Tips for making chicken stock and a basic recipe.

Soup and Sandwiches is a great meal. Lunch or dinner.

With the cooler weather starting hearty soups and stews are on the mind.  A good soup starts with a good stock. Yes you can buy all manner of soup stock in the grocery store but if you have a hankering to make your own you discover you can do much better than store bought. 

There are many ways to make stock and no one recipe is better than the other. Some recipes start with browning your meat first (beef, chicken, or turkey) and some recipes just dump it in, raw meat, veggies and water.  Some recipes only use the meat bones while some use the whole chicken and then use the cooked meat for other dishes. 

I use many different methods to make my stock. After Thanksgiving I use the turkey carcass to make stock. This makes my best stock since my turkey is considered a family masterpiece. If I have some excess pieces of chicken (wings, neck) I'll make stock from that.  At an urging from a friend I used a leftover turkey leg bone and cooked it in my slow cooker for 24 hours along with some leftover veggies. I call this "frugal stock" and it was good!

Here is a simple recipe for making some basic chicken stock. I'm notorious for dumping ingredients without much measuring so keep that in mind if you intend to follow my recipe. 

Basic Chicken Stock Recipe
Chicken pieces (a whole chicken cut up)
2 carrots cut up
2 celery ribs cut up
1 onion cut in fourths
a bay leaf
bouquet garni

Put all this in the slow cooker and just cover with water. Make sure you have at least an inch of space above your liquid. Slow cookers are known for adding water to recipes and you don’t want yours to overflow. Cook on low 6-8 hours or all day. Add a bit of salt for taste when it's done. Strain out the chicken and vegetables (use the chicken for a chicken salad, chicken tacos, or some other great meal). 

Refrigerate and use your broth within four days or freeze it for later use. The fat will rise to the top and you can peel that off later. Now you have a great base for some delicious soups and stews.