Making chicken stock is very simple, I cook up a pot every couple of weeks, throw everything in the pot and let it simmer away whilst I do the house work. It freezes very well, I freeze in zip lock bags or small containers, usually by the cup, 500 ml or 1 litre it is easier to measure at this stage. I also freeze in ice cube trays for when you are making a stir fry and just need a small amount of liquid. In addition if I have any stock in the fridge that I realize I’m not going to use, I will pop that into the freezer after about 3 days.
There is no hard and fast rule in regards to ingredients or measurements, the following is an my basic go to recipe.
Ingredients:
- 1 or 2 chicken carcasses (frames)
- 2 carrots (fairly large)
- 1- 2 onions
- 1 stick of celery you can use the celery leaves if they are fresh
- 1 bay leaf
- about a dozen black peppercorns (optional)
4 litre stock pot
Method:
Wash the carrots and I cut in half simply for ease of fitting everything in the pot
Peal your onion and also cut in half
Put all of the ingredients in the pot and cover with cold water, place on the stove and bring to a very gentle boil.
Simmer away for 2-3 hours. To be honest I often leave it longer, the longer you can simmer the more the flavor will be extracted from your ingredients .
The more frames you have the more gelatinous your stock will be. If your using the stock for soup you can just add a little water when cooking to thin the stock out.
As you simmer just skim the foamy bits that will form on the top.
Take out the ingredients you can using tongs and then strain your stock using a strainer lined with kitchen towel. ( I always have chux cloths for this purpose I buy green ones just for food/cooking as against the blue ones I use for cleaning) You can use kitchen paper.
Place in the fridge overnight and any fat will solidify on the top, this makes it easy to remove prior to freezing.