicken stock.  It's really easy to do, it's relatively cost-free since you use things you would normally be throwing out, and it's delicious!


Here are a few steps to take before you actually want to make the stock.  Whenever you make chicken with bones, SAVE THE BONES!  Put them in a bag in the freezer.  It's a guarantee that if I'm somewhere and there's a roasted chicken or turkey and they are about to throw out the carcass, I will bag it up and take it home for stock.  Why waste it?  The same goes for veggie scraps.  Peeling an onion?  Put the ends and the skin in a bag, freeze it.  Other items- carrot peel, celery ends, bell pepper tops, scallion tops and bottoms, etc.  Anything that would add flavor, freeze it.  Don't throw it out.


Now, if you want to make stock but don't have anything saved up, no worries.  I didn't for this batch either.  What I did instead was go out and buy a rotisserie chicken.  You can use this two ways- you can take off the meat and just boil the bones, or you could plop the whole thing in the pot.  I chose to put the whole thing in, but you'll see why later!  


This batch of stock was the best stock I've made in my entire life!  Some of the ingredients were added since I was going with an asian style stock for recipes I made later in the week (which shall be posted here soon).  If you want a basic, plain chicken stock recipe, leave out the ingredients noted by the asterisk.  I'm writing the amounts I added in, but you can put in whatever you happen to have in the house, it doesn't need to be too specific.

Ingredients:
Chicken bones, or one rotisserie chicken
1 onion, sliced in half
1 cup carrots
2 parsnips
Handful of fresh parsley
One bunch of scallions*
15 Garlic Cloves
1/4 cup soy sauce*
1/8 cup sriracha*
3 tbsp ground ginger*
Salt and Pepper to taste


Instructions:
Place everything in a large pot and fill with water (leave at least 2 inches on top so that it won't over-boil).  Cook covered over high heat until it comes to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for about 3 hours.  You want to get the flavor out of your ingredients.  Give it a stir every 30-60 minutes, and taste it for flavor.  You might want to add more soy, sriracha or salt depending on your water and your taste.


Once it has been cooking for a long time, you have a few options.  Sometimes, if you use a whole chicken, the meat loses all of it's flavor.  In this case, we would give it to our dogs.  In the case of this amazing batch of stock, the chicken actually gained flavor, and my husband at the chicken meat instead of the rest of the meal I prepared.  To each his own...


You can let it cool a bit, fish out the big pieces of your ingredients, then put the rest through a colander or a strainer.  This method will clear out the larger pieces, but you will still have some bits in your stock.  You may be okay with this, but I'm not.  I want a bit-free stock, thank you very much.

Get a very big bowl.  Place a colander on top of the bowl, and put one layer of paper towel in the colander (2 small sheets for me).  DON'T RIP THEM APART, you want it to act as a solid filter.  After you fish out the large pieces and discard them, use a measuring cup or a large ladle to scoop the stock out and run it through your "filter."  The paper towel will catch all of the small bits while allowing the liquid to pass through.  After a few cups of liquid, the paper towel will clog up, so just throw out the used sheets and add in clean towels.  This will also catch a good amount of any fat that came out of the chicken.  


You will be left with BEAUTIFUL stock, which I of course didn't get a picture of!  It might be darker than you're used to, but it will be so much more flavorful than canned broth.