Stock making is one of those very basic kitchen skills that seems to have been lost along the way. I think the advent of readily made stocks and broths on the grocery store shelves have made stock-making a less desirable thing. For one thing, stock making does take time- although most of it is inactive time on the part of the person doing the work. I love making stock. I love the smells that fill the house when I make stock, and I love having a freezer full of ready-to-use stock where I know all the ingredients I used within. Today I’m going to talk about chicken stock, because that’s what I make most often. The same method can be used for turkey stock when you have a leftover carcass from a holiday, or also from a ham bone. Admittedly, I have not completely mastered the art of making beef stock, but only because it is a lesser used stock around here.
To make a good chicken stock, first you need a good chicken dinner. Or at least, the carcass that remains after a chicken dinner. Every time we have a roasted chicken, I make stock from the carcass, or, if I don’t have the time in the near future, I will put the carcass into the freezer for another day. I’ve always made stock from whatever chicken we’ve had, but this year we discovered that there really is a difference when you seek out the all natural, organically raised chickens. We’re fortunate to have friends who are embarking on their homesteading adventure, and have been sharing what they’ve been learning. The flavor difference of a chicken not raised in a factory is very noticeable, and I am convinced that the stock made from these hormone and antibiotic free chickens has healing properties that you cannot get from a conventional grocery store chicken. In other words, it’s worth the extra money to buy that pricey all natural roasting chicken. It really is. And if you use the chicken wisely, you can get three purposes out of it, making the actual price more affordable. When I roast a chicken, we have roast chicken one night, then a leftover thing another night with the leftover meat- whether that be a salad, soup, enchiladas, etc. Finally, I make a batch of stock, which makes several quarts to be tucked away in the freezer until needed.
So first, get your chicken carcass into a large stockpot. If the carcass is extra-large- as it may be in the case of a turkey, go ahead and break it up into pieces if needed to fit in the pot. Wing tips always go into my stock pot as well, so save those when you’re carving up your chicken. (If we cut all the meat off the bones, all the bones are added. If we nibble directly off the bones- in the case of drumsticks and wings, those do not go in the stock pot. ) To the chicken carcass, we’re going to add a plethora of vegetables and aromatics. This is a great time to go through the crisper drawer and see what needs to be used up- with the exception of the cabbage family. Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, turnips, and all their relatives need to stay away from the stock pot. If you have mushrooms on hand that have seen better days, I like to give them a quick wash and add them as well, they give a great earthy quality to a pot of stock.
On this particular day, I used 2 carrots, 1 celery core with about 4 small stalks and leaves attached, 1 large white onion, 1 large red potato, 4 garlic cloves, 4 scallions, 1 fennel frond, a handful of thyme sprigs, 2 rosemary sprigs, 2 bay leaves, a handful of parsley, 10 peppercorns, and half a cucumber. The carrots I didn’t even peel. I just washed, cut off the tops that had seen better days, and then broke each carrot into about four pieces and dropped them in. The onion I left the skin on and everything and just cut it into eights and dropped it in. The garlic cloves I smashed, but didn’t remove their skins either. The fennel, thyme, rosemary and parsley all came from my freezer, and the potato I cut into 1-inch pieces. The cucumber was sliced and not good enough to eat with dip, but it wasn’t spoiled or anything, so I threw it in just because. During the summer I like to add corn cobs, pea husks, and tomatoes when I have them around.
Stock is literally a chop and drop affair- and as I mentioned with the carrots, sometimes I don’t even chop. I just snap vegetables with my hands and drop them in. The herbs I just eyeball a handful and drop them in. Then when I have everything in the pot, I fill it to within about an inch of the top with cold water and put it on the stove over medium-high heat.
It takes awhile for the stock to come to a simmer, but that’s what you want and what you’re looking for. You’re not looking for a full-out boil, but a very gentle boil. Once it’s doing that, you add your cover, turn down the heat to just under medium- just enough heat to keep that simmer going. Check it every half hour or so to make sure it’s still gently simmering, adjusting the temperature as you need to. I’ve found that a good stock needs at least 3 hours on the stovetop simmering away. I’ve done it as long as overnight, but only do that if you are comfortable with your stove, and if you can be sure that your stock will continue to simmer.
Once you have simmered for the minimum amount of time, you’ll need to remove your veggies and carcass from the stock. I have two of these stainless stockpots, and both have steamer baskets that fit in them. I pour the contents of my stockpot into one of these, and then all the chunks and bones and bits get caught in the steamer basket, which I can then discard. What’s left is your stock, but if you tasted it now, you might be disappointed. You may have noticed we didn’t add any salt when we made our stock. That’ s because we’re now going to reduce our stock. Put it back into a pot and turn on the heat. We’re going to let it boil now, for as long as you wish it to boil. The longer you boil, the more it will reduce. I like to add salt at this point, but not too much, as the salt will become more prominent the more it reduces. And since we’re going to use this stock for later purposes, I don’t want to make it too salty and affect those dishes in the future.
I generally let my stock reduce by about half, and then I take it off the heat. Let it cool for about an hour or so, and then you can ladle it into your storage containers. I’ve started using wide-mouth mason jars for my storage. I ladle in just three-and-a-half cups of stock into each one, leaving ample space for the liquid to expand while in the freezer. If you’re not comfortable putting glass jars in the freezer, you can certainly use plastic storage containers or freezer bags- just make sure you label and date every container you use.
Homemade stock making is obviously not difficult at all. It’s utilizing things you already have on hand- and even better, something you would otherwise throw out- the carcass. Homemade stock lacks any preservatives or fillers and you can pronounce every single ingredient. You can also control the sodium by using no or less salt. Quite honestly, it’s a kitchen basic that I just couldn’t live without. And with all natural, organically raised chickens making a regular appearance on our dinner table, you can be absolutely sure that every single one of those chickens has a date with my stock pot.