Roasted Chicken Stock

No, I'm not weaseling my way out of a recipe by posting about stock. I'm giving a heads up - my next few weeks of soup will require chicken stock, or an appropriate substitute - and since this blog is all about using homemade-from-scratch ingredients, I figured it'd be a good idea to share my take on chicken stock.

They say that "Good broth will resurrect the dead," and that "Broth to a cook is voice to a singer". "They" couldn't be more right. If you've never taken the time to make your own stock and cook with canned, boxed, or (oh no!) cubed stock, you're in for a treat. Stay home this Sunday. Relax in your PJs and read while it simmers and scents your home.

In addition to just being really, really yummy, making stock at home is an excellent way to "go green". Those boxes, cans, and cubes of stock take a lot of energy and resources to produce, and those who cannot compost usually end up throwing their vegetable waste into the trash or down the drain. Those who cook chicken on a regular basis dump pounds and pounds of valuable nutrition into the trash, thinking that bones are useless. What waste!

If you can boil water, you can cook broth. If you have a freezer, you can collect goodies for broth. It annoys my family, but every chicken bone we eat from is saved in my bone bag in the freezer. It grates my mother's nerves, but I save every tomato and squash butt, carrot top and carrot peels in veggie bags in the freezers (I guess my stock-stash takes up a lot of room..well worth it, in my opinion!)

More Than "Dem Dry Bones"

The best cooked bones to save for chicken stock are from roasted or rotisserie chickens. I've found that fried chicken bones make for greasy, unsavory stock that tastes like old fry batter. All bones are useful - legs, wings, necks, carcasses. Long bones have plenty of cartilage, full of velvety gelatin, and have the most nutritious, calorie-rich marrow inside. The thinner ribs and more porous vertebra easily release their minerals and marrow, becoming extremely soft when simmered long enough. Wings are laden with connective tissue, also rich with gelatin.

When simmered, bones release all of this hidden nutrition: bioavailable minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and sulphur, and marrow, a good source of protein high in monounsaturated fats, known to decrease levels of bad LDL cholesterol. Ever wonder why cats and dogs love bones? You guessed it - they instinctually know that bones are good for their teeth and bodies.

(NEVER EVER give your pet cooked bones! Cooked bones splinter easily and are a choking risk; they also don't excite that I-Love-Bones instinct the way raw bones do. If interested in feeding your dog or cat bones, please google "raw diet for dogs" and "raw diet for cats".)

If you debone your chicken before cooking it, feel free to save those raw bones in the freezer

The How-To

To make chicken stock, you need proportional amounts of:

chicken bones
raw chicken pieces
vegetable scrap
bay leaves
spices

Yup, that is it.

Granted - its good to make stock in large batches, and most chefs swear by "Mirepoix" - an aromatic combination of onion, carrot, and celery - but when worst comes to worst, most veggies will do. Use your common sense. Learn to eyeball things. Figure out which tastes go together and which should not be mixed.

This stock will not be pristine white gold, cooked with perfect proportions and with proper technique. No, this stock will not win approval with fine, discriminating French chefs. No, this stock will not taste like the salty water you buy in cans and boxes (thank goodness!!). Yes, I can guarantee that you and your family will approve. I will post recipes for different stocks of varying qualities and varieties as they are needed. For now, good, wholesome, roasted chicken stock will do the trick.

And yes - if you don't have the time, canned or boxed broths will do, but let's try to ditch those salty, msg-laden cubes.

Begin with a pot. Pick one that your bones will cover the bottom of. If you have very few bones, use a 4 or 6 quart pot. I would not bother to make stock in smaller quantities.



I used a 16-quart stock pot to accommodate my gallon-sized baggie of cooked chicken bones.


These bones were between 2 months and 2 days old. They will keep in the freezer for up to 4-6 months. They may get frosty, but they're still good!


I also threw in a fresh, never-frozen rotisserie chicken carcass. Yes, it was one of those grocery-store-bought rotisserie chickens. They're spiced wonderfully where I buy them and they make wonderful stock.

I also included 5 skinless chicken thighs with bones. Always include some raw chicken/bones - cooked bones have less cartilage, fat, and a different flavor. Raw bones will ensure that your stock has plenty of gelatin and a lighter flavor.

