Homemade Chicken Stock

[AnnaRaven]

Okay folks - ya'll were really helpful with the beef stock question. So now I've got plans to make chicken stock.

First question:
where do you get reasonably-priced whole chicken that wasn't horribly abused or injected with cr*p? Smart&Final and Safeway both have sales on whole chickens - First Street vs Foster Farms. Are either of these decent chicken to eat?

Second question:
Do you normally just boil the unroasted chickens or do you normally roast them first? (and is there a difference in how you use the resulting chicken stock based on roasted or non?)

Third question:
How long do you normally boil the carcass for your chicken stock?

Thanks for your help everyone! I'm looking forward to having my shelves stocked with homemade stock.

 

[freemotion]

Roast first for the best flavor. I usually strip the meat after roasting, then boil all the skin, bones, etc, along with deglazing the roasting pan to get all the good stuff out.

Don't know about your local brands.

I simmer for 24-48 hours, adding a glug of ACV first to help demineralize the bones and get all the goodness into the stock.

I don't flavor it. It doesn't smell that great while simmering. But I can remove the fat from the top of the broth and use it for all kinds of things if I don't flavor it, and I can make a reduction of the broth if I wish (which I do, a lot, because it is so wonderful!) without overly concentrating certain flavors.

 

[~gd]

Okay folks - ya'll were really helpful with the beef stock question. So now I've got plans to make chicken stock.

First question:
where do you get reasonably-priced whole chicken that wasn't horribly abused or injected with cr*p? Smart&Final and Safeway both have sales on whole chickens - First Street vs Foster Farms. Are either of these decent chicken to eat?

Second question:
Do you normally just boil the unroasted chickens or do you normally roast them first? (and is there a difference in how you use the resulting chicken stock based on roasted or non?)

Third question:
How long do you normally boil the carcass for your chicken stock?

Thanks for your help everyone! I'm looking forward to having my shelves stocked with homemade stock.

Frankly I don't use whole chickens for STOCK. To me if you start with a whole chicken that produces BROTH. Being tight with a buck I save the bones from chicken quarters, Wings, whatever in the freezer. If I don't have enough when I want to make stock then I will buy chicken backs and/or necks to give me more bones. What ever I have I roast nicely brown and then use a cleaver to break the bones (I don't think I gain very much on chickens, It is just a carryover from other stock making) If I have celery with leaves the leaves go in the stockpot or just a single stalk chopped to 3 inch length. Likewise a normal sized carrot and a medium onion quartered. Bring to a boil and at once turn it down to a simmer, Simmer for 24 hours or less skimming the foam off the top occasionally, Filter off the bones and spent veggies while still warm, let cool and skim the fat off the top. This I save it has many uses. the spent veggies and bones are fed to the animals. Sounds sick but my chickens love it! I freeze my stock by placing in top seal bags laid flat on a cookie sheet. That way it freezes and thaws quickly. Once frozen I 'file'the bag. No reason it couldn't be canned, I just rather freeze it.~gd

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

hey baby! glad you are jumping in with both feet! real stock is a joy to cook with


First question:
**** have you checked out www.localharvest.org/ ?? you might be able to find a local grower. but a sale is a sale sometimes you have to do what you have to do. i dont think you were around when we had 20lbs turkeys on sale at our local store for $4!!! and yep we loaded up the cart. we cant even buy a baby turkey for $4 each let alone grow one out.

Second question:
yep there is a difference but it depends on how much time i have to monkey around with this. what you can do is roast the whole bird, have the breasts for supper, then put the rest of the carcass in the stock pot.

Third question:
forever. overnight at least and usually about 24 hrs. the trick is to have it barely simmering when you go to bed, when i'm up and about i let it simmer a bit more.

we take off the meat and make two piles - the good stuff for us (makes a heavenly chicken salad sandwich) and one for the cats/dogs. our Teddi Grumpkins loves the necks - its good for cats b/c they wont eat the bones. the dogs get big chunks (no bones)

great work! and when you get your pressure canner you can can up 1 pint jar and never buy stock again!

