Homemade Chicken Stock and Bouillon

Chicken Stock is a must have in the kitchen and making it fresh is essential for better flavor and healthy eating.  Most chicken stock that can be purchased from the store is not only old, because it has been sitting on the store shelf, but it has mono-sodium glutamate in it or MSG.  This is a nasty food additive that is designed to make otherwise bland food taste better and last longer on the shelf.  The problem is that you compromise on freshness and MSG creates a chemical reaction in your brain that makes you want more and more and more.  MSG also contributes to belly fat and literally makes you fatter, faster.  So, we are trying our best to avoid it at our house.  It can cause a whole host of other health problems and it is worth it to avoid it at all costs. 
The cans that are used to process foods are also questionable.  The inside lining of the can is coated with something called BP-A.  This chemical has been in the news lately because the government is asking water bottle and baby bottle manufacturers to remove it from their plastics.  It causes serious health problems and combined with other chemicals we come in contact with daily, contributes to our overall decline in health.  But, like MSG, it is everywhere and just taking a multivitamin everyday won't make up for the negative impact of these chemicals in our bodies.  
Our ancestors used to make everything from scratch and it was very difficult and time consuming because they lacked modern technology.  We have such the advantage over our predecessors because of advancements in technology in food preparation.  Now, making your own food from scratch is easy and well worth the health benefits not to mention the savings over buying already processed foods.
Homemade chicken stock can be frozen or canned for later use.  I have done both and like them equally.  I will teach you how to freeze your stock in this post and if you want to know how to can it, just send me a comment and I will include that as well.

Equipment

A 16 Quart Heavy bottom stock pot

1 Quart liquid measuring cup

1 Long stirring spoon

Cutting Board

Good Chopping knife

Vegetable Peeler

A 16 quart mixing bowl to hold the strained stock and one smaller for the chicken

A mesh strainer

A soup ladle

Cheese cloth 
Quart size freezer bags

Ingredients

 2 Whole chickens-organic if you can find them

or

2- 4 packs of chicken pieces with the bones and skin on

1/2  bunch of celery

1 lb of carrots, you can use the baby carrots if you don't want to peel and chop carrots.

1 large onion or 2 small onions-choose your own kind of onion, it doesn't matter

2 heads of garlic peeled and smashed

1 generous handful of dried parsley-approximately 1/4 Cup

1 palm full of dried thyme

Salt and Pepper to taste

Water

If you only have an 8 quart stock pot, then just cut the recipe in 1/2 or make it in two batches.

Instructions

Add:

1.  Chopped onion.

2.  Peeled and chopped carrots

3.  Peeled and smashed garlic-take the individual clove and smash with the flat side of the knife.  Place the knife flat on the clove of garlic with the blade away from you.  With your other hand flat above the knife, smash it down on the knife with your palm and the garlic will crush down allowing for easier removal of the paper covering.  Do this with all the garlic and add to the pot.  You don't want minced garlic for this recipe, just broken open cloves.

4.  Wash the celery and coarsely chop the celery heart, leaves and all and add to the pot.  5.  Save the remaining outer five or six ribs for chicken noodle soup. The link to the recipe is at the bottom.

6.  Add the herbs.  Cook all of the veggies together to soften just a bit before adding the chicken.

7.  Cut the chicken into pieces.  Don’t throw away any part because you will use it in the stock.  Brown the chicken slightly with all of the veggies about 3-4 minutes, turning regularly

8.  Pour in water up to an inch below the rim. Turn the heat on high to get the water heated up.  Add salt and pepper. 

9.  Turn the heat down to about medium to medium low and let it cook for at least one hour.

10.  After and hour, check the flavor of the stock and add salt and pepper to your liking. 

11.  The stock should be done after 1 hour, check the chicken to see if it comes off the bone easily.

12.  Turn off the heat and remove chicken from pot into bowl and let cool

13.  Strain off stock from the remaining vegetables into the large mixing bowl and put strained vegetables in your compost.http://expandingfrosting.blogspot.com/2010/04/composting-is-great.html

14.  Separate carrots from the strained vegetables and set aside to use in the chicken noodle soup-recipe link follows- http://expandingfrosting.blogspot.com/2010/03/homemade-chicken-noodle-soup.html.  Discard the rest of the strained vegetables.

15.  The stock needs to cool and then be refrigerated so the fat will separate from the stock.  I usually put some plastic wrap over the bowl and put it in the fridge overnight.

16.  The chicken just needs to be removed from the bone, I shred it into medium side pieces and then throw away the cooked bones.

17.  Measure out 1/2 pound to one pounds of meat and store in ziplock bags in the freezer for future use.  They are ready to go when you need chicken for any recipe-enchiladas, chicken noodle soup, etc.

Once the fat has solidified on top of the stock, it can easily be removed and portioned out for bouillon.  There are two ways to store it.  Use ice cube trays to freeze it in or just put all of it into a ziplock bag and freeze as a sheet.  Break off what you need when a recipe calls for chicken bouillon.  I like the ice cube trays because it is a closer measure to a store bought bouillon cube.  Store bought bouillon is seasoned animal fat.  Your homemade version has only the pure ingredients you added and no MSG or other weird chemicals.

The chicken stock is now ready to freeze.  Measure out 1 cup (8 oz) portions into ziplock freezer bags and freeze for future use.  This recipe makes about 12 quarts of stock.  It should last a long time and you have bouillon and cooked chicken ready to go for future recipes.