Hellobee

Thank you for sharing this! I’m definitely going to have to try it.

You can freeze mason jars as long as they aren’t the kindnwith the rounded top. (Think quilted jelly jars, the 1.5 qt asparagus jars) The lids do have BPA in them though.
Also, if you ever roast a chicken, then use the carcass for stock, it gets a lovely deep golden color and the flavor is meatier.

This is how I make chicken stock, except that I make (and eat) roast chicken first, then throw the carcass and any parts that I don’t love (legs, wings) in the pot to make chicken stock. Then I don’t have to feel guilty for not carving every last bit of meat off the chicken.

Btw, I just use normal supermarket chicken, and there is always gel (I think it comes from the gelatin in the chicken bones).

heyyy! we have the same knives.

I’m not big into soup but my mom loves to cook with chicken stock, so she often makes her own in a very similar way!

@dagret: @Grace: i never roast chickens and always buy chickens without the bone, but am going to start buying them bone in for my stock. i mention accumulating the bones in a ziploc bag in the freezer above — i do that for my beef stock!

i always just buy cooked roast chickens. they’re cheaper and already cooked!

Mmm, this is timely as I just didn this for the first time last week! I brined and roasted the chicken first, then threw the carcass in the crockpot, covered it in cold water, and left on low about 15 hours. SOOO yummy, we made a ribollita with it (white beans and greens soup- very free form, you could make a hundred variations). PS, I thought brining would make it salty and it didn’t AT ALL, just madE the chicken super moist.

I had no idea you could make this in a crock pot! I never had a crock pot until i got married (it was the husband’s) and was always afraid to use. This sounds better than cooking it over the stove.

@rms. bee – what do you use to skim off the fat? I have never been able to skim the fat off properly with the tools I have at home.

@mediagirl: i feel the same way. i just use a spoon while it’s cooking. but after it’s refrigerated, the fat congeals at the top and i just remove that.

Hrmm… this sounds delicious but seems like SO MUCH WORK!! Especially dealing with all the chicken parts… How many cups does this recipe yield? We go through about 4 – 5 cups of stock a week for various dishes.

@sweetchic: agreed… I try to make everything from scratch too but but it’s SO much more time, and more expensive as well. I hardly ever buy a whole chicken because of the $$..

thanks for this though!!! I need to try it

@sweetchic: it makes a lot — i just fill my crock pot to the top. i’m going to start using chicken bones though instead of a whole chicken which takes up a lot of volume. the most work is straining and cooling the stock before refrigerating it.

i never realized how much i could use stock until i made my own — as a beverage, as a soup, in sautees, in rice…. seriously you can use it for everything! i love it because it’s so good for the kids!

@Coco Bee: it is pricey — that chicken was $15. but if you save your cooked chicken bones in a ziploc bag in a freezer then you can make stock out of bones you were going to throw out anyway!

@Mrs. Bee: Hrm, well I “hearted” this post so I can give it a try sometime Wait, do you use any seasonings/spices? I don’t see any in your ingredients!

@sweetchic: nope i don’t add anything to it because i want plain chicken stock so it’s more versatile. i can always add spices when i’m cooking with it. when i give it to charlie and olive to drink, i do add a little bit of salt.

That sounds so easy! And delicious.

I might try this.

@Mrs. Bee: True enough – although you don’t get that Sunday afternoon roast chicken aroma filling your house.

I’ve never tried this… which is silly since I use SO MUCH chicken stock! But this makes me feel like I could totally do it… especially if I can use my crockpot! Thanks!

We do this at home too but using a pressure cooker. Instead of 3-4 hrs on the stove (or longer in a crock pot), i can make it in an hour or so. It really does save us soo much time!

I can never make enough stock to freeze. We’re soup eaters. I grew up with a lot of stocky type soups. My parents really believe in getting nutrition from different types of soups. My mom used to make a huge pot twice a week and we can finish a pot in one or two nights. It’s kind of the same with us now.
I stopped using the whole chicken as well. I break it down so we have 1 or 2 dinner portions and use just the bones for soup.

This sounds great and so easy! Thanks for sharing it.

What do you guys think about not skimming the fat though? I was under the impression that chicken fat has some good fats that especially children need and could benefit from.

We don’t give the girls cow’s milk, so I’m looking for other ways to give them “good fats”.

could you freeze it ice cube tray then put it in a bpa free container?

@NYCaliMama: i’ve read that the impurities rise to the surface which is why i discard the fat. i too try to feed my kids fat!

@sara – it makes way too much to freeze in an ice cube tray. i could freeze them in jars, but i just have to buy a bunch!

I love roasting chicken, mostly because it’s an excuse to cut lots of stalks off of my rosemary bush. and use lots of kerrygold butter rubbing it all over the chicken. And then my hands smell nice and are super soft. Afterwards I toss the carcass in my crockpot and cook pretty much as you described, though I go for more like 12-24 hours to really pull as much minerals out of the bones as possible. And I don’t even bother to peel the carrots (or even the onion, if I’m being honest here). I don’t know why it never occurred to me to freeze a couple of carcasses and cook a bigger batch all at once, I never end up filling my crockpot up with just one carcass. I’ll have to start doing that.

I use ice cube trays and then knock the cubes into gallon freezer bags. I’m never quite sure of how many I need when I unfreeze them, but then when I go to add the cubes to recipes I end up tasting and diluting with water anyway, since I simmer the stock for so long the different batches end up at varying flavor intensities.

I used to use whole chickens but I’ve gotten tired of debozing the chicken meat afterwards (plus the broth sucks all the flavor from the meat and makes it super bland) so now I just buy chicken bone carcasses from the Asian store and make my stock with that. My stock, however, is super simple – just chicken + salt.

Organic free-range chicken is too expensive for our budget so I just use reg chicken but my stock always gels. I think it’s a function of how much ligaments/tendon parts are in your pot and how long it simmers – the longer the more time to break down the gelatinous parts.

I agree that it’s a lot of work but it tastes sooo much better. Plus, it’s so much more nutritious.

do you have recipe for the beef broth they sometimes serve from a kettle at korean restaurants?

I usually make stock with the bones but never thought of doing it with he crock pot. Thanks! Looks really good

@sp – i found a recipe for it online:

http://www.yoo-eatz.com/Yook-Soo-Korean-Beef-Broth-Recipe-14665009

but i wouldn’t use dashida, which is basically msg. use salt instead.

@Mrs. Bee: do you make your chicken stock all in the crockpot? Or do you bring it to a boil on the stove first then transfer to the crockpot to simmer overnight? I got a little confused there. Thanks!!

@milkteaandpolkadots: sorry it is unclear! when i first started making it i made it on the stove, but i wanted to cook it longer and didn’t feel comfortable leaving the stove on overnight. so now i just go straight to the crockpot.

After you make the stock and use up all the chicken, can you than use the bones to make more stock?