Chicken stock has amazing flavor and mineral content when prepared from whole, fresh chicken in your home versus the chemical laden ones found in grocery store shelves. Plus you can add your own flavor profile and have a healthy cup of this per day...must I say it....Yes, to keep the Dr. away.
Ok, here we go! Purchase a fresh, whole, pastured and preferrably organic chicken with no antibiotics...I know tough to do these days.
Once you have chicken in hand, put said chicken in a large stock pot. I have purchased a 16 quart stainless steel pot for this weekly activity. The bigger the better and will keep you in good stock for a week (based on a family of 4).
Cover your chicken with about 8 quarts of purified, filtered water.
Turn the heat up high in order to get your water to boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to low-medium and cook for about 2 hours. There might be a foam that develops on the top of the water...go ahead and skim this off.
After 2 hours you can pull the whole chicken out. Allow to cool so you can handle the chicken.
When, cooled down enough to touch, discard the skin and pull all of the white and dark chicken meat off the bones. Reserve all the meat for use in casseroles, chicken salad or whatever you fancy. Put all of the bones back in the stock pot.
Now, comes the true stock creation! Add nothing but the bones back in for a plainer broth or add in trimmings from your favorite vegetables to get a subtle vegetable flavor in your broth. Anything works and this is where experimentation comes in.
Keep your broth on low for 12-24 hours for a deep stock flavor. If I keep overnight I will put the lid on about 6 hours into it and let is sit on low overnight.
Once complete, strain the broth into quart size mason jars and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
I heat up a cup everyday with a little pinch of sea salt. Use in soups, casseroles and rice dishes.
.JPG)
Super!!! This is so easy and not loaded with sodium like the store bought cans. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
ReplyDelete