how to make homemade chicken broth

You will need the following:

  • Bones and carcass from one roasted chicken or if you don’t have a whole chicken, use pieces with bones.
  • 2 onions
  • 3-4 stalks of celery
  • 1-2 carrots
  • 1 bay leaf
  • thyme
  • parsley
  • minced garlic

If you don’t have all of the vegetables, that is fine, you are just adding flavor and nutrients to your stock, no need to be EXACT, these are just guidelines.

Equipment:
Pot big enough to hold the chicken and vegetables, typically 4-6 quarts
Strainer

Instructions:

  1. Use your fingers to pull the chicken carcass into a few pieces that will fit snugly in your pot.  Put the chicken bones in a pot and cover them with water by about an inch.
  2. Peel and roughly chop all of your veggies. The quantities given above are approximate, so use what you have.  You can keep these in big chunks, no need to dice them up small.
  3. Add the vegetables and herbs.  Simmer for 2-3 hours at a low heat. Put on high to get it boiling, then turn down to simmer.
  4. Turn off and let cool for a few moments while you are doing other work in the kitchen. Scoop out the bigger pieces of bones, meat, and vegetables.  Then take a strainer (I like using my mess one), and pour the stock into glass quart canning jars.  You can let this sit out on your counter top for another hour while it cools and at the top a layer of fat will appear.  You can scoop that off before using.  If you don’t have time, put it in the refrigerator and it will gel up quicker.
  5. Use this up within a week in your refrigerator or freeze it.  Make sure you have about an inch from the top before you put on your lids.  It will expand and crack your jars if there isn’t enough space.

If you don’t want to use up your burner space you can do this in a crockpot or an oven.  Place all of the above ingredients into a large roaster pan or crockpot and turn on 200 degrees.  For slow cookers turn on its lowest setting.

You can double or triple the recipe depending on how many chicken carcasses you have.

This recipe makes roughly 1 quart of stock.

As a side note—I like to use chicken quarters and let them cook in the oven all day long on 200 degrees.  The meat will become very tender and you can just pick it out of the mixture.  I save this to put into other recipes that it calls for chopped chicken—casseroles, soups, etc.  You can freeze in plastic resealable bags.  I strain off the liquid and have my stock as well.