Easy Homemade Chicken Stock Recipe

I’ve planned for quite some time to share my homemade chicken stock recipe (I even took the photo shown here a very long while back).

Anyway, after my 12-year-old son saying how much he loved my broth at least four times tonight during supper, I felt inspired to share it with you all because I believe good chicken broth is the key to making delicious soups….and it’s so easy to do.   It literally only takes a couple of minutes to toss everything together; after that there isn’t much maintenance at all to do.

Tips:

*I use celery to munch on during the week for snacks…so no use wasting the tops!   I save all my celery tops with the leaves in a baggie or plastic container and use them for making my stock instead of a whole celery rib.

*If the carrots cooked in the stock is still fairly firm in shape, I save it to slice up in very small pieces and add it to my homemade chicken and noodles when they are finished.  You won’t need to add your sliced, cooked carrots until your noodles are completely finished cooking because you don’t want them being just mush.  Another bonus is that it’s also easier to slice your carrots in very small pieces for your soup since they’re soft.

Easy Homemade Chicken Stock Recipe

1 Chicken Carcass including the neck. (I often collect about 3 carcasses in the freezer and then make my broth when I’m ready…often the day before I want to use the broth. If you do this, you’ll may want to double the carrots and celery, and of course, use a larger  pan.)

1 large carrot halved

2 ribs of celery halved (celery leave tops are a huge benefit in flavor)

1 onion, quartered

2 bay leaves

10 peppercorns

4 whole garlic cloves

1 heaping tsp. salt (or none if you are on a salt-free diet).

*Additional items only if you prefer: toss in some Thyme and Parsley.

Place items in large pot.  Pour 1 gallon of water over content and bring to a boil.  Once it comes to a boil, turn down to low or medium heat and let it simmer 2 – 3 hours.  *For the first hour, skim off any scum every 15 min. or so.

*The longer you cook your stock, the more concentrated it will be.  Once your stock is finished, run it through a strainer in order to pour clear broth into your container and refrigerate.  Discard the rest.

*To make bigger batches of broth in a large stock pot, save your chicken carcasses in the freezer and cook 2 – 4 carcasses  at once and increase some of your other ingredients.  Turkey carcasses also do just as great!