Chicken Stock

Homemade chicken stock has infinitely more flavor and body than anything you can buy. Store-bought stock, having almost no collagen, is basically salty brown water. If you’re already going to the effort of roasting a whole chicken, use those bones! It’s super easy.

Makes 1 quart

INGREDIENTS

1 whole chicken carcass (edible meat removed)

1 onion (optional)

Any old herbs, carrots, or celery from your crisper (optional)

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 400°F with the fan on.

Roast the bones until they’re golden brown. If you roasted a whole chicken, then congrats, this step is already done! If you spatchcocked the chicken, save the backbone and roast it, too. There’s a lot of flavor there.

Fill the stockpot. Put the bones in a pot with enough room for them to move around once the carcass begins to break down. Don’t crowd the pan! Add water until the bones are just covered. Many folks add aromatics (onion, celery, carrot, garlic), spices, or herbs to their stocks. That’s great. We prefer to keep ours super clean: just the bones. This makes it very versatile. It’s up to you.

Simmer. Bring to the boil, stir, and turn down the heat to a bare simmer. Let the stock simmer for at least 4 hours. I find it difficult to simmer stocks with electric burners, so I often put mine in the oven at 275°F. Keep an eye on the water level. If it reduces too much, add some water and/or cover the pot.

Strain. Remove the stock from the heat and strain it into a heat-proof container. If you’re not using it right away, cool the stock and divide into pint containers for freezing. A pint is a very convenient quantity of stock for household use. It’ll keep in the freezer for 3 months or so.