OP here. Thanks to everyone for all these great ideas. Seems like some use rotisserie chickens but purists don't. The advantage of the rotisserie chicken method is how cost-effective it is, you are pretty much doing it for free. It's also very easy. Buying a whole chicken uncooked at Whole Foods is around $15-$17, and the meat is not very good when you've boiled it, so it seems like an expensive and time-consuming way to get a couple cups of flavored liquid. I'm not convinced it's worth the effort but maybe I'll do it some long weekend

Absolutely not to rotisserie chicken. Not the same taste at all. Buy chicken pieces or a whole chicken. Put water in a huge pot, brown an onion on the stove, add to the pot with chicken pieces. Add carrots, parsnip, some like celery, I don't. Add spices, salt pepper, I also use Vegeta, no garlic whatsoever. If you want more intense flavor, add a chicken bouillon cube, one or two depends on the size. Boil for 2 hours. There is the stock.
If you want to eat it as a soup, add noodles, and a leaf of cabbage. It will make the broth clear.

Anonymous wrote:That's about what I do, except that I have a bag in the freezer & every time I use garlic, onions, relevant herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley), carrots & celery, I save the stems & bits & pieces like onion/garlic skins & ends & throw them in with the chicken carcass. I much prefer the flavor of mine to boxed chicken stock.

This is what I do - all thrown in a crockpot with a bay leaf.

Cook on low all day. Sometimes start it on high, then to low. Then strain, cool, and freeze for use in soups, quinoa, lentils or other recipes.

I make a traditional chicken stock. Start with a whole chicken. Add a peeled, chopped onion, a stalk of washed celery and a peeled carrot. I think the unpeeled carrot adds a different flavor than a peeled one, and I prefer a peeled carrot for that reason. Add thyme (I think it really benefits from a couple of fresh thyme cuttings), a bit of oregano, a bit of sage. You can add a bay leaf but I think the flavor is too strong. I usually add either a small squirt of ketchup or a small chopped tomato. Bring to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer. Don't cover at this stage because it might boil over. After it has been simmering for a while you can cover. Let it cook for about 40 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pot, let it cool, and remove the meat. Return the bones and the skin etc. to the pot and let it continue cooking another hour or so. Broth is ready. I use the chicken to prepare a meal such as chicken tetrazzini. Let the broth cool down, pour into containers through a sieve, and freeze. I use the broth to make chicken soup, leek soup, arroz con pollo, etc. The meat as mentioned earlier becomes dinner.

I boil the raw chicken and add fresh thyme, onion, garlic, celery, carrots, salt and pepper.

Sometimes I add turmeric.

I use Ina Garten’s recipe for chicken stock. It makes a huge batch and I freeze it in 1-quart portions.

I fill a freezer bag with any and all veggie scraps, except beets (turns the broth red) and maybe one or two other things. When that’s full I either roast a chicken or make other bone in chicken, or I get a rotisserie from Whole Foods (I’ve tried all rotisserie chickens and I only use Whole Foods for stock. Then throw in some garlic, bay leaf, and whole peppercorns. Simmer all day, then strain. Scrape off the fat layer the next day if you don’t use it immediately.

You can save the bones and meat scraps for any type of meat, we just don’t cook red meat usually so it’s not around.

One more round of applause for my Instant Pot. When I first got it, I made a lot of chicken for chicken salad and other quick dishes. I’d been doing this for months, with seasoned chicken. One day I thought to taste the broth in the pot — that I’d been throwing out — and it was delicious. Now I season the chicken knowing that I’m intentionally making broth too. I freeze it until I need to use it.

Anonymous wrote:I use a pressure cooker and it makes a big difference. The pressure seems to get more of the collagen out of the bones, and my stock is completely solid when it's cold. I don't bother roasting the bones or anything like that, and sometimes I don't even put any vegetables in it.

This. I have an instant pot and it is a game changer. Also use random chicken parts on the cheap from the farm that does delivery to our house. But any chicken (eg wings) works great and the pressure cooker makes all the difference.

Buy a big pack of chicken legs (like 12 legs, probably?). Roast the legs for like half an hour at 400, remove the bulk of the meat and set aside to freeze for soup later, leaving some meat on the bone to flavor the stock. I also buy a pound or so of chicken feet. I don't typically roast those, just throw them into the stock. It's the feet that add the most collagen and give the stock a great mouthfeel.

Add a few onions, carrots, celery,
couple tablespoons of peppercorns, bay leaf and whatever herbs i have on hand. Fill up the pot. Bring to a hard boil to skim stuff off and then down to a simmer for 6-8 hours.

I use a pressure cooker and it makes a big difference. The pressure seems to get more of the collagen out of the bones, and my stock is completely solid when it's cold. I don't bother roasting the bones or anything like that, and sometimes I don't even put any vegetables in it.

I don't buy the rotisserie. I roast the chicken using Thomas Keller's recipe - so simple. That lets you control the flavor of the stock too.

I start the stock with the neck, add the ends of the vegetables I used for the roast chicken and veggies. I make sure there is celery, carrot, onion and lots of fresh herbs in the pot, more herbs and garlic are inside the chicken, plus salt and pepper, so they will go in the pot when I add the bones.

Like you, I serve the roast chicken, then I strip the rest of the meat and reserve it for the next day's recipe. Once stripped, I add the bones to the stock. Sometimes I add a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to break down the collagen in the bone broth. I simmer it for as long as I can, sometimes more the second day. I pour it through a strainer into jars and use it throughout the week for rice, quinoa, risotto, soup, etc.

Add rosemary and parsnips and thyme.

That's about what I do, except that I have a bag in the freezer & every time I use garlic, onions, relevant herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley), carrots & celery, I save the stems & bits & pieces like onion/garlic skins & ends & throw them in with the chicken carcass. I much prefer the flavor of mine to boxed chicken stock.

I'm looking for a fairly easy and cheap way to make decent chicken stock that tastes better and is healthier than a box version.

My method is to buy a rotisserie chicken, we eat most of the meat off of it, and then I dump the carcass and bones in a pot of water with a couple chopped up onions, carrots, and celery. Boil and then simmer for 4 to 5 hours. Drain and salt.

Curious if anyone has a better method, because mine tastes OK but not great. I've read versions by chefs but they all seem complicated, like browning bones or getting certain meat cuts at the store. Not looking to spend a lot more time or money on this.

If you have a good method to recommend, I would love to hear it! Thank you!