On previous posts I have referred to how I save money on buying chicken stock because I make my own. It is usually an all day project so today the hubs and I had enough chicken bones and time to make a new batch. This is a great way to utilize ALL of the chicken, save money and keep the sodium down 50% more than the “low sodium” store bought brand.

Ingredients:
2 whole chicken carcasses and wing tips leftover from the wing battle night
*sidenote* if you are confused about what exactly you need to keep – keep the back and wings because that is where the most meat and collagen are in the body. It doesn’t matter if the carcass is raw or cooked. We keep them if they are from a roasted chicken or if they are from a butchered raw chicken. Once you have them just keep a large tubberware box in the freezer until you get a day to make stock.
2 onions cut into quarters
8 ribs of celery
6 medium carrots with tops cut off
1 T whole black peppercorns
3-4 bay leaves
10+ springs of thyme
10+ springs of parsley (stems and all)
4 whole peeled garlic cloves
2 gallons of distilled water (make sure to check where the water is from – some water claims to be distilled and its just city water. We used HEB spring water)

All you need

Using a large heavy stock pot, add all of the ingredients in the pot. Cover with the water until everything is covered by an inch or so of water. Keep the leftover water in a separate sauce pan on low so when you add more water you don’t shock it temperature-wise. Using a metal pop up steamer upside down, this will keep all of the ingredients down in the liquid. This will also make skimming it much easier. Bring the stock to a boil and once it starts to simmer bring it down to low so that it keeps a very low simmer. For the first hour, check on it about every 10-15 minutes and skim the “schmaltz” off the top using a spoon or a fine mesh strainer.

De- Schmaltzing

For the next 2 hours, check on it every 1/2 hour and keep skimming if you see any oil or foamy stuff on top. Maintain the water level and add the reserved water if it gets too low. Keep simmering until the stock has been cooking for about 8 hours.

The key to this is having a very light simmer so that a) you don’t have to constantly check on it and worry your house is going  to burn down and b) the collagen in the bones can come out . After about 8+ hours, the stock needs to get cooled down and get it cooled down QUICKLY. You need to get it past the “danger zone” which is the temperature where bacteria can grow and that is not good. DO NOT just toss the pot in the fridge, it will take too long to cool down and also warm everything up in the fridge. Have an ice bath in your sink with as much ice and cold water as your sink can handle. If your pot is too big for the sink, use a cooler.

Brrrr

At this point, if you have a fat separator, use this while doling your stock into containers. If you don’t have one, simply put the whole pot in the fridge AFTER it has been in the ice bath and cooled down completely and leave it overnight. In the morning, all of the fat will have solidified on top and you can easily use a spoon to remove the fat.

Final product

Our batch today created 5 containers that each hold 2.5-3 cups. We only had to buy the carrots, celery, parsley, garlic and water which totaled to $4.17 – we bought onions in bulk at Sam’s with the chicken and we have a small herb garden and by the grace of God the thyme and rosemary have survived. With a usual package of chicken stock at HEB going for $2 each and they hold about 4 cups. To compare, our stock costs about 28 cents per cup and the HEB brand costs 50 cents plus you save on the amount of sodium! Win win!