Chicken Stock

You know how I like to play in the kitchen on weekends? Well today, I'm trying something I've never tried before: making homemade chicken stock.

The Barefoot Contessa RAVES about the glories of making your own chicken stock. It makes such a difference, yadda, yadda, yadda. She makes hers with uncooked whole roasting chickens. This seems to me like a waste of a perfectly good eating chicken. I imagine it's also pretty low on the chicken aspiration list as well. (I picture chickens out on the farm, talking to each other - "Did you hear what happened to Lou? Stock. Yeah. His parents were devastated.")

But seeing as I roast a chicken about once a week, I find that I'm tossing out a lot of carcasses. So why not try making stock with them? I've also got some carrots that need to be used pretty soon.

So I put last night's carcass in the biggest pot I have (which is not big, but it will do) and tossed in: carrots, onions, pepper corns, salt, bay leaves, fresh parsley, and cilantro (not your classic chicken stock herb I know, but it's here and I figure, why not). I had planned on tossing in a head of garlic, but I put garlic in the chicken cavity when I cooked it last night, and it was smelling pretty strong when I got the chicken out this morning, so I thought it best not to risk making garlic stock.

I covered the whole thing with water and brought it to a boil. Now I'll bring it down to a simmer, and let it stay that way for about 4 hours. After that, I strain it, and let it rest in the fridge. Tomorrow morning, I'll skim off the fat. Then I'll either use it or freeze it, depending on how much I get out of one carcass and some veggies.

All I can say for sure is the house smells wonderful right now. Wish me luck!