Try My Stock

A few weeks back I promised I would post the recipe for chicken stock made from stockpiles of frozen chicken carcasses I accumulate from making roast chicken.

Some of you might ask why one would bother making stock from scratch, when it can be easily purchased in cans, tetra packs, concentrated in small bottles, powdered and in gummy little cubes. Truth be told, I keep stock in all of its various incarnations because it come in really handy. I swear, 8 out of 9 recipes call for stock. But I always prefer my homemade one for these reasons:

•It is devoid of creepy additives like MSG and HVP (hydrolyzed vegetable protein for which in Canada there is a currently salmonella advisory. Fun!).
•The taste, when done right, is superior to store-bought.
•I know what kind of or grade of chicken I used.
•From an ecological perspective, it just makes sense to me to try to make as many meals as possible and find as many uses as possible for something that a) died so I could eat it b) probably didn’t have a great life c) required an insane amount of the earth’s resources to be created, brought to maturity, slaughtered, packaged, transported, merchandised, advertised and then stored in my fridge and later cooked.
•It fills your house with aromas that to most people* conjure up feelings of happiness, nurturing, and well-being. My grandmother’s house smelled like that and you just can’t beat that.

*For some people, like those who are or were at some point vegetarian, these aromas conjure up images of slaughtered, mistreated animals being boiled in a vat of onions. If you live with this kind of person, make stock when they are not home or when you can open the windows.

So here is the recipe. You may now free your carcasses from the depth of your freezer. It is not a standard recipe and I have not tested it because it comes from my head and it changes every time. So if you make it and don’t like it, I apologize. If it is too diluted, try it again and reduce the amount of water.

Stock Recipe (Makes about 4 to 6 cups of stock)
2 or 3 chicken carcasses** with some meat left on the bone.
Cold water (2 cups per carcass)
1 large onion
3 large carrots (peeled or scrubbed clean)
3 celery branches
3 cloves of garlic
Salt
Pepper

•Place the chicken carcasses in a large pot
•Cover with 2 cups cold water per carcass. There should be enough water to barely cover the carcasses; put burner on medium high
•Cut all the vegetables into large chunks and throw into the water.
•Remove skins from garlic cloves and then gently squish the cloves with the side of your knife; pitch the garlic into the water.
•Add 2 teaspoons salt, pinch of pepper (you can add salt throughout the process too if you don’t think it’s enough).
•When the water is boiling, reduce to simmer and cover the pot.
•Simmer for 2 hours.

You’ll know your stock is done when the colour is nice and gold and it tastes chicken-y. One it’s done, remove from heat and strain as follows:
•Place a strainer over a large enough food storage container, pot or bowl to hold all the stock you made.
•Using tongs, retrieve all the bones, meat bits and vegetables from the pot and place in strainer. Dump contents of strainer into the garbage when full (this is the last stop for this chicken, I’m afraid). Pour rest of stock through the strainer.
•Use immediately, or cool at room temperature if storing for later use.


Fancypants 1: I once read a recipe for stock from Matha Stewart that used actual 2 whole chickens instead. I guess you could do that, but then you are using up more of the world’s chicken and resources and not putting into effect my whole stretch it out theory, but hey, I bet it’s really tasty.

Fancypants 2: You can also get creative with your vegetables and use odd and ends up: zucchini, green beans, red peppers, asparagus stalks, squash, potatoes, broccoli. In fact, I keep a freezer bag full of vegetable scraps that I can just toss into my stock.

Hot Stock Tips (haha! Get it? Hot stock tips, as in stocks sold in the stock market?)
•My mom used to make a big deal out of the fact that my grandmother didn’t skim the fat off her stock. So what? It tastes better that way. But if you are concerned about your fat intake, then wait until the stock is completely cool, refrigerate it for several hours and then skim the fat of the top.
•I freeze stock in 2-cup portions in little freezer bags that zip close.