You'll need a large pot - I used a 12 quart Multi-Pot but any large pot will work. I wouldn't try it in a pot with a capacity smaller than 8 quarts because you'll need enough room for the poultry, vegetables, and water to cover.
Take the remains of a chicken or turkey after it's been carved and break it into pieces so it will fit in your pot. Alternatively, you can use the bones from chicken parts or a pack of chicken wings. To season the stock, wash and rough cut four carrots, four celery ribs, and one onion. Throw these into the stock pot with the poultry and add two peeled garlic cloves, 2 bay leaves, about fifteen whole peppercorns, two whole cloves, 1 tsp. ground thyme, and 1 tsp. ground parsley.Latest Articles
Pour in enough drinking water to cover the solids by at least an inch, about 2 gallons. Over high heat, bring the water to a simmer (about 190°F or 88°C) while being careful not to let it come to a full boil. As anyone who has watched Tampopo knows, bringing the stock to a full boil will break up the solids into particulate matter that clouds the liquid. We want to cook the stock slowly and gently. A simmer is almost as hot as a rolling boil, but the liquid is just barely bubbling. The bubbles should be forming slowly and steadily. If no bubbles form, then the water is not hot enough; but if bubbles begin to rise rapidly, the water is too hot. Once the water begins to simmer, fiddle with your heat settings until it maintains the simmer.
Continue to simmer the stock for at least four hours, checking on the water level every thirty minutes or so. If the water level has dropped and solids are beginning to be exposed, boil some water separately and pour it into the stock until the water level has risen beyond the solids again.
When you get tired of simmering (after four or more hours), it's time to drain the solids from the stock. Since I used a multi-pot, I just carefully lifted up the collander and tilted it to drain. If you're not using a multipot, you can pour the stock into another pot with a large collander placed over it. Make sure the other pot is large enough to hold the liquid (about two quarts) or use multiple receiving pots. 
To remove smaller particles in the stock, pour the liquid through a fine mesh sieve placed over a large pot. I placed my 8-quart pot in the kitchen sink on a layer of ice. This means I won't have to carry around a nearly full container filled with simmering stock.
Add more ice around the pot to help chill the stock quickly. I also recommend a tip from Alton Brown: place a bottle or two of ice in the middle of the stock to chill inside out as well as outside in. To do this, simply take a water bottle and fill it 60-70% full of water and freeze. Update for 2005: For the last year, I've been simply placing the stock pot into a sink filled with enough cold water to allow the pot to almost float (but not quite - depending on your pot shape and water level, your pot could tip over). If I've got ice available, I'll throw that in the water to keep it cool as the slowly sucks the heat from the stock in the pot. Every ten minutes or so, I stir the stock and that works fairly well at dropping the temperature.Once the stock is chilled to around 50°F (10°C) (about 1-1/2 hour), move the stock to the refrigerator to finish chilling. The stock will last for about a week in the fridge. If two gallons of stock is too much for you to consume in a week (which is probably true for most families), you can freeze the stock and it should maintain taste and quality for about three months.
You might notice that after making stock, the bones have become extremely brittle. That's because the long simmer has extracted most of the collagen from the bones (as well as nutrients like niacin, fiboflavin, and calcium) which reduces the structural integrity of the bone. Some chef's advocate squeezing every last bit of collagen out of the bones, but I find that after four hours of simmering enough flavor (from the vegetables and bones) and thickening agent (the collagen turns into gelatin in the simmering water) has permeated the broth that it is unnecessary to extract all the collagen.
Chicken Stock (makes 2 gallons or 7.6 liters)
| 1 chicken carcass | break apart | simmer 4 hours | sieve | chill |
| 4 carrots | chop | |||
| 4 celery ribs | ||||
| 1 onion | ||||
| 15 whole peppercorns | ||||
| 2 bay leaves | ||||
| 2 whole cloves | ||||
| 2 garlic cloves | peel | |||
| 1 tsp. dried thyme | ||||
| 1 tsp. dried parsley | ||||
| 8 quarts (7.6 liters) drinking water |
It is true that raw bones have more collagen that turns into gelatin when cooked, but I find that there is more than enough collogen left in the bones of my roasted turkey to produce a fine stock. After refrigerating the stock, there was enough gelatin that it set. If your stock doesn't have high enough concentration of gelatin, just boil it down to half volume and that should do it.
