One of the biggest and easiest improvements you can make to your home cooking is to use your own stocks. There’s absolutely no comparison to a good homemade stock. The grocery store versions are typically laden with unnecessary salt and lack flavor.
This is the way I make stock in any restaurant I have worked in and it has served me well over the years. Learning how to make chicken stock will improve your cooking knowledge as well as the dishes prepared with your new stock.
A guide to stock making:
- The higher the ratio of solids to water, the more flavorful the stock. Want more stock with lighter flavor? Add more water to the pot.
- Ingredients should be cut in size to correspond with cooking times. Larger cuts=longer cooking times, smaller cuts=shorter cooking times.
- Always start with cold water and slowly bring to a simmer. Never allow a stock to boil. Boiling creates a cloudy grey stock and poor flavor.
- Don’t add your aromatics until you have skimmed the surface and removed the impurities which have risen. It’s a lot easier to remove all the congealed fat and white foam when there aren’t vegetables getting in the way.
- Stop cooking the stock when there is no flavor left in the ingredients.
- After finished cooking, remove all the solids by scooping them out of the pot with a strainer. If you strain the stock with the bones and vegetables still in it will become cloudy.
-Adapted from
Washing the bones in cold water before adding them to the pot will remove a lot of the impurities and save you time when skimming. After rinsing, add your bones to a stockpot and cover with water approximately 1 inch over the bones.
Start with cold water and bones and slowly bring to a gentle simmer. Congealed fat and impurities will rise to the surface as white foam which you can remove by using a ladle.
Once all the fat and impurities have been removed then add your aromatics. Continue to slowly simmer and remember to never boil your stock.
Remove all the vegetables and bones by ladling them out then strain the liquid through cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer. Place in ball jars and freeze for up to 3 months.
Ingredients
- 2 chickens carcasses. I buy 2 whole chickens, de-bone them, reserve the meat for other meals and use the bones for making stock.
- 2 large onions, peeled and quartered
- 1 large carrot, peeled and large dice
- 1 celery stalk, washed and large dice
- 4-5 sprigs of thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 10-15 whole black peppercorns
Instructions
- Rinse the bones thoroughly under cold water
- Add bones to stockpot along with enough cold water to cover the bones 1 inch
- Bring the stock to a simmer, never boil, and as the white foam rises to the top skim and discard. Allt he while simmering. This will take about 30 minutes.
- When all the foam has been removed, add the aromatics (vegetables and herbs) and continue to simmer for 4 hours
- Remove the solids by scooping them out and discard.
- Pour the liquid through cheesecloth or fine mesh strainer into a container large enough to hold the stock
- Place container in a ice bath with water to cool the stock quickly or in the fridge.
- Once the stock has fully cooled there will be a thin later of fat on the surface. Skim and discard the fat and store the stock in Ball canning jars in the freezer or refrigerator.
This is great. Thank you for sharing!