 

[AnnaRaven]

Okay folks - ya'll were really helpful with the beef stock question. So now I've got plans to make chicken stock.

First question:
where do you get reasonably-priced whole chicken that wasn't horribly abused or injected with cr*p? Smart&Final and Safeway both have sales on whole chickens - First Street vs Foster Farms. Are either of these decent chicken to eat?

Second question:
Do you normally just boil the unroasted chickens or do you normally roast them first? (and is there a difference in how you use the resulting chicken stock based on roasted or non?)

Third question:
How long do you normally boil the carcass for your chicken stock?

Thanks for your help everyone! I'm looking forward to having my shelves stocked with homemade stock.

Frankly I don't use whole chickens for STOCK. To me if you start with a whole chicken that produces BROTH. Being tight with a buck I save the bones from chicken quarters, Wings, whatever in the freezer. If I don't have enough when I want to make stock then I will buy chicken backs and/or necks to give me more bones. What ever I have I roast nicely brown and then use a cleaver to break the bones (I don't think I gain very much on chickens, It is just a carryover from other stock making) If I have celery with leaves the leaves go in the stockpot or just a single stalk chopped to 3 inch length. Likewise a normal sized carrot and a medium onion quartered. Bring to a boil and at once turn it down to a simmer, Simmer for 24 hours or less skimming the foam off the top occasionally, Filter off the bones and spent veggies while still warm, let cool and skim the fat off the top. This I save it has many uses. the spent veggies and bones are fed to the animals. Sounds sick but my chickens love it! I freeze my stock by placing in top seal bags laid flat on a cookie sheet. That way it freezes and thaws quickly. Once frozen I 'file'the bag. No reason it couldn't be canned, I just rather freeze it.~gd

Where do you buy backs and necks? I mean, that would be great but I don't think I know anywhere that'll sell you just that. Do you get it at a place like Safeway or a what?

 

[AnnaRaven]

hey baby! glad you are jumping in with both feet! real stock is a joy to cook with


First question:
**** have you checked out www.localharvest.org/ ?? you might be able to find a local grower. but a sale is a sale sometimes you have to do what you have to do. i dont think you were around when we had 20lbs turkeys on sale at our local store for $4!!! and yep we loaded up the cart. we cant even buy a baby turkey for $4 each let alone grow one out.

Second question:
yep there is a difference but it depends on how much time i have to monkey around with this. what you can do is roast the whole bird, have the breasts for supper, then put the rest of the carcass in the stock pot.

Third question:
forever. overnight at least and usually about 24 hrs. the trick is to have it barely simmering when you go to bed, when i'm up and about i let it simmer a bit more.

we take off the meat and make two piles - the good stuff for us (makes a heavenly chicken salad sandwich) and one for the cats/dogs. our Teddi Grumpkins loves the necks - its good for cats b/c they wont eat the bones. the dogs get big chunks (no bones)

great work! and when you get your pressure canner you can can up 1 pint jar and never buy stock again!

I can buy freerange chickens. For over $4 a pound. No freaking way am I doing that when DH doesn't even like chicken. So yeah - I'm trying to get something economical without torturing the chickens...

 

[JRmom]

My FAVORITE chicken stock is made with smoked chicken. My husband smokes it, we'll have a meal or two, and then I pull the rest of the meat off (I'll use this for chicken salad or freeze it to use later for chicken soup or a casserole). Otherwise, I just add bones to a gallon freezer bag as I have them. When it's full, I make stock.

I make my stock with celery tops, an onion cut in half, 2 or 3 garlic cloves, a couple of bay leaves, and fresh dried basil. Once it's done, strain it and pick the meat again.

I freeze my broth, but I always keep a quart jar in the refrigerator for cooking - I add it to sauteed vegetables, and cook my rice in it (for dirty rice).

