Stockin’ Chicken… uhhhh… Stock.
Someone on the Ars Forums asked me how to make chicken stock. Soo I thought I’d post it here tooooooo. Ready? OKAY.
Spec’s Basic Chicken Stock:
Ingredients:
Leftover rotisserie chicken (meat on the bones is fine)
4 white onions, quartered
2 carrots, large dice
2 celery stalks, large dice
1 bay leaf
10 – 13 black peppercorns
Parsley stems
A palm’s worth of thyme and/or rosemary (dried or fresh, whatevs)
A head of garlic, smashed (with or without skins)
Water
Fabrication:
Throw everything in (you can put the herbs, peppercorns and bay leaf in cheesecloth, but if you don’t that’s ok too) and cover with cold water by about an inch.
Bring to a boil, then drop to a good simmer for 1.5 hours. Skim the scum off the top every 15 minutes or so. Add water if your liquid drops too low (chicken bones show).
Strain (get a fine mesh strainer from the store – $15 max – good for tons of stuff) and cool into a metal bowl sitting in some ice water. Pour into ice cube trays, freeze and then bag and tag ‘em for future use OMG SO GOOD FOR GRAVY)
If you think the garlic makes things too bitter, leave it out. I like it. Also, I don’t add salt to the stock (I do for fish tho). I use it as an ingredient for a lot of things and I like to add my own seasoning when I can – same reason why I always buy unsalted butter.
Also, don’t eat anything that you strain out… unless you just want it for texture (which is kinda gross). If you did everything right… all of the flavor should have gone into the liquid.
Questions? Just ask 
~Spec
