No-Big-Deal Homemade Chicken Stock

Who else has been thinking that homemade chicken stock is just too big a production? Not me, not anymore anyway. For a long while now, I've been making chicken stock one small batch at a time because, well, making stock should be No Big Deal. Until you taste it, that is – rich but delicate, thick as jelly, tasting like the real chicken it’s made with – that’s when you know for sure that homemade chicken stock is One Very Big Deal.

How to Make Chicken Stock with the Carcass of a Rotisserie Chicken. Chicken Broth & Bone Broth Made from Scratch. Beautiful Color! An Easy Tried-and-True Recipe. Just One Pot, No Special Equipment Required. A New Addition to The Homemade Pantry, a Kitchen Parade Specialty. Year-Round Kitchen Staple. Budget Friendly. Great for Meal Prep, Just Freeze in Canning Jars for Later. Naturally Gluten Free. So Good!!

~ Skip Straight to the Recipe ~

~ PIN This ~

COMPLIMENTS!

• "The broth is very good, and easy as you say." ~moo

BEST RECIPES!

• No-Big-Deal Chicken Stock Made the Big List!
• Kitchen Parade’s Best-Ever “Most Useful” Recipes, just one recipe per year since 2002.

---

Good Intentions vs Reality

So really, am I alone? Who else keeps a big stockpot in a cupboard in the kitchen? Who else knows how to make a big batch of chicken stock but just never gets around to it?

These days, in my kitchen, the big stockpot stays put even as I make a small batch of chicken stock (or beef stock or vegetable stock) nearly every day, no effort, no big production. It is, frankly, No Big Deal – except that an abundance of rich, flavorful chicken stock on hand for soups, sauces and stews is One Very Big Deal.

Let's Go Back to Basics

All it takes to make homemade chicken stock is:

• Leftover chicken bones with some (but not alot) of meat still on the bone
• Water

That's it! No more! Well, heat and time, too. But not much of either one.

• All these people who're buying chicken, special, not for eating but just for making stock, where's the frugality in that?!
• All the times we don't make stock because we don't have onion skins or carrots or fancy peppercorns?
• All the times we don't make stock because we don't have a stockpot?

Phooey.

Just chicken bones, water, heat and time. That's all it takes.

Two things do make the difference.

#1 The Right Pot: Small and Heavy

This is my most-used Christmas present ever! It’s a heavy LeCreuset saucepan. It doesn’t need a home in a cupboard because it never leaves the stove!

Now this pot isn’t a "stockpot" per se but it’s just the right size for a single chicken carcass and the right weight to hold even heat. This means I can set the stove just below medium and walk away, confident the stock will soon be gently simmering away with minimal evaporation. A couple of hours later? Gorgeous stock. In a small batch.

Sadly, LeCreuset no longer makes my beloved 2-1/2 quart saucepan but does make a 2-1/4 quart and a 2-3/4 quart saucepans. Do know: these are heavy pots, mine weighs more than 7 pounds. They’re pricey too, so look for a pot of kinda-sorta similar size with a heavy bottom in your cupboard that will work, move it to the stovetop for a trial run.

What's more important than size and brand (and even LeCreuset's gorgeous colors!) is the pot's heft, especially a heavy bottom.

Bigger is okay, even for a single chicken carcass. And if I have two or even three chicken carcasses (you can freeze them, you know!), I'll definitely pull out the large actual stockpot which also has a sturdy bottom. And thanks to its larger size, it's less prone to boiling over.

RESOURCES Le Creuset 2-1/4 quart saucepan (affiliate link) My Disclosure Promise

#2 Everyday Mason Jars aka Canning Jars

When I make a big batch of stock in the stockpot, I feel compelled to carefully strain the stock to transfer in two-cup portions to labeled freezer bags. It takes a good 20 to 30 minutes. And it's one of my least-favorite jobs so I tend to procrastinate and then too much time passes and my beautiful stock goes down the drain. Harumph.

But with a small batch of No-Big-Deal Chicken Stock? I strain the stock right into quart-size or pint-size canning jars and leave the jar in the fridge for use during the week. Much easier!