Once you make your own, you'll never want to buy it again! There is no comparison in flavor (and you can season your stock how you like), not to mention the saving$.

 

[patandchickens]

Made with smoked chickens sounds really good!

Personally I pretty much only make stock with the carcass from roast chicken, or with a whole (meat-on) old hen. I do not recommend using a typical supermarket chicken whole, it ends up badly devoid of flavor.

You are not going to find non-factory-farmed non-saline-plumped cheap chickens in a store.

One option might be to look for people trying to get rid of roosters. If you are willing to kill and gut them yourself (it is not a big deal), it would be cheap or maybe even free, and IME they make pretty good stock (older ones can be a bit gamier than normal chicken stock but personally I do not find it objectionable, you just want to bear it in mind when deciding what to use the stock for).

Or, suck it up and use regular grocery store chickens.

I do not know about where you are, but around here (which is a fairly large chicken-producing area with at least one industrial-type processing plant) you periodically see "spent hens" for sale in grocery stores. They have not lived nice lives, their price is inflated IMO, and the two times I bought them for soup purposes (before I had chickens of my own) the meat never became edible except in finely-chopped form despite reeeaaallllly long simmering... but they do make tastier whole-chicken stock than yer basic supermarket broiler or roaster does.

Still, my best advice would probably be to get whatever broiler or roaster you can be adequately-happy with, or ask if they ever get backs and necks in, and roast them and make the stock from that. Certainly this is the most economically-sensible option, or the 'look for people getting rid of roos' route.

Leave the skin on, you can skim the fat later and it adds flavor.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[freemotion]

Search your area for a store that just sells meat to get backs, necks, etc. The regular grocery stores won't have it, at least not here. We can get it in any quantity, even a 40 lb box, if we order in advance. I prefer to get the cheap leg quarters, though, because the price is similar and then I get lots of good meat for our use or for making catfood. Whole chickens on sale are nice, too. Roast, strip, make broth with the rest.

We can get 10 lb bags of leg quarters for $0.59-69 on sale regularly here. They will often give you the sale price on a 40 lb box, or less than sale price sometimes if the person you deal with is in a good mood. I only do this in winter when I can leave it on the porch as I deal with it. It is not as much as it sounds, the two of us can work together and process that down pretty quickly. But cooked chicken meat does not keep well in the freezer for very long without drying out, so don't store it too long in large quantities. I can it, usually, as soups, stews, and catfood.

To help wrap your brain around all the work/time involved, you have to calculate how many meals you get, how long it would take to cook each of those meals individually, and the cost per meal. That will energize you, let me tell you! This marathon method often yields meals that are pennies per serving and minutes prep time per meal....like 10 minutes prep time (when you divide the time you spend in your marathon by the number of meals you get from it) per meal or less.

Spread out over 2-3 days helps, too. Roast and strip day one, bones into stock pot. Broth strained out on day two or three. Soup made and canned on day three or four. Some meat frozen on day one, some reserved for soup making and canning. Can some broth plain for use in other recipes, and can some pint jars flavored with herbs for when you are sick and just want some broth to sip. I like rosemary, garlic, scallions, salt and pepper.

Now I'm hungry.... Think I'll have a quick jar of soup!

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Advertise on your local Craigs List that you are looking for old laying hens, and extra roosters.
You can get good prices on them usually, though it means processing yourself.
The meat will be tough, but there are two separate options for that.
You can stew the whole birds in the crock pot over night for tenderness, or, you can gut them out, wipe the cavity with a dry cloth, leave the feathers on, and hang them at 38-40 degrees for 5-6 days.
The meat will be fork tender and super tasty at that point.
Dry pluck prior to roasting.

I have a thread somewhere on here that details the aging better...

Oh, and you DH might find out that he loves chicken, once he has tasted the real deal.
It might be worth buying one free range just for a taste comparison for him.
They taste nothing like commercial chicken.