Chicken Stock

I have a confession: I'm a bit obsessed with stock, like I take pictures of it and stuff... By sharing this, I hope to get you on board with the obsession!

Cook a chicken and use the meat for whatever you had planned (or use a turkey or rotisserie chicken carcass):

When you have pulled most of the meat off the bones, put the carcass in a pot with any juices left over from cooking and the giblets and neck if you have them and add water until it is completely covered. Add some celery stalks, onion and carrots if you have some handy (they don't even need to be chopped). Add a splash of vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar) to help pull calcium from the bones and into the stock. Cover and simmer for an hour or more, stirring occasionally. Even easier, put all of this in the crock pot on low overnight.

Strain out the carcass and stuff and discard (after checking for any small pieces of meat, there is usually quite a bit). After it completely cools, it will look like chicken flavored Jell-o, lovely visual, huh? If you are concerned about fat, then you can put the stock in the refrigerator or freezer and the fat will harden on top and you can just lift it off. I will say though, that I leave it with all the fat and here is why: fat is delicious. That should be enough, but if you need more, I have more: we choose to eat very small portions of meat because it is a healthier way to eat, even making many meals with beans or tofu as the protein; because of that, we have more room in our diet for things like fats and oils. Fat is also filling and making otherwise meatless dishes with stock makes them feel “meatier” which satisfies the staunch meat eaters in the family.

        Golden delicious stock!