Chicken Stock 101

I wanted to do a post devoted solely to chicken broth bc I feel like I've made a cooking breakthrough and I wanted to share it with you.  I know it sounds silly, but I always thought it was too hard to make stock.  It's like the cookie dough thing, now that I realize how easy it is, I may never buy canned chicken broth again!  I made my broth on Tuesday night after dinner while we were watching our Rangers beat the Tigers.  Anywho...  

For this stock I used:

• 1 whole fryer chicken (about 5 lbs)  - giblets removed
• 2 celery stalks (cut in three pieces each)
• 2 carrots (cut in three pieces each)
• 1 onion (chopped in large pieces)
• water

I just threw everything in the stock pot, covered it with water, brought it to a boil over medium/high heat, covered it and turned it to low, and let it simmer for about an hour.  Easy!

I tend to think that it's done when the chicken is floating.  Gross, yes, but that's how I roll.

Then took the chicken out and let it sit (and the broth, too) for 30 minutes.  

Then I strained the broth and put it into two containers, covered with foil, into the refrigerator.

The next day my first batch looked like this - gross, again, don't you think??  Yes!

But here's where you get to skim the fat off and throw it away - something I found surprisingly satisfying.  I'm a cooking nerd, what can I say?

After skimming the fat, I started to divide my stock into containers for freezing.

I got this great idea from my friend, Ashley :) I poured the chicken broth into ice cube trays to freeze and use as needed.  Each tray holds about 2 cups of broth, so it's perfect for many recipes that call for just that.  Also, if I'm making a side dish, I can just pop in a couple cubes of broth for added flavor.  I love this idea!

This is the reserve broth ready for freezing.  I kept about 2 and a half quarts out for a recipe and this was what I was going to freeze.  I figured that all in all, I made about 20 cups of chicken stock.

I covered each tray with wax paper, foil, labeled it, and into the freezer it went.  This kitchen staple will be a regular at our house starting now!