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Homemade Chicken Stock
Homemade soups are even more delicious when you start with a homemade Chicken Stock!
Ingredients
1 whole 4-5-pound frying chicken or fowl, gizzards discarded
5 chicken feet, or 4 chicken wings, or one turkey wing
1 large or four small turkey necks, or one turkey leg
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 large Spanish onion cut in quarters (don’t use sweet onion)
3 large carrots cut into chunks about 1 1/2 cups (peel only if the skin is dark or dirty)
2 large stalks celery cut into chunks, about one cup
Few celery leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1 small bunch of flat leaf parsley
4-6 quarts cold water (enough to cover)
Instructions
- Place all ingredients into a large stock pot and bring to a boil (our pot is 10 quarts). It will take 30-45 minutes to come to a boil. Just before it reaches a boil, skim the foam that floats to the top and discard. I use a ladle to scoop up the foam. The foam contains impurities and should be discarded.
- Reduce heat to a medium simmer and cook for three hours uncovered.
- Strain the stock from the solids using a colander and discard the onion, parsley, bay leaf and peppercorns but save the chicken, and other vegetables. Further strain the stock through a fine mesh strainer to remove any particles that passed through the colander holes.
- Remove skin and debone the chicken and reserve the chicken meat for recipes using cooked chicken, or freeze in an air tight zipper seal bag.
- Optional…Press the carrots, celery and garlic through a fine mesh strainer into the stock and stir. This makes for a heartier stock but is optional because it also makes it cloudy and changes the finished flavor somewhat.
- Discard any pulp left in the strainer. Cool the stock, remove and discard the fat that floats to the top and use stock for any recipe calling for a good chicken stock. (See post above with instructions and photos showing how to separate the fat and store the stock.)
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Notes
Egg shells can be added as the stock cooks. These will help clarify the stock. You should do this for delicate recipes calling for a clear broth. (The shells will be removed from the stock as you strain it.)
*If you are making this stock for a special soup, stew or pot pie, and will be using the meat for your recipe, use a large spider or strainer and remove the whole chicken after one hour of simmering. Cut off the two breast halves from the chicken and place the remaining carcass back into the pot for the remainder of the cooking time. By doing this, you can save the breast meat and cut into chunks later for your recipe. If left in for the three hours, the meat will still be great, it will however shred.
Find it online: https://www.afamilyfeast.com/chicken-stock/