Michael
As for the stock/broth questions: yes, you can used cooked meats to make stock. In fact, Madeleine Kamman has you roast or brown the veal bones and vegetables when making veal stock, and her recipe makes an exquisite golden stock. She is very big on keeping your stock either hot or cold, and never "just sitting".
As well as freezing it in plastic containers, I also pour it into freezer bags. Very handy for adding a little bit of stock to stirfries etc without having to defrost a whole pint.
I made them into broth, which I mostly froze. I cooked the bones first.
Whenever they have a pig roast at the summer fete I try to scrounge a few bones too. Its shocking the amount of meat wasted during one of these costly events.
I actually remove the solids, separate out the large bones, split them and put them back in for an hour or so to get all the flavor from the marrow.
Broth will keep almost indefinitely in the fridge if you re-boil it for about ten minutes every 3-4 days. Also, don't remove the layer of congealed fat until you're ready to use the broth--the fat helps keep bacteria out and prevents flavor creep from other items in the fridge.
Personally I prefer to boil it down to a gelee and freeze it in cubes.
Might want to consider what that hot water is leeching from the plastic bottles though! It's worth your time to research plastics -- ban them along with hydrogenation!
That left me with lotsa, lotsa, lotsa, bones, skin, necks, and residual meat.... so I decided to make stock!!!
I basically followed this recipe as is, though I cooked it for 6 hours, and refrigerated it over-night, so I could do a final skimming of the fat.... ala Alton Brown suggestion.
I bagged much of it and froze it, and saved some for turkey soup.
I think the whole idea of hanging over your stove and "skimming the scum" every 30, 60, or whatever minutes is a big waste of time. Just skim it once, and know that the final skimming of fat (after it sits overnight in the fridge), will clean it up swell!
I found the whole process to be very relaxed, and almost "zen-like". I basically did this on a lazy Sunday afternoon whilst drinking a 6-pack and watching football (GO SEAHAWKS!!!!!... woof...woof...woof!).
All in all, it filled my house with nice aroma's, gave me lots of pleasure (and yummy stock), and something to do whilst watching TV.
Good recipe.
Try it.
was wondering: why not place the stock in the fridge after it has cooled down just a bit? Why wait so long (1 to 1/2 hrs) to put in the fridge? Will the stock be adversely affected if I just put it in the fridge still warm??
Thank you for your help.
Great site, by the way!!
The reason why you cool it down as much as you can and as quickly as possible before putting it in the fridge is because otherwise you'll heat up the interior of the fridge. Two gallons of stock at a relatively high temperature contains a lot of kinetic energy. The air circulating in the refrigerator will take longer to cool the stock than if you placed the stockpot in a cold water bath. During this time, you'll also be heating up all the food in your refrigerator because most likely, your fridge can't keep up with the amount of heat introduced by the stock. In some cases, you may even break your fridge as it runs full power for a longer duration than the manufacturer intended.
When I made the chicken stock yesterday (for the first time in my life) I made just 1/2 gallon approximately (perhaps less). So when I placed the pot in the sink with the cold water it cooled down almost immediately. I think that is why, at the time, I did not think much of the heat...I realize now that anything more than a quart or two would be some serious heat for the fridge to handle.
Thanks again for your help
Is the chicken broth used in the "Recipe File: Shrimp Scampi" the same liquid that is made in this "Chicken Stock" recipe? From the photo, it appears to be. Not sure though. In general, when a recipe calls for chicken broth, can stock be used instead without adverse affects??
Thanks again for your gracious help.
Carlos
I don't recall any chicken broth being used in the shrimp scampi recipe... maybe you're referencing a different article. In general, you can use homemade chicken stock whenever a recipe calls for chicken broth. Since I do not salt my chicken stock prior to storing it in the freezer, when I add the stock, I also need to add salt appropriate for the dish. I prefer it this way because sometimes the canned broth is too salty for a particular application and you can't take out salt, but you can always add it. Also, the homemade stock is much more flavorful than the canned broth.
