Recipe: Homemade Chicken Stock

I love making chicken stock on Sundays. My husband loves when the aroma fills our condo. You just throw your ingredients into the pot and let it simmer for a few hours. This stock will freeze for 3 months so you can put it into one cup containers and defrost it as you need it for cooking. It is perfect for making chicken noodle soup or even using it in chicken pot pie.  Babies love soup!

Lauren's Homemade Chicken Stock

Bones of one rotisserie chicken or 2-3 lbs of bones

8-12 cups of water

2 medium carrots

1 large yellow onion (unpeeled)

2 celery stalks (including leaves)

2-3 cloves of garlic (unpeeled and smashed)*

3 T dried parsley

2 T dried thyme*

1 bay leaf

1 t peppercorns

Salt to taste

Method

Place your bones in a large pot and fill with water. Make sure all of the bones are covered. Bring to a boil. Coarsely chop your celery, carrots and onion. Add them to the pot along with the remaining ingredients. Add more water if needed to make sure all of the ingredients are covered. Once the water is boiling, reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 3 hours.

Strain stock through a colander and then strain through a sieve. Put the stock into a bowl and refrigerate uncovered. Remove the fat that solidifies and then place in containers to keep refrigerated for one week or to freeze. Enjoy!!

*To smash garlic, place you knife over the top and press down.

* You can use fresh herbs if you have them available. You'll want to use about 3 times the amount of fresh herbs to substitute for the dry herbs.