need help making inexpensive chicken stock

[Anonymous]

I'm generally a good cook, but for some reason good stock eludes me, unless I use whole cut up chicken, which is expensive. All you people that say you use cooked carcasses - can you give me an idea of how many bones to how much water, for how long and how much stock you end up with? I really cant imagine a single chicken carcass could yield more than a cup of stock, but maybe you save multiple carcasses or other bones from dinner?

[Anonymous]

My Mom used to always use a chicken carcass after we used it for a chicken dinner. I can't remember how she did it though.

There was a recent thread about someone only having 20 dollars for food for the week, some responders were really helpful and I think someone gave tips for making a cheap stock.

You can also try looking it up online I'm sure you can find some good information.

[Anonymous]

One chicken carcass should yield about 2 or 3 cups of good stock.

Whenever I cook chicken I freeze leftover bones - e.g. wingtips from wings etc, and I usually do a big pot that yields 5 or 6 cups. Adding veg - usually carrots, celery, onions, garlic etc. improves the yield and quality. I try to add veg that is on the way out anyway.

[Anonymous]

I add enough water to cover the bones/veg, plus a cup or two more, and I can skim off the top every 10 or 20 minutes at the start.

[Anonymous]

Chicken carcass + 1 onion diced + a couple carrots diced + a couple ribs of celery diced + salt, pepper, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme + enough water to cover it all. Bring to a boil, then cover, turn it down to a simmer and let it go for a couple hours.

If it gels when cooled, you've got some good [stuff].

[Anonymous]

Always wondered what that gel is.

[Anonymous]

If you're going to use an used chicken carcass, go to the store and buy a pack of neck bones and gizzards, etc. You can get a package for a couple of dollars and then toss it in. So, one carcass and one pack of neck bones, and some odds and end veggies (an onion, handful of carrots, handful of celery, some parsley) will give you probably about 3 quarts of stock.

[Anonymous]

I keep a one-gallon ziploc bag in my freezer. Whenever I have chicken bones/carcass/gelatin, I throw it in. When the gallon bag is full, it's stock time. That's enough for my 8-quart stock pot, which actually yields me between 5 and 6 quarts of stock.

I chop up vegetables to make a volume of about half of the bones. 50% onions, 25% carrots, 25% celery. Plus a bunch of chopped garlic, a dozen or so whole peppercorns, a few whole juniper berries, maybe a clove or two, and a few sprigs each of thyme and rosemary. Cover it all with cold water, which in my 8-quart pot means up to about 1 to 1.5 inch below the top. Then bring it up low and slow, to a simmer. This can take an hour or more. Once it's simmering, I let it go, covered, all day and sometimes (if I got a late start) all night. Skimming off the scum every so often--but if I only use already-roasted bones and scraps (no raw meat or bones), there's not that much scum.

At the end, I might touch up the flavor with more herbs (fresh or dried) or a few turns of black pepper. I don't salt it, ever, until I'm actually using it in a dish. That way I'm free to reduce it more later, use it to make demi glace, what have you, without having it get too salty from more reduction.

If you're making stock from a smaller amount, say with just one carcass, you still want the proportions to be, vegetables = about half the volume of bones, and vegetables to be (ideally, but it's stock, so you can be flexible) 50% onion, 25% carrot, 25% celery. And enough cold water to cover it all plus about 1 inch. 21:26's recipe sounds about right, except don't bring to a full boil--just a simmer. You don't want to boil your stock.

THREE IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER AT THE END:

1) When you're ready to get rid of the solids, strain it through a sieve or colander INTO ANOTHER POT. I forgot once, and poured it into my colander in the sink, meaning I saved the solids and poured the stock down the drain. Never forgotten it again.
2) With a large quantity of stock, you need to take extra steps to cool it--it won't cool down on its own fast enough to prevent bacteria growth. I pour it into a metal pot, and put that pot in a sink full of ice water (making sure the ice water doesn't slosh up over the sides into my stock). If that's not enough to do it, I put some more ice water in a very small metal bowl, and float that bowl in the middle of my pot-o'-stock to provide further cooling. Once it's cool, I can strain it again into jars. I use quart jars with a canning funnel, and I strain it through a (clean) metal coffee basket.
You don't have to get that fancy; cool it and strain it however you want, but do something to get it cool faster than it would on its own so you can store it and not have it be hot when you put it in the fridge.
3) In that cooling/straining process, DON'T USE ANYTHING GLASS. You could crack or shatter the glass, ruining your stock.

[Anonymous]

You can also make stock with beef or ham bones. When I was a kid, you could get "soup bones" or "marrow bones" free from the grocery store butcher. People got them for their dogs, but they're great for stock.
Now everyone's a gourmet, people eat the marrow straight with parsley and salt, and they sell the bones frozen for $2 or $3 a pound at Whole Foods. But at cheaper grocery stores, or especially Hispanic grocery stores, you might still be able to get them for free (or nearly free) if you ask the butcher nicely.

Making stock with beef or pork bones is a little different--you've got to roast the bones first. Scatter them in an oiled ovenproof pan big enough to hold them (a roasting pan if you've got it; if not, a baking sheet, or improvise with your biggest oven-safe pot). Scatter some flour over them. You can add some tomato paste to them if you want to cheat. Toss them to get them a little coated with the oil. Then roast till they start to brown (but don't burn). The darker brown you go, the darker your stock will be (color and flavor), but don't burn them.

