Homemade Chicken Stock

One of my favorite ways to prepare for cold and flu season is to make my own chicken stock!  It's easy to make, tastes fantastic, {WAY better than store bought!} and it's healthier than store bought!  All of the store bought soups and chicken stocks, including the kinds at health food stores, have MSG in them. And you all know the dangers of MSG! 

Making Chicken Stock at Home:

Save up chicken bones.  I buy 2 or 3 whole chickens a week.  I bake them for dinner.  Shred the left overs for casseroles, Tetrizinni, Alfredo, and other chicken dishes.  You can also put shredded chicken in the freezer in quart size bags to remove and put in casseroles when you need them too.  Makes life a little more convenient. 

Save the chicken carcasses.  Throw them all in your biggest pot and cover them with water.  Boil with an onion and a few stalks of chopped celery and some garlic.  Add about a table spoon of Brag's organic apple cider vinegar.  This will help lech the vitamins and minerals from your bones...ummm, I mean, the chicken's bones.  {I do not recommend using your own bones, and no humans were harmed in the making of this stock!}  When the water boils down below the bones, add more water.  Keep adding water.  You want the water just about even with the top of the chicken bones.

Your stock should start to jell after a few hours of boiling.  When your stock is think {and tastes wonderful} it's ready to be used.  Or you can freeze it or can it.  If your stock seems to be too thick, you can freeze it or can it and dilute it later...or not.  =D

Freezing Chicken Stock:

Let the stock cool.  Fill quart size zip lock bags with cooled chicken stock.  Place flat in freezer until frozen.  Once frozen, you can stack them on top of each other to save room in the freezer.  Freezing chicken stock is great if you don't have enough canning jars to go around and if you are in the habit of planning ahead.  When your stock is frozen, you will to remember to remove it from the freezer several hours before you plan to use it. 

Canning Chicken Stock:

This is my preferred method.  I like to can it in pint size jars in case someone gets sick.  A pint size jar is the perfect size for a single helping or two.  You just open the jar and heat it on the stove. You don't have to wait for it to thaw out.  Quart jars can be used for soups or casseroles.

To can simply fill your clean jars with stock.  Be sure your jar rims, lids and rings are all clean and make sure there aren't any chips in the rims of your jars so that they will seal properly.  Put in your pressure canner for an hour and a half to kill bacteria and seal your jars.  For quart size jars. process for 2 hours.  

The best bones for making Chicken Stock:

The best bones for chicken stock is low meat to bone ratio, such as heads, leg/claws, necks, and backs and wings.  These are the parts that make your stock gel.  If you want a nice thick chicken stock you will use these parts.  If you want chicken broth you will use the bones with more meat on them, or high meat to bone ratios, such as breasts, thighs and legs.  And...THAT is the difference between stock and broth.

There you have it... a post you can put stock in!!  {Ahem, I couldn't help myself...:blush:}