Chicken Stock from Scratch?

[jjhunter]

'elp! 'elp! Some assistance much appreciated

I'm setting aside some time today to batch prepare most of my household's meals for the week, and would love to actual use the leftover chicken bones to make stock instead of tossing them out. Does anyone have any experience making stock from such bones? and/or a reliable recipe they might point me to?

ETA: success! Details here: Adventures in homemade chicken stock (FOR SCIENCE)

Comments

[katarik]

Like everyone else, I just take the bones and generously cover them with water. I also add a few things -- onion, carrot, etc. I don't do a whole lot of seasoning, since it's meant to be a base for other flavors, but hyssop is hugely antibacterial and antiviral and it goes in *everything* I make.

And then you just walk away and let it simmer for a while. When everything starts smelling chickeny and delicious, it is not done. You want your water to have reduced by at least a couple of inches, you want it to have some color.

To strain it, it depends on what all you have in there. If it's just big stuff like bones and celery and chunks of vegetables, a colander will work just fine. If you added herbs, take a wire-mesh colander or line a regular colander with cheesecloth. Strain it into a new pot, let it cool, skim off the fat if you can, and freeze it in whatever serving size you think you'll want. Some people freeze stock in ice cube trays and then freeze the ice cubes in gallon bags, and then they have plenty of little stock for if they just want it to add some more flavor to, like, ramen or something.