Featured Ingredient:
All of our products are certified organic, gluten-free and tested for heavy-metals. We grind premium quality spices in small batches to offer the best possible flavors.
Chicken Soup Stock
Jean from Smith & Truslow
10 cups
3 hours
American
Soups
This homemade chicken stock is the base for almost every soup I make. It's easy, economical, and once you make your own, I doubt you'll ever go back to store-bought.
I keep two bags in my freezer: one for veggie scraps and one for chicken bones. Whenever I make a salad or trim Brussels sprouts, green beans or cauliflower, the scraps go in the veggie bag: onion peels, garlic skins, carrot ends and peels, mushroom stems, celery leaves, and stems from parsley, cilantro, thyme and rosemary.
I always buy a whole chicken. It's less expensive, better for the environment and tastier cooked on the bone, and you get to keep the bones for stock. If you'd rather not cut it up yourself, the butcher at the grocery store will do it for you. Whenever I cook chicken, I remove the bones before serving and they go into the freezer bag, waiting for stock day.
Ingredients
- 4-6 cups veggie scraps, fresh or frozen
- Bones from 1-2 chickens (about 2-3 pounds), fresh or frozen
- 8-10 cups of cold water
- 1-2 Bay Leaves
- 10 whole black peppercorns
- Salt, to taste
Directions
Place the chicken bones, veggie scraps, peppercorns and bay leaves in a large stock pot and cover with cold water.
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Skim off any foam that rises to the top.
Simmer uncovered for 2-3 hours, adding water as needed to keep the bones covered. A gentle simmer, rather than a boil, keeps the stock clear.
Strain the stock through a fine-mesh strainer into another pot and discard the bones and scraps. Season lightly with salt, or leave unsalted and season the soup you make with it.
Cool the stock and refrigerate within 2 hours. Once chilled, skim off the fat that hardens on top if you like.
Store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or freeze for up to 6 months. I freeze mine in 2-cup Souper Cubes, then vacuum-seal the blocks so they're ready whenever I want to make soup.
