Homemade Chicken Stock

Forget about buying broth at the store. Make your own homemade chicken stock, using leftover bones, vegetables, and herbs. You will have rich, flavorful, and nutritious stock that you can use in soups, risotto, stews, and many other meals.

Prep Time10

Cook Time3

Total Time3 10

Course: Dinner, Main Course, Soup

Cuisine: American

Servings: cups

Calories: 223kcal

Author: Veronika's Kitchen

Ingredients

1 chicken carcass
1 large onion unpeeled, cut in quarters
3 large carrots unpeeled, cut in halves
2 celery ribs cut in halves
1 bunch parsley
5-10 springs fresh thyme
3 bay leaves
5-10 whole black peppercorns
1-2 tablespoons salt
10-12 cups water

Instructions

Put the chicken carcass in a large pot.
Add all the vegetables and herbs (onion, carrots, celery, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, and whole black peppercorns).
Cover everything with water (about 10-12 cups).
Bring to boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover with a lid and simmer for 2-4 hours.
Add some salt to taste about 30 minutes before the stock is done.
When done, remove large bones and vegetables. Then strain the rest through a fine mesh into a bowl.
Let the broth cool off, then transfer to mason jars or air-tight containers and refrigerate.

Notes

Using roasted chicken bones provides deeper flavor then if you’d use just meat.
If you don’t have a carcass and use other parts of meat, make sure you roast or at least brown them before using in the stock for more flavor.
This is a great recipe to use pretty much any vegetables or vegetable scraps you have on hands, like carrot peels, onion skin, parsley stems, green onions, parsnip, garlic, etc.
Keep the onion skin on, it will add beautiful color to the stock.
The longer you simmer on low heat, the more flavor you’ll have.

Refrigerate. After the stock is done, cool it off and then transfer to a mason jar or an air-tight container You can keep it in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Freeze. If you are not planning on using the same week, you can freeze for up to 2-3 months. I like to portion it by 2 or 4 cups for easier use. Make sure you leave at least ½-inch space on top as the liquid will expand when frozen.

Nutrition