REDUX: Crock Pot Chicken Stock (So EASY!)

Originally posted March 3, 2011. I am re-posting this in memoriam to my large blue crock pot, who died today, doing what she loved. Unfortunately, she also took a delicious batch of tomato sauce with her. 

My husband roasts a chicken for us almost every Sunday. He has it down to an art: always perfectly tender and juicy, and it smells like my grandparents’ house all day. I am the stock person in this relationship, and nothing makes better stock than a roasted chicken. I love to cook, but if it involves tons of fussy steps, I'm out. 

Stock is not complicated, and homemade stock is so good you will never want to buy store-bought again.We always have some in the freezer waiting to thaw and make into delicious soup. Stock allows you to get two meals out of every roasted chicken (or ham…etc.) If you spring for organic like we always do, getting a second meal out of your purchase really sweetens the deal. I made a huge batch of turkey stock from our 22 pound Thanksgiving bird, and the most amazing ham stock using the ham bone & scraps from our Christmas Dinner, a month after we ate it. The soups from both were incredible.

In the past, I have often had stock simmering away on a back burner for hours while I do other things. It really is quite easy, but last week, I had errands to run and realized there is an even easier way. It is possible to make stock and leave the house. And if you make it a habit to freeze your roasted chicken parts and roasting pan juices (for this example, but I did the same thing with the ham stock I made) and keep the most basic of veggies on hand, you can have the stock going with five minutes of prep time in the morning, and five minutes of put-away time at night.

Here’s the deal. If I don’t plan to make stock in the next day or two after roasting a chicken, I just freeze the solid “stuff” (skin, bones, fat scraps, even the onions from the body cavity) wrapped tightly in foil and then a freezer bag. Then I pour the liquid pan drippings into a glass jar and throw it in the fridge or if it will be more than a few days, I freeze it. When I am ready to make stock, it’s this easy:

1. Pull frozen chicken bones/solids out of freezer and pan juices from fridge or freezer. Unwrap and dump into cold crock pot.    (Mine is a 5 quart, but adjust by using more/fewer veggies and more/less water if it's bigger or smaller than mine.)

Frozen roasted-chicken parts.

2. On top of chicken stuff, add:

•                one onion chopped in half--I even leave on the innermost layer of peel. It adds a nice color to the stock.

•                4-5 pieces of celery* broken in pieces

•                4-5 large unpeeled carrots* broken in 2-3 pieces each

•                2 bay leaves

•                a dozen whole peppercorns, a little salt

•                enough water to fill crock pot about 2” from the top

*These vegetables can be your snacking "rejects". They can't actually be spoiled of course, but if they've lost some of their crispy nature, your stock will not care a bit. Save the pretty ones for the real soup.

Five minutes of prep time.

3. Put the lid on. Turn it on low. Walk away. Go forth and live your life.

Tah-dah. You have made stock.

4. When you come home, or 8-12 hours later, taste the stock--carefully, carefully, it will be ungodly hot, and also stir it a bit or you will end up tasting a mouthful of the fat which will rise to the top of your crock pot. (Ask me how I know this.) Add salt to taste. Then turn it off, let it cool a bit, and strain the stock into a big bowl. Toss everything in the strainer, save the stock.

5. At this point you can let the stock cool even more and just put the big bowl in your fridge before you go to bed.  The next day you can ladle it into appropriate storage containers. It will probably gel after spending the night in your fridge, which is the hallmark of a truly great stock. (It will liquefy when you reheat it.) I use freezer safe mason jars, taking care to fill only to the freeze line marked on the jar. Since the stock is already cold, after loading your jars, you can put them directly in the freezer. I’ve never had one break. The above batch gave me 11-12 cups of stock.

That’s it. Homemade stock with about 10 minutes hands-on time. Not bad at all.

If you have any questions or just want to check out the happenings around our growing farm, feel free to facebook-stalk us at Kayak Farms.