Homemade Chicken Stock

Homemade Chicken stock is incredibly easy and nutritious.  We love making this in the fall and winter times, especially when cold and flu season are around.

Making Chicken stock is a staple in our house, especially in the wintertime. We will take the bones of any chicken we eat for our meals, place them in a freezer safe bag for when we are ready to make the stock. Most ingredients we usually have on hand which makes it great if you want to save some money for your weekly meals.

When the stock is made and cooled down, you store it in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you are ready to use, pull it out and defrost it. Then add the extra ingredients for the meal you are looking to create. Whether it be wonton soup, ramen, or need it as a liquid base.

Kitchen Tools Needed:

• Stock Pot: We use a 16-quart sized stock pot for this. It allows us to have ample space for all the ingredients as well as extra room at the top so there is no chance of it overflowing.
• Chef’s Knife: a multi-purpose knife that you use to slice, dice, and chop. Usually medium to long in length.
• Sieve: This is a small strainer, about the size of a ladle. This will be used to skim the impurities (or scum) from the top of the stock.
• Food safe storage container: We use a tall, cylindrical food safe container. Make sure to fully wash and dry the container before use (especially if it is new).

Ingredients:

• Chicken Carcass: You can use a store-bought rotisserie chicken or one you may have left in your freezer from a previous dinner. If you buy a rotisserie chicken from the store, let it cool down first. Remove all the meat you can and what you should be left with are just the bones! If there is still some meat on them, that is okay and will add to the stock.
• Ginger: You can use whole ginger or ginger paste. Bothof these, you can get from the produce section of your local food store.
• Garlic: Usually comes in a whole bulb with multiple cloves of garlic or you can buy pre-peeled garlic. This needs to stay whole when cooking in the pot.
• Onion: One whole yellow onion can be medium to large in size. First cut each end off and remove the crisp outer layer, then quarter them.
• Black Peppercorns
• Oyster Sauce: This can be found at your local Asian food market or near the Asian food section of your grocery store.
• Water: Filtered water

How to make the Chicken Stock:

1.  You are going to want to get a large stock pot and place this on the stove.  Make sure it is on the appropriately sized burner (or heating element).  If the burner you are using is much smaller than the pan/pot you are using, the stove will use up more energy to compensate and could also result in uneven cooking.  The size stock pot we use is a 16 qt stock pot which allows us to have plenty of room for all the ingredients.  You’ll want to make sure the pot is big enough to hold everything as well as a bit of room (at least a 2-inch gap) at the top in case the stock boils/overflows.  If it overflows you may have boiling hot water all over your kitchen (let’s avoid this 😊). 
2. Place carcass, 1 tbsp of ginger, 6 cloves of garlic, 1 onion cut into quarters, ½ tsp of peppercorns, and 2 tbsp of oyster sauce in the large stock pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for a minimum of 3 hours (do not cover).  As it cooks, you shouldn’t need to add any more water as you want the stock to get more concentrated.  At the end, you can always add more water to dilute it when you use it for broth.
3. While the stock is cooking, skim the top periodically for scum.  The scum in the stock will look like there is foam on the top.  Take a small ladle like sieve/strainer (or whatever strainer you have on hand) to get the scum out.  If you don’t have a small enough sieve/strainer to do this, don’t worry!  Grab a metal ladle or large spoon and put a few ice cubes in it.  Then, using the back of the spoon/ladle, skim the top of the stock. Discard the scum gathered in a separate bowl to toss later.  By having the small bowl on the side for this, you won’t be contaminating the sieve by trying to dump in a trash can or compost bin.
4. After 3 hours, if you choose to cook for a longer period, know the stock will become more concentrated the more it cooks.  You may also need to cook longer if you add too much water.  You’ll want the stock to have a nice full flavor and not taste like it is watered down with a hint of flavor.
5. This Stock is a good base for a lot of soups, and you can customize it based on what you are eating with it.
6. Store the stock in a food safe container and can keep for up to 4 days in the refrigerator or 2-3 months in the freezer. If placing in the freezer, please make sure to leave room in the container for expansion.

Chicken Stock

Easy homemade Chicken stock you can use immediately or save for later.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 3 hours hrs

Course BASICS, SOUPS

Cuisine Chinese

Ingredients

  

• 1 Rotisserie Chicken Carcass
• 1 whole Onion Quartered
• 1 tbsp Ginger Approx 1 knob
• 6 Garlic Cloves
• ½ tsp Peppercorns
• 2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
• 5 qt Water more or less as needed (enough to cover carcass)

Instructions

 

• You are going to want to get a large stock pot and place this on the stove.
• Put the carcass, 1 tbsp of ginger, 6 cloves of garlic, 1 onion cut into quarters, ½ tsp of peppercorns, and 2 tbsp of oyster sauce in the large stock pot and cover with water.
• Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for a minimum of 3 hours (do not cover).
• While the stock is cooking, skim the top periodically for scum.
• After 3 hours, if you choose to cook for a longer period, know the stock will become more concentrated the more it cooks.

Notes

Please note that we are constantly reviewing and updating our recipes.  If you find you have any questions regarding the recipes, please leave a comment or contact us here.

Keyword stock