By request...
Lots of people have their preferred ways, but here's mine, anyway...
CHICKEN STOCK
- Take one cooked, meaty chicken carcass. The one I currently have simmering away is what's left of the 30 Clove Garlic Chicken after the most of the remaining flesh had been converted to chicken salad. The fat, garlic, and onions from the previous recipe went in as well, though they'll be strained out later. If you have a fairly bland carcass, add some mirepoix (aka chopped carrots, celery and onions) to the mix.
- Give the carcass a few whacks with a cleaver, or just pull it apart with your bare hands and crack the bones with the handle of a knife. This encourages the release of gelatin from the bones and makes for a thicker stock.
- Dump the dismembered chicken into your crockpot and add enough water to cover it by an inch or so. Turn the crockpot on high for an hour, then low for the next five or six hours.* It's really just a matter of boiling the liquid off until you have your stock at the desired thickness.
- Once your stock is finished, pour it through a strainer to get rid of bones, vegetables, and remaining meat. Let cool. If you have immediate plans for your stock, it'll keep well for a few days in the fridge. Otherwise, a handy way to store it is to ladle it into ice cube trays, let it freeze, then pop your stock-cubes into freezer bags for later use.
If you've got critters in the house, you can let the strained meat cool and offer it to them if they'll take it. It's so flavorless by the time the stock's done that both my cats and rats turn their noses up at it.
* You can skim the fat off of the stock while it's boiling, but I prefer to let it sit in the fridge for a little while after it's strained and just take the fat off as it congeals.
CHICKEN STOCK
- Take one cooked, meaty chicken carcass. The one I currently have simmering away is what's left of the 30 Clove Garlic Chicken after the most of the remaining flesh had been converted to chicken salad. The fat, garlic, and onions from the previous recipe went in as well, though they'll be strained out later. If you have a fairly bland carcass, add some mirepoix (aka chopped carrots, celery and onions) to the mix.
- Give the carcass a few whacks with a cleaver, or just pull it apart with your bare hands and crack the bones with the handle of a knife. This encourages the release of gelatin from the bones and makes for a thicker stock.
- Dump the dismembered chicken into your crockpot and add enough water to cover it by an inch or so. Turn the crockpot on high for an hour, then low for the next five or six hours.* It's really just a matter of boiling the liquid off until you have your stock at the desired thickness.
- Once your stock is finished, pour it through a strainer to get rid of bones, vegetables, and remaining meat. Let cool. If you have immediate plans for your stock, it'll keep well for a few days in the fridge. Otherwise, a handy way to store it is to ladle it into ice cube trays, let it freeze, then pop your stock-cubes into freezer bags for later use.
If you've got critters in the house, you can let the strained meat cool and offer it to them if they'll take it. It's so flavorless by the time the stock's done that both my cats and rats turn their noses up at it.
* You can skim the fat off of the stock while it's boiling, but I prefer to let it sit in the fridge for a little while after it's strained and just take the fat off as it congeals.