Homemade Chicken Stock

When I roast a whole chicken, I like to replenish my supply of homemade chicken stock for the freezer. It makes me feel so domestic and throwing away all those bones is just wasteful. Plus, homemade stock always makes for better soups. You can use it in any recipe that calls for chicken broth or chicken stock. I'm actually not sure what the difference is between stock and broth - I just think of stock as a more flavorful version of broth. Anyway, this is a very easy method for making homemade chicken stock and, in my opinion, the best reason to own a crockpot. I can't remember how I learned to do this and don't follow a recipe so I suppose I'll just take credit for it. Hope you enjoy!

Time: ~20 minutes hands-on time; overnight in the crockpot
Serves: makes about 10 1/2 cups

Ingredients

• leftover bones from a whole chicken - can be a roasted chicken, rotisserie chicken or even just the remnants of chicken you ate for dinner
• 12 cups of water
• assortment of veggies - onion, carrot, celery - just use what you have on hand
• 1 TBSP salt

Prep

1. Cut your veggies into chunks. No need to be accurate here - no one will be eating these veggies. In fact, I tend to use veggies that are kind of at the end of their life - it's just for flavor so no one will notice!
2. Add your chicken bones, cut veggies and salt to a crock pot and top with 12 cups of water. If your crockpot is smaller, just add less water - your stock will be richer this way.

Cook

1. Set crock-pot to low, put your lid on and let it sit overnight
2. The next day, turn off your crock pot, remove the lid and let your chicken stock cool for an hour or so

3. Using a slotted spoon, remove the veggie chunks and chicken bones into a small plastic baggie so you can tie it up and throw it away.
4. Use a mesh strainer to strain the stock into a large bowl. This ensures any residual pieces of veggies and bones get thrown away.

5. Refrigerate the bowl of stock for several hours until a layer of fat forms on top. I think I even left mine in the fridge overnight.

6. Spoon the fat off into the trash and toss it. Then, use a measuring cup to divide the stock into ziploc baggies. You can fit about 4 cups in one of the quart size baggies. I like to mark mine so I know how much is in there. Freeze the baggies until you're ready to use them. You can either defrost them in the microwave (I'd put it in a bowl first) or just add the frozen stock to a simmering soup.