If you're the type to de-bone raw chicken before cooking it, feel free to save your raw bones just for stock!

I save hard, stiff leek greens in the freezer. I don't like them much, preferring the white and pale green parts for stewing - but the dark green is perfectly flavorful and aromatic. I use leeks in exchange for celery for mirepoix. I used 2 leftover leek stalks.

Half of a large yellow onion. Chopping them into quarters is fine - no slicing or dicing necessary. Use twice as much onion as you do carrots:

I included one whole carrot. Use more or less, depending on how savory or sweet you want your stock. Leftover carrot peels are put to good use here!

Hey, look what I found! These were left over from New Years' Menudo, where we only used the green bits. They're wrinkled and wouldn't be very tasty fresh - but they're perfect for simmering and flavoring stock!

Garlic! Throw it in, skin and all. Like carrots and yellow onion skins, garlic skins will add a bit of color to your stock.

White pepper is best - its ground finer and disappears into the broth - but I didn't have any on hand. Spices I used included dried parsley, garlic powder, and three bay leaves. Bay leaves are expensive, but are well worth the investment - they last forever and taste wonderful. You can buy them at a fraction of normal supermarket costs at Indian, Arabic, and Mediterranean groceries.


By the time you're ready to get simmering, your ingredients should fill your pot about two-thirds full. My chicken stock mixes usually consist of 3 parts bone and meat to 1 part vegetables. Adjust your vegetable scraps accordingly to your recipe and according to what you have - I had a lot of onions and leeks hanging around, so this stock is going to end up in heavy, aromatic soups. A future stock for a future recipe will contain plenty of apple and carrot, as it is going to end up in a squash-based soup intended to be a little sweet. Stick to a plain, by-the-book mirepoix for general-use chicken stock.

Cover your ingredients with cold water. COLD WATER. Yes, COLD. It must be cold! Warm water makes for cloudy broth, and serves to "seal" bones so that all of the goodness inside cannot get out the way it should. This is one rule you should always remember.



Place your stock pot on low, low heat and bring to a low simmer. The temperature of the water needs to increase gradually, lest the stock become cloudy and the bones seal. The low heat and long cook time is probably why no one makes homemade stock anymore. This picture was taken after an hour and a half - the water is just starting to become gold, the onion is barely soft, and the leeks are still stiff.

During the next several hours, check the stock periodically to ensure that it is not above a simmer and to skim fat and scum. This is important - left too long, scum dissolves back into the broth, making it bitter and cloudy.


Here, the stock has been cooking for four hours. The onions are as soft as ripe plums, the leeks are soft, and the carrots would make for great baby food. You can continue cooking the stock for longer, if you like. I continued for at least another hour and a half.


This is the raw, early product. Its a deep, rich gold with greenish tones thanks to all of that leek. Because I skimmed the scum and fat regularly, there is not much fat, and what little is there is clear-yellow and light. This is still good to eat! If you're feeling lazy and not up for straining, use stocks like this for heavier, rugged soups. I ate this bowl of stock with a little bit of salt to taste and the garlic that I fished out of the stock pot. I mushed up the garlic and had myself delicious, impromptu garlic soup !

This is the raw, nearly-finished product in the pot. As you can see, it still needs work. There are bones and vegetables in there, and bits of chicken are floating around. You know your stock is good when all of your veggies are so cooked that they've sunk.

Let your stock cool before trying to strain it!

I ladle my stock through a colander into a large stainless steel bowl. Its proper to pour the whole thing through cheesecloth, but I don't have the space.
I follow up with double-straining the stock through rough and fine meshed strainers, to get out the last bits of spice, vegetable, and chicken.


After letting your stock cool a little more, skim more fat off - or, if you'd like, put your cooled stock in refrigerator containers, refrigerate overnight, and then skim off the solidified fat (leave a little bit for flavor!)

This should be your finished product - golden-crystal-clear, light, flavorful stock. Depending on how many roasted bones, raw bones, and cartilage in your mix, it may or may not pass the Refrigerator Test - that is, it may or may not gel when cooled. Mine took on the consistency of corn syrup when cooled, but did not gel. It still has a wonderful mouthfeel and is suitable for almost any recipe requiring chicken stock.

Have fun! The recipe to be posted tomorrow (or the day after..) will require chicken stock, so get simmering!