So for fifteen bucks I got two dinners, possibly a lunch of leftovers for me if we have them, and about 5 1/2 quarts of chicken stock. Not too bad. And I imagine this chicken stock is much healthier than store bought because there aren't any preservatives, no added salt (although I might add a small amount next time since it could have used it), and garlic added for good health benefits.
So what I did was cooked the whole chicken seasoning it with garlic and seasoned salt with butter on the skin. I normally use lemon pepper, but wasn't sure how that would work with making stock after. I cooked it on low all day and then got all the meat off the bones.
I put the bones back in the crock pot with all the juices from cooking the chicken. I added a whole bulb of garlic cut into three pieces, two bay leaves, some parsley, a 1/4 bag of baby carrots (although I think cut whole carrots would have worked better but I didn't have any), a small handful of whole peppercorns, and the tops to a bunch of celery stalks I had been saving. Oh and a few tablespoons of vinegar (apple cider works best but I didn't have any of that either. It helps get the minerals out of the bones. Then I filled the crock pot up with water.
I cooked it on low over night for about twelve hours. Then I strained it through a colander and a second time through this wire mesh thing we have to keep grease from splattering up since I didn't have any cheese cloth. It worked amazingly well so now I don't have to figure out where to get cheese cloth from. Or you know what exactly that is haha. Master chef here I tell ya.
What would I do differently next time? I would cook it longer probably closer to a full day. I would add an onion cut into chunks. More parsley since I didn't put that much since I didn't want to ruin the stock. And a small amount of salt. Overall I consider this a huge success since I set out to do something, it didn't fail, and I ended up with frozen chicken stock. Yay me.
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| My beautiful chicken stock |