Thanks once again for a great forum & site!
roasted some of the bones before putting them in, and some of the pieces are a little meaty as well, so that gave it a little bit of broth flavor. yeah, a little less gelatin, but i reduce the stock quite a bit which makes up for it, plus i use a lot of bones.
veggies are usually scraps from other meals, which is actually nice because it gives a bunch of different flavors to the stock.
also, at the same time (why not), i rendered all the skin and fatty scum from the simmer in another pot to make schmaltz. can't go wrong with flavored fats.
the only problem is my stove has trouble with a simmer setting, either it's too low and it barely bubbles or you turn the knob ever so slightly higher and it starts boiling.
Barely bubbles is fine. That's probably running around 180°F (if you're at sea level) which is just where you want to be.
If it hasn't been repeated thawed and refrozen, one year is a reasonable amount of time to assume chicken stock will still taste good if frozen.
I like using the crock pot for stock over using a pot on the stove because I am always having to monitor the heat, and replenish evaporated liquid when I am making stock on the stove. With the crock pot, I don't have to pay any attention to it at all.
Anyway, I cool the stock down and stick in the fridge overnight and then skim off all the fat and pick the meat from the bones, throw in whatever veges are in the fridge/freezer, season, add some noodles, and I have fabulous chicken noodle soup with virtually no effort.
Thanks for this great website! I read on the net that you can overcook broth with either too high heat or cooking too long. I understand the collagen can break down. Is this true? Do you have guidelines for max heat/max time?
Thanks for your help,
-Blair
As far as I know you can't over cook broth. It is true that collagen will change (into gelatin) with heat, but you're actually trying to promote this process when making stock. A rolling boil can cloud the stock by agitating and breaking up little bits of the meat or vegetables you're making stock with, but after the vegetables have been removed, I often boil it down to a concentrated state (perhaps halving the volume) over high heat. The stock retains its flavors and gelatin content isn't changed enough that I can tell.
*word of warning do not attempt to make any stock while pregnant or you may never be able to eat homemade chicken soup again the smell is quite powerful.
Letting it come to a full boil can cause the ingredients in the stock to break up and cloud the liquid. This isn't really a problem except for cosmetic or, in extreme cases, a textural difference.
There are techniques to clarify the stock involving egg whites, controlled heating, and straining through a cheese cloth lined sieve. I haven't verified techniques involving egg whites work...
Unfortunately, I didn't time the cooling, so I have to estimate that since the stock went from near-simmer temperature to lukewarm in just a couple minutes (that part I know for certain), it must have been just a few minutes more for refrigerator-safe temperature. As long as the bag can handle this, it should work for you.
I use quart size freeze zip lock bags (they come in "storage" and "freezer" grades)
let the stock cool to room temp, I put 2 cups stock in a one quart bag, lay them flat on a cookie sheet so they freeze rapidly, and stockpile them like a deck of cards.
I would have suggested plastic bags (those double seal ziplocs are pretty good) or Rubbermaid or Tupperware containers. If the stock is boiled down enough (so that the gelatin almost sets at room temperature), it won't expand much in the freezer.
I hope that this isn't a reaction to the "there are chemicals in those bags!" hype you hear so often and that we've already discussed here a couple of times before...
By the way -- here's a great trick I've hit upon that I'll share; when I find myself with lots of veggies that are going a bit limp in the crisper, I'll bring home one of those supermarket "broasted" chickens for dinner. I've found that the leftover carcasses paired with past their prime veggies make absolutely fantastic stock since they've been well-browned while roasted.
I made chicken stock on Saturday and put it into the fridge. I was very proud of myself as it was my first time. Unfortunately I forgot about freezing it and it is now Wednesday morning. It was in the fridge in a measuring jug with clingfilm on top.
It had some orange stuff on top when I remembered to check it. I wasn't sure if this was normal or some sort of bacterial growth. I binned it but wanted to ask for comments.
Thanks
My guess would be that it's probably not bad yet. Did the orange stuff look like it could have been a solidified fat layer or was it fuzzy? Most importantly, how quickly did you chill it down to refrigerator levels after you made the stock? In general, if you can get the temperature down to room temperature within an hour and then deposit it into your fridge, you should be safe.