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If, like me, you enjoy making a well cooked perfectly juicy whole chicken in your crock pot, then making stock from the remains is the next natural step. In fact, I urge you to do this to save on clean up!
If you want to see my tutorial for cooking a perfect chicken in the crock pot, click here.
Delicious homemade chicken stock is one of the easiest things in the world to make. It’s worth making from scratch because it has a richer taste than store bought and is insanely cheap to make. So let’s jump right in!
How to Make Perfect Chicken Stock in the Crock Pot
For a really great stock you need to add mirepoix (the base of French cooking, a mixture of carrots, onions, and celery). You can cut up these vegetables fresh, sauté them in a skillet until they are a little browned, and then add them to your stock for a more restaurant-y version.
My kitchen isn’t a restaurant, however. I find that it’s easier and cheaper to save the ends of vegetables that usually get thrown away and put those in the stock instead. In the end, the result is the same.
As I advised in my post on small sustainability hacks, when you are preparing fresh vegetables, save the ends in the freezer for when you make stock. I save the peels, ends, and skins of carrots, onions, celery, and anything else in the mirepoix family (leeks, parsnips, shallots, etc.). I keep these in a small container in the back of my freezer and pull it out when needed. You could also store them flat in a freezer bag.
Note: In order to get that beautiful golden brown color in your stock, you need onion skins. Those crispy golden brown outer skins of the onions – save them!
Once I’ve made my whole chicken in the crock pot, and all that’s left is the carcass and juices, I pull out my container of frozen vegetable ends.
Then I fill the crock up with water, leaving an inch of space at the top. (If you are following my recipe for cooking chicken in the crock pot, make sure you remove the foil balls first!) Don’t worry about all the fat that’s in your crock from the chicken. It will flavor the stock, and once it’s done and cooled, the fat can be skimmed off the top.
If you saved your chicken giblets when you cooked your chicken, you can also add them to the crock (except the liver – it will make the stock bitter).
I add my vegetable ends, put the lid on the crock, and set it on low for 6-8 hours.
Once it’s done, I let it cool for a little while, and then pour the stock into a large bowl through a strainer. Then I divide it into smaller containers.
Note: It is important to make sure there is a bowl under your strainer! You will be very unhappy if you accidentally strain your perfect chicken stock right down the drain!
Store your chicken stock in your refrigerator overnight. When you’re ready to use it, skim the congealed fat off the top.
You’ll notice that after cooling your stock will look cloudy. This is perfectly normal. If you prefer your stock to be clear, you will need to strain it through cheesecloth. (I don’t usually bother with this step, but if you were to make a clear soup such as a consommé, then this would be necessary.)
Another note: You don’t have to make a whole chicken in a crock pot in order to make chicken stock. You can save your bones from cooking any cuts of chicken in a freezer bag. When you have enough, put them all in the crock pot and follow this tutorial! I’ve also used this same method to make turkey stock from the Thanksgiving turkey carcass. However, I had to use a stock pot on the stove because it’s much larger than a chicken.
Storing Homemade Chicken Stock
Homemade chicken stock freezes incredibly well. I prefer to freeze it in quart size plastic containers, like the kind you get take-out soup in. (I actually save all my plastic take-out containers specifically for freezing stocks, soups, and sauces.)
I’ve also seen people successfully freeze stock in freezer bags. I don’t recommend this, because it seems that it would be easy for the frozen bag to get jostled in the freezer and get a tear, and then the next thing you know, you’ve got a huge mess when it thaws.
I also don’t recommend freezing it in mason jars. I’ve done this before and had the jars break in the freezer. If you freeze things often in mason jars and have no trouble, then go right ahead.
I do sometimes like to store my chicken stock in the refrigerator in mason jars. Chicken stock lasts two weeks in the fridge!
How to Enjoy Your Homemade Chicken Stock
So what do you do with all these quarts of chicken stock you’ve made? There are so many ways to enjoy it. The easiest way is to make a large pot of chicken soup. You can use your stock as a base for many kinds of soup or sauce. You can even substitute it for water when cooking rice, cous cous, or ramen.
Chicken Stock in a Crock Pot
Ingredients
- 1-2 chicken carcasses and juices
- giblets saved from chicken (minus the liver)
- 4-6 qt water
- 2 cups ends, peels, and skins of carrots, celery, and onion
Instructions
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Add to your crock pot the chicken carcass(es), leftover juices from cooking it, and any giblets that came with the chicken that you set aside. Fill up the crock pot with water, leaving 1-2 inches of space. Add the vegetable ends.
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Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
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Cool for at least 30 minutes. Set out a large bowl, a strainer, and some smaller containers to divide up the stock. Carefully strain the stock through the strainer into the bowl. (You may have to stop and pour the stock into smaller containers to make room for more.)
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Equipment Used
6 Quart Slow Cooker: Hamilton Beach 6-Quart Programmable Slow Cooker
Quart size plastic containers: 24 Pack 32 Oz Containers With Lids
Quart size mason jars: Ball Wide Mouth Quart Jars