Look for canning jars in supermarkets (where they're slightly pricey) or in the kitchen section at Walmart (where they're quite inexpensive).

Better yet? Put out word on Facebook or elsewhere that you're looking for canning jars. I bet many of your friends have jars hoarded away in basements. I happen to prefer wide-mouth jars in both quart and pint sizes because I use the jars not just for stock but as my most-used reusable containers for pantry goods, refrigerator salads, leftovers, etc. But both sizes work.

You don't need the lids, just the jars. You can use the rings/lids that come with new jars or which can be purchased separately.

But I love one-piece lids for mason jars, no more fiddling around with lids and ring except for their intended purpose, real canning. The first-generation lids worked fine but did leak if a jar got tipped over in a cooler, say, or turned sideways in a lunchbag, say. (I still use the plastic lids because we already have a bunch and I know the leakage risk.) But it's real progress that the newer-generation lids are leak proof!

RESOURCES Quart-Size Wide-Mouth Glass Canning Jars (affiliate link) & One-Piece Plastic Wide-Mouth Jar Lids (affiliate link) from Ball, dishwasher-safe and leak-proof for storage, not for actual canning.

And Now? Freeze the Stock! Right in the Same Glass Jars!

When I first shared No-Big-Deal Chicken Stock, I kept a jar of stock in the fridge for use during the week and froze the rest in fiddly-to-fill and prone-to-leek freezer bags.

But since then? I fill the jars with stock to chill overnight in the refrigerator. And then? I freeze the stock, right in the jars! So easy and so so very effective.

RESOURCES How to Freeze Stock in Canning Jars, all the details and insider tips.

About Bone Broth

Of late, something called "bone broth" has become popular in certain circles with anecdotal evidence of "better skin" and "more energy". The product marketing people have gotten on board, selling us a new water product called "bone broth".

But bone broth is no more than chicken stock cooked and cooked and cooked and cooked until the bones themselves break down into crumbly bits. The liquid is strained for drinking rather than cooking. It's akin to a daily cup of tea versus a flavorful contribution to soups and stews.

How to Make Homemade Chicken Stock. It's No Big Deal!

The detailed recipe is written in traditional recipe form below but here are the highlights in three easy steps. You can do this!

• COVER THE CHICKEN CARCASS WITH WATER It's as easy as that, 100% of the prep. I usually pull the meat off a rotisserie chicken as soon as I bring it home, it's a slightly easier job when the chicken is still warm. I put the meat onto plates (or into a refrigerator container) and the bones go straight into the saucepan and onto the stove (or into the oven) to bring to a simmer. After dinner, if there are more bones, they get tossed into the pan too.
• LET SIMMER FOR ABOUT 2 HOURS Again, it's as easy as that. Just watch so the water doesn't boil over or boil hard. Once you do this for a few times, you'll learn where to set the temperature so checking becomes a safety net versus a necessity.
• POUR INTO GLASS CANNING JARS or other containers. Refrigerate for a few hours, the chicken fat will rise to the top. Use within a few days or freeze right in the jars.

So no more of that watery, salty stuff from cans and cubes, boxes and powders, okay? Choose Homemade Chicken Stock, because really, it’s just No Big Deal to make.

You Might Wonder Be Wondering ...

Have another question? Ask away, I'll do my best to answer!

• Would a rotisserie chicken work here? Or fried chicken? Or baked chicken? Yes! Yes! Yes! All you need are chicken bones with some meat on them. Just make sure the chicken has been safely handled, temperature-wise. For example, if fried chicken has been left out for a couple of hours during a picnic, say, I wouldn't recommend using it for chickcn stock.


• Can you freeze chicken bones? Absolutely. Even though a small batch of chicken stock requires little attention, sure, there are times when you maybe just don't want to make one right away. In this case, just refrigerate the bones until the next day (and then make it) or collect the bones from one or multiple chicken in a freezer bag to freeze for a couple of weeks (making the stock before freezer burn, that is, all that extra iciness, begins to accumulate inside the freezer bag).