Once you've got them roasted, do as above with the onions/carrots/celery/etc. If you want extra flavor (but it's extra work), you can roast the vegetables too (separately). It'll give a darker, fuller flavor. If you don't feel like that much work for the vegetables, don't bother. It'll still come out fine.

[Anonymous]

BTW I said I let the stock cook all day or all night, but you don't have to do that. A good minimum time is 3 hours, 4 is better. You'll be OK with that. (I think longer makes it richer still, but I'm not sure--I may be kidding myself about that.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I keep a one-gallon ziploc bag in my freezer. Whenever I have chicken bones/carcass/gelatin, I throw it in. When the gallon bag is full, it's stock time. That's enough for my 8-quart stock pot, which actually yields me between 5 and 6 quarts of stock.

I chop up vegetables to make a volume of about half of the bones. 50% onions, 25% carrots, 25% celery. Plus a bunch of chopped garlic, a dozen or so whole peppercorns, a few whole juniper berries, maybe a clove or two, and a few sprigs each of thyme and rosemary. Cover it all with cold water, which in my 8-quart pot means up to about 1 to 1.5 inch below the top. Then bring it up low and slow, to a simmer. This can take an hour or more. Once it's simmering, I let it go, covered, all day and sometimes (if I got a late start) all night. Skimming off the scum every so often--but if I only use already-roasted bones and scraps (no raw meat or bones), there's not that much scum.

At the end, I might touch up the flavor with more herbs (fresh or dried) or a few turns of black pepper. I don't salt it, ever, until I'm actually using it in a dish. That way I'm free to reduce it more later, use it to make demi glace, what have you, without having it get too salty from more reduction.

If you're making stock from a smaller amount, say with just one carcass, you still want the proportions to be, vegetables = about half the volume of bones, and vegetables to be (ideally, but it's stock, so you can be flexible) 50% onion, 25% carrot, 25% celery. And enough cold water to cover it all plus about 1 inch. 21:26's recipe sounds about right, except don't bring to a full boil--just a simmer. You don't want to boil your stock.

THREE IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER AT THE END:

1) When you're ready to get rid of the solids, strain it through a sieve or colander INTO ANOTHER POT. I forgot once, and poured it into my colander in the sink, meaning I saved the solids and poured the stock down the drain. Never forgotten it again.
2) With a large quantity of stock, you need to take extra steps to cool it--it won't cool down on its own fast enough to prevent bacteria growth. I pour it into a metal pot, and put that pot in a sink full of ice water (making sure the ice water doesn't slosh up over the sides into my stock). If that's not enough to do it, I put some more ice water in a very small metal bowl, and float that bowl in the middle of my pot-o'-stock to provide further cooling. Once it's cool, I can strain it again into jars. I use quart jars with a canning funnel, and I strain it through a (clean) metal coffee basket.
You don't have to get that fancy; cool it and strain it however you want, but do something to get it cool faster than it would on its own so you can store it and not have it be hot when you put it in the fridge.
3) In that cooling/straining process, DON'T USE ANYTHING GLASS. You could crack or shatter the glass, ruining your stock.

thanks PP - 2more questions. Do you put all bones in there, like if you serve chicken legs to your family (my kids love bbq chicken), or just if it stays off the plate? simmering for hours would take care of any germ problem, but it seems a little odd to save people's bones. also, do you smash the bones first or just toss em in?

[Anonymous]

I make the most amazing Chicken Stock.

I go to a local farm and by the stewing hens. They are birds that are a few years old, who no longer can produce eggs. The meat is quite dark, tough, and gamey and inedible. They are also fatty.

I simmer the entire chicken with onion, bay leaf, garlic clove, and pepper corns. I normally simmer overnight. After it is done I remove the large chunks.

I then let the stock cool for a few hours and pull the fat off the top. I then run my stock through a cheese cloth twice.

The old lady stewing hens make for the most amazing strong flavored chicken stock. If freeze it all in 2 cup increments in mason jars in the freezer. I use it up very quickly so I often like to do 4 chickens over 4 days to stock pile it all up.

[Anonymous]

Y'all are fancy! Whenever I get a rotisserie chicken from costco, we eat the meat for one dinner and one lunch, reserving the bones and every thing else that isn't meat. When it's picked as clean as we're going to pick it, I throw everything into the pot, add an onion, celery tops, garlic cloves, peppercorns, and cover with water. (As PP said, no salt.) Simmer for a couple hours, strain, chill, remove some (not all!) of the fat, pour into a gallon ziplock and freeze. (PP, I too have strained the stock down the drain, keeping all the delicious mushy aromatics. Like you, never again. ) I must admit, I don't worry much about cooling it down fast, because I know that it will stay above 160 for long enough to sterilize it when I next use it. I just get it tepid on the counter, then it goes in the fridge to solidify the fat.

It gels nicely, yields enough for a pot of soup later, and tastes pretty good. And it's basically free. Pay $5 for the chicken that you eat for two meals, maybe add a buck for the onion and such.

[Anonymous]

I also use a rotisserie chicken. I get about 8 cups of stock from it. I throw in whatever we have -- onions, carrots, celery and a bay leaf. Put it in the slow cooker overnight and done.

[Anonymous]

Yes, a bay leaf! I'm 22:53, and can't believe I left that out. It's crucial. I use two.