Save money, and control the quality of ingredients by making your own chicken stock. It freezes beautifully, and is so much more flavorful, than store bought.
I recently wrote a post about roasting your own chicken. Anytime I cook anything "bone in", I save the bones for homemade stock. Homemade stock is one of the most easiest ways to save money, and control the fat, salt and quality of ingredients. It freezes well and costs almost nothing. I use homemade stock in soups, stews, braising, cooking rice, quinoa etc. The great thing I love about making your own stock, is that you can do a variety of flavors.
Heat your stock pot to medium high heat, and add a drizzle of olive oil to the bottom. Then throw in the bones, onions, garlic and lemon and season liberally with salt and pepper. Let these brown for about 5 to 10 minutes. Browning them first really develops the sugars and boosts up the flavor that will seep out into the water. Next, add your fresh herbs, bay leaves and pepper corns. Then fill the pot with
warm water leaving room at the top to simmer. Cover the pot, and increase the heat to High. When it comes to a full boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer covered for about 2 hours. Then turn off the heat and let the stock cool. Remember this is your base for building other soups, stews etc. So the flavor should be rich, herbaceous blend of flavor. You will season to taste when you use it in your
cooking. Strain the stock and let it cool completely before freezing. You can use freezer safe mason jars. Or what I do is let them cool on the counter covered in mason jars, then transfer them to ziploc bags. I freeze them flat, then once they are frozen they stack nicely in the freezer. This batch made almost 2 1/2 gallons of stock.
Basic Chicken Stock
6 to 7 leg quarter bones
1 red onion, halved
1 bulb of garlic, skins and all
1 lemon, halved
3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
3 sprigs of fresh sage
10 sprigs of chives
3 bay leaves
Salt and pepper
1 Tsp peppercorns
1 Tbsp Poultry Seasoning (optional)
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