Plus There's No-Big-Deal Beef Stock

Any time there’s leftover bits of beef or beef bones, just drop them into the saucepan with water, an onion, a carrot and a rib of celery. Follow the same process. Beef has a lot more fat, you’ll want to discard the thick layer that accumulates on top of the stock.

And No-Big-Deal Vegetable Stock, Too!

• THE RECIPE No-Big-Deal Vegetable Stock for the Slow Cooker Just 4 common vegetables, just 3 hours. (PIN This)

Bookmark! PIN! Share!

How do you save and share favorite recipes? recipes that fit your personal cooking style? a particular recipe your mom or daughter or best friend would just love? If this recipe inspires you, please do save and share! I'd be honored ...

~ PIN This ~

---

NO-BIG-DEAL CHICKEN STOCK RECIPE

Hands-on time: 5 minutes to start, 5 minutes to finish
Time to table: 24 hours
Makes about 4 cups

• 1 rotisserie chicken carcass (wings, bones, skin, back plus juices from the container)
• Water to cover

STOVETOP OPTION Place the carcass in a small heavy saucepan and cover with water. Cover the saucepan and bring to a boil. Adjust heat to maintain a slow simmer, let gently simmer for about 2 hours. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.

OVEN OPTION Set oven to 225F/105C. Place the carcass in either a small heavy oven-safe saucepan or one or multiple carcasses in a large stockpot. Cover with water, an inch or two above the carcass. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Transfer to the oven for 2 hours to as many as 48 hours (for Bone Broth).

TRANSFER TO JARS Place a small wire-mesh strainer into a funnel, place the funnel in a quart-size canning jar. Pour the stock through the strainer-funnel combination. Discard the bones and solids.

REFRIGERATE Chill the stock in the refrigerator. A thin layer of chicken fat will form on the top, discard this if you like but I leave it on until the stock is going into soup or whatever, it acts as a sort of seal, preserving the stock. Use within a week.

FREEZE Fill the jars only to the shoulder, leaving room for expansion as the liquid freezes. Cover and label the jars. Refrigerate until cold, then move to the freezer. More details? How to Freeze Stock in Canning Jars.

OPTIONS In my kitchen, extra steps mean I'm less likely to make Homemade Chicken Stock. So I rarely do them and they're definitely not necessary. But they're easy, you might want to. Roast the bones first, just put them on a baking sheet and roast until dark at about 400F/200C. Roasting can deepen the chicken flavor, also add color to the stock. But extra flavor and color isn't always good. It might be for My Chicken Noodle Soup but not, say, for Laura's Healthy Carrot Soup where it's the carrot flavor and color is what needs emphasizing. The skin of a brown onion can add lovely color; carrot can add sweetness; peppercorns can add a nice bite. But again, these are optional, your call.

ALANNA's TIPS A rotisserie chicken is one of my go-to Lean & Green meals for Medifast. (See Why I Switched from Weight Watchers to Medifast, as of yesterday, I'm down 27 pounds!) I keep the saucepan handy while cutting up and weighing the chicken for dinner, it’s easy to drop in any parts not being eaten. A rotisserie chicken makes excellent stock, all by itself. But I also use raw chicken with the same No-Big-Deal process. To use raw chicken pieces not being used for dinner, you may want to add a little chopped onion, carrot and celery to the saucepan. Learn your pot and your stove so that you can set the temperature once and then leave the stock be, without attention. Two hours isn’t necessary, some times I let the stock simmer for 3 hours, other times only an hour. Once I accidentally left the house; some hours later, the water had indeed mostly evaporated, leaving a luscious concentrated stock. I recommend this, just not without careful monitoring! I leave the thin layer of chicken fat that collects on top until it’s time to use the stock. The fat seems to extend the freshness in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks. If you don’t have time to make stock right away, freeze the carcass or chicken pieces until there’s time.

