Chicken Stock Recipe

Homemade chicken stock!!! Yummy!! Well, the time came today that I actually HAD time to make my chicken stock. Want the recipe???

1 large chicken (or 4 wings, 4 legs, 4 breasts, 4

thighs, bone in, skin on)

2 large carrots, cut into chunks

2 large stalks of celery, cut into chunks

1 medium onion, cut into chunks

10 cups of water (you're going to need a very large dutch oven pot or a stock pot)

1/4 cup of salt (yeah, I know it sounds like a lot, but this helps draw out the flavor in the bones)

1/2 tsp of black peppercorns

2 bay leaves

1 tsp basil (or 2 sprigs of fresh)

1 tsp parsley (or 2 sprigs of fresh)

Combine all ingredients in a large cooking pot. Allow to boil on medium for 2 1/2 to 3 hours (yes, I know, this sounds like a long while, but I took a nap while the baby was napping!)

After the meat is very tender on the bone, debone the chicken (aka take the meat off the bone). Place the bones and the skin of the chicken to the side on a plate or in a bowl. Don't throw this away, you're going to need it for the next hour!! The bone doesn't have to be completely cleaned off. If there is a little meat on it still, that's fine!!! Don't worry!!

After deboning the chicken, pour all the broth into a colander into a separate bowl. The vegetables and herbs should stay in the colander. After pouring the broth out, transfe

r it back into the pan, along with another 3-4 cups (or how ever much broth you may need) of water. Toss out the veggies or make some soup out of it!!

Toss the bones that you just tore all the meat off of and the skin back into the pot and let this boil for about another hour, hour and a half. If need be, you can add a little more salt if it tastes bland.

After that next hour or so, dump all ingredients back into the colander, and toss out the bones and skin. Now you should have some scrumptious chicken stock!!!!! YUMMY! I threw in a couple of bouillon cubes too, our little chicken wasn't very big (4 lbs maybe), so we needed an extra "chicken flavor" boost. Now, you can freeze this in freezer bags, or you can CAN it. Lol can can it... ugh! That's a mouthful! Enjoy and look for my recipe that a friend gave me for homemade noodles on Sunday!!!

TnChickHen