Chicken Stock is the Gateway Drug for Straight-Up Food Comas

Hey there bloggy friends. You get a picture of me in the car. Because that’s where I am almost all of the time now. It’s in situ photography. You’re welcome. Mwah!!

This may seem pretty rand-o, considering my lengthy blog-pause. I’m sure you’re thinking, “Really? You come back at me with broth?” To which I reply, “Yeah, duh. A.D.D.???”

It’s been a crazy month and I’ve been craving comfort foods. Most of which call for some amount of chicken broth or another, and nothing beats the rich flavor of a good homemade stock. NUH-THING Y’ALL. And it can be the easiest of all things to do at home, and it’s so so worth it.

Here’s the stuff you’ll need:

• Some Chicken Bones, about a chicken’s worth
  • I usually just leave the bones from a roasted chicken in the slow cooker and make
    

    In case there’s any confusion, this is a chicken in a crock pot. There’s bones in there. Okay, moving on…

    my stock the same night

• About 6 clean glass jars that will hold about 20 ounces of liquid each – with lids
  • I just save any solid quality jar I come across when I buy such things as pasta sauces or honey. I remove the stickers with WD-40, then hand-scrub really well with lots of soap and hot water. Then I run them through the dishwasher on the pots’n’pans cycle to make sure they get nice and scorching hot. And CLEAN.
• 5 clean Celery Ribs – leave all the leaves on, but I remove the white at the bottom because it tastes bitter to me – roughly chop the ribs into about 3 pieces each
• 1 medium, or 1/2 large, Yellow Onion – skins removed and quartered
• 4-5 cloves Garlic, skins removed and halved
• 10 or so Baby Carrots
• 1 tbsp Kosher Salt
• 1 tsp Poultry Seasoning
•  1/2 tsp Black Pepper
• 1/4 tsp Cayenne (if desired)
• About 12-14 cups of Water
• A 6 quart Slow Cooker (this can also be done in a stock pot, but it’s more hands-on)
• 2-3 (6″ x 6″) squares of Muslin (or you can just cut up an old white pillow case like I did – don’t use a colored one, you don’t want to be pouring liquid through that dyed fabric)
• A Funnel
• A 6 quart Stock Pot
• A Colander

1. Take the bones, skins, and gristle from a roasted chicken (basically anything that’s left after you’ve removed the meat) – and toss them into the slow cooker
2. Throw in the celery, onion, garlic, carrots, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, and cayenne (if using) on top of the bones
3. Top with water until slow cooker is filled to about 1 inch from the top (liquid will be released from the ingredients during cooking and you don’t want overflows)
4. Cover, set slow cooker to low and let cook about 18 hours – for me this is usually overnight and until I get home from work the following day
   

   Throw it all in and go do something else. That’s my kinda cookin’.

5. When you get home, stir the stock and taste a spoonful. If needed, add salt to taste. You will most likely need to add salt, but I hate for it to be over-salted so I always save this until the end
6. Once salted to desired flavor, turn off the slow cooker. Using oven mitts, transfer contents to a sufficiently sized stock pot by pouring through the colander. I usually take the cooked veggies etc. and lay them along the fence for the little critters that live in the field by our house.
7. It is important to cool the stock as quickly as possible, to prevent any bacteria from invading and taking hold. So here’s what you’ll want to do:
   

   The freezer view. They get their own shelf. Such joy.

8. Put the stopper in the sink drain, fill with about 4 inches of cool water. Set the stock pot down in it. Surround stock pot with ice, and add more water. Keep adding ice until the water around the pot is no longer warm. You do not want the water to flood into the pot, so be aware of how close the water is coming to the top edge of the pot. 
9. Let the broth cool completely (it can still be slightly warm to the touch). This takes about an hour.
10. Lay a muslin/pillowcase square inside the funnel like a coffee filter, and set the funnel into one of your jars. Scoop up some of your stock in a glass or measuring cup or something, and pour through the muslin in the funnel. At some point before the jar is full, you may have to wiggle the muslin/pillow around to get the stock flowing through again – the little bits of chicken and seasoning get in the way sometimes.
11. Repeat until you’ve run out of stock. Put the lids on the jars, and put them in the
    

    The one on the left has had the fat scooped off with the spoon, the one on the right shows what you’re scooping…I have no idea why they’re two totally different colors in this picture. Seriously, the jars aren’t THAT different in size.

    freezer for about 20-30 minutes – or long enough for them to get pretty cold.

12. This will cause the fat to rise to the top of the stock. Get them out of the freezer, and remove the caps. Scoop the fat off the top of the stock with a spoon, then tighten the lids back on the jars. You can then put all your jars back in the freezer to freeze completely. They’ll keep well for about 6 months.
13. Anytime you need stock, even if it’s just because you have an upset tummy, all you have to do is pop a jar in the microwave for a few minutes and KA-POW. STRAIGHT UP AWESOMENESS.

My last batch gave me about 108 ounces of chicken stock, and that was all from a little 5.14lb chicken that I got for $5.50. Considering an equivalent amount of store-bought canned chicken broth would cost about $8 – and I got enough chicken to keep us in dinners and sandwiches for a week PLUS all my stock for $2.50 less than the cost of the store-bought broth alone (and do I even need to mention we’re talking all natural, no preservatives, no chemical shitstorm here? Amiright?) , I’d say the frugal faires would fully Hi-5 me on this one. I mean, collectively, the cost of the garlic, carrots, celery and onion was less than $2. HUZZAH.

ONE HUNDRED EIGHT OUNCES. That happened.
Also, just ignore the jar that still has a label. I was sleepy.

If you wanted to do it in a stock pot, or need to because you don’t have a (honkin’ big) slow cooker – it’s all pretty much the same, except you cover and simmer for 3 hours, adding water as needed. You have to bring it back to a boil each time you add water, then reduce to a simmer. This makes small houses VERY WARM, so it would be a kickass method for getting your stock on during the wintery months. Or, if you’re from Texas, over that wintery week we get sometime between Christmas and New Year’s. Then it’s back to summertime, and you’ll want that slow cooker if you’ve got it.

Barley demonstrates proper food coma form. I say 10 out of 10. I especially love the way the hind feet approach the ears. Pure skill y’all.

Tonight I dove into my fresh supply of stock to make White Chicken Chili, which I’ll tell

you all the juicy details on later. You can also add your homemade stock to a freakin’ killer roux for a velouté sauce that is to. die. for. I’m just sayin’, endless possibilities my friends, endless possibilities.

Anyway, I have to go be in a coma now… I ate a ridonkulous amount of chili.

Barley sez, “Chili iz NOMS” – she did not ask for permission to eat chili. We tried to put her in a time-out, but she stuck her foot in Ben’s glass of milk. Touché kitty. Very well played…

XOXO

~ J ~