chicken stock in the making

chicken stock in the making
Originally uploaded by wayfarer

I've been asked before how to make chicken stock and i've been lazy about posting or i gave a half answer. Here's how i made it today.

What i often do is when veggies need to be used up like celery, onions or carrots, chop them and put them in the freezer in cup portions. Today i had fresh so did it that way but either way works well and if you have them in the freezer it's easy to make when you have some chicken bones with a little meat on it like today when i was making chicken and dumplings. I cut a lot of the bone off the breasts and that's what i'm making stock from. It's at the bottom of the pot btw.

For the amount of bones i had (you really can't go wrong though with chicken stock). It may taste more vegetably but that's okay.

Anyway, here's what i did for my chicken breast bones with a little meat still stuck on.

I added :

1 very small onion roughly chopped
1 stock of celery and all the celery leaves (tons of flavor in those...my favorite part for salads and this too)
1 chopped carrot
1 bay leaf
a splash of thyme (i hate dried herbs but didn't have fresh so just added a splash but you will probably want more)
a dash of salt
and a couple grinds of pepper

Let it simmer away for an hour or so, strain through a strainer/seive and let cool then pour into 1 cup portions. I use the rubbermaid/glad ones. Those small little ones hold exactly one cup. Put in the freezer. Done.

Here's one in use today...

chicken and dumplings in the making
Originally uploaded by wayfarer