FOR MORE INFO If you "skipped straight to the recipe," please scroll back to the top of this page for ingredient information, ingredient substitutions, tips and more. Confused about salt, these days? No wonder, it is confusing. Check my FAQs for an explanation. If you print this recipe, you'll want to check the recipe online for even more tips and extra information about ingredient substitutions, best results and more. See https://www.kitchenparade.com/2013/02/no-big-deal-homemade-chicken-stock.html .

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Cup: 86 Calories; 3g Tot Fat; 1g Sat Fat; 7mg Cholesterol; 343mg Sodium; 9g Carb; 0g Fiber; 4g Sugar; 6g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS POINTS Old Points 2 & PointsPlus 2 & SmartPoints 3 & Freestyle 3 & myWW green 3 & blue 3 & purple 3 & future WW points CALORIE COUNTERS 100-calorie serving, 1cup+3T; 50-calorie serving, 9T. FYI I totally-completely question this information which is based on the data for home-prepared chicken stock from the USDA. It’s not the calories I question so much as the fat (since we remove the fat cap that forms at the top of chilled stock) and sodium (which we're not adding). Still, I have no other way to calculate the information to share what there is. I do know that the stock tastes rich (so calories/fat may be okay?) but it is does not taste salty at all.

---

Seasonal Cooking: Late Winter, Across the Years

KITCHEN PARADE
Chicken Cacciatore (<< personal favorite) Greek Feta Chicken Homemade Mushroom Soup Pork & Poblano Skillet How to Cook Dried Beans from Scratch (Slow Cooker or Oven Slow-Cooking) Gashouse Eggs My Mom's Pancake Recipe Homemade Spaghetti Meat Sauce Sugar-Free Raspberry Bliss Orange-Kissed Marshmallows No-Big-Deal Homemade Chicken Stock Spinach Salad with Fruity Vinaigrette, Fresh Fruit & Maple-Glazed Pecans Make Tonight a Pancake Night Beef Barley Soup with Mushrooms Triple-Banana Oat Pancakes
~ more Recent Recipes ~

A VEGGIE VENTURE
Vegan Chickpea Gumbo Curried Vegetable Bisque Simple Braised Celery Parsnip Fries Carrot Buttermilk Pancakes Simple Butternut Squash Soup Pepper Sandwiches with Goat Cheese Pepper Spread Kohlrabi & Apple Slaw with Creamy Coleslaw Dressing (this week's favorite!) Spinach Ricotta Gnocchi with Creamy Tomato Sauce Kale Salad To-Go with Avocado & Apple Cajun Dirty Rice with Eggplant Spinach Recipes – Alphabet of Vegetables Light Red Cabbage & Carrot Salad
~ more Recent Recipes ~

If you like Kitchen Parade's recipes, you'll love A Veggie Venture, my food blog about vegetables with more from-scratch recipes using whole, healthful ingredients, home to the famous Alphabet of Vegetables and vegetables in every course, seasonal to staples, savory to sweet, salads to sides, soups to supper, simple to special.

This Week, Elsewhere

~ Porter Meatloaf ~
from Six Row Brewing Company (sorry, closed now)
~ more St. Louis Restaurant Recipes ~
My Weekly Column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

---

Use Homemade Chicken Stock In These Recipes,
Kick It Up a Few Notches

• THE RECIPE My Chicken Noodle Soup The way I make it, meaty and noodle-y with just a few noodles. (PIN This)
• A CLOSE SECOND Chicken Salad for Sandwiches Makes up in minutes with pantry ingredients. (PIN This)

• THE RECIPE Chicken or Turkey & Wild Rice Soup A hearty mix of leftover chicken or turkey, wild rice and butternut squash.
• ANOTHER TAKE Creamy Wild Rice Soup The Minnesota classic, creamed with vegetables not cream.

• THE RECIPE White Chicken Chili An old favorite, a little lighter. (PIN This)
• ANOTHER TAKE Easy Tortilla Soup with Chicken or Turkey Quick to assemble. (PIN This)

---

Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail, you'll find my current address in the FAQs. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, for more scratch cooking recipes using whole, healthful ingredients, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

---

© Copyright Kitchen Parade
2013, 2019 & 2024 (repub)