Homemade chicken stock tastes amazing and adds depth of flavor and health benefits to your soups and stews. It’s surprisingly easy and you probably already have the ingredients in your pantry and fridge to make some.
The longer you simmer it the thicker it gets because of the collagen break down. Of course it all depends on what part of the chicken you use as well.
You can take a delicious chicken stock to an amazing bone broth simply by the amount of simmering time.
Chicken feet are gross but wonderful (and healthy) for chicken stock. They didn’t have them at the market so I grabbed some chicken backs instead in addition two chicken breasts with rib meat in order to make this particular stock.
Tissues and bone contain collagen and when that is broken down and consumed it is highly nutritious and packed with vitamins, minerals and amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein which we all need to survive.
Protein helps to repair cells and manufacture new ones. When I broke my knee a few years back, I upped my protein intake to help my bone heal and build my lost muscles in my leg.
As the collagen breaks down and cools it turns into a gelatin. This gelatin is where all the good stuff is. But don’t worry once you heat it again, it liquifies.
You can read more about bone broth health benefits here.
I visited my daughter and her fiancé in North Carolina for Thanksgiving and we made turkey stock for gravy and my homemade stuffing.
Her fiancé smelled it simmering and mentioned how good it smelled then said, “I’ve never had homemade gravy before. At my house growing up we just opened up a jar of gravy and heated it up.”
No judgement on canned anything. Not everyone loves to cook or knows how to.
I’m of the belief that spending family time eating dinner trumps the food or ingredients. Homemade is simply an added benefit to quality meal/family time.
I got back from my trip and was craving a hearty soup and decided to make a twisted version of Italian wedding soup meets chicken and egg dumpling soup.
But for that I needed to start with a delicious chicken stock.
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Homemade Chicken Stock/Bone Broth:
- Preheat oven to 375° F
- I recommend at least a 6 quart quality Dutch Oven and digital instant read meat thermometer
- Slice onion in quarters, peel skin off and place on bottom of dutch oven
- Add carrots, celery/stems and whole smashed garlic cloves
- Pour in enough water to cover the bottom of the pan and up to the vegetables
- Salt and pepper chicken breasts and place on top of the onion, carrots and celery
- Placed uncovered on middle rack of oven and bake for about 20 minutes
- About half way through melt a tablespoon of butter and brush on skin to get it nice and crispy and brown
- bake until chicken is 160 degrees. This is slightly underdone, but if you’re going to use the chicken meat in soup you don’t want it to be dry in the soup.
- Remove the chicken breasts and let them rest until cool until able to safely touch.
- Remove the skin and add back to dutch oven. Remove the meat and refrigerate if using later for soup.
- Add the ribs/bones from the chicken breasts back to the dutch oven.
- Add your chicken backs (I just add mine raw as they cook down in the water.)
- Now fill dutch oven with water about an inch under the rim
- Add more onion, celery and carrots
- Add peppercorns
- Bring to a boil and turn down to a low simmer
- Simmer for at least a couple of hours or longer if you want a stronger and gelatinous bone broth. I usually simmer my broth all day
- Lightly salt to taste
- Cool slightly then strain your stock/broth with a fine mesh sieve. To do that I remove all the large pieces of vegetables and bones and discard them. Then ladle the broth into a glass measuring cup and strain through the sieve into a large bowl. This will catch any small bits and leave you with a clear broth.
- I refrigerate the broth overnight and remove most of the fat that has solidified on the top the next morning.
- This will leave you with about 8-10 cups of homemade chicken stock/broth.
- You can use the chicken stock/broth for soup, gravies or stews.
- Or freeze the stock/broth in air tight containers up to 6 months.
Homemade Chicken Stock Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 Large Chicken breasts with ribs and skin on
- 4 Chicken backs or 15-20 chicken feet (you can find these in the meat section or ask your butcher.) If using chicken feet be sure to rinse well and slice off claws/toenails with a sharp knife
- 2 large yellow onions skin removed and quartered (Reserve one of onions for simmering stock)
- Large bunch of carrots peeled and sliced into large chunks (Reserve half for simmering stock.)
- Large stalk of celery (Reserve half for simmering stock.)
- 2 large garlic cloves with skin on smashed
- 8-10 cups of water
- 1 Tablespoon peppercorns
- Salt & Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375° F
- I recommend at least a 6 quart quality Dutch Oven and digital instant read meat thermometer
- Slice onion in quarters, peel skin off and place on bottom of dutch oven
- Add carrots, celery/stems and whole smashed garlic cloves
- Pour in enough water to cover the bottom of the pan and up to the vegetables
- Salt and pepper chicken breasts and place on top of the onion, carrots and celery
- Placed uncovered on middle rack of oven and bake for about 20 minutes
- About half way through melt a tablespoon of butter and brush on skin to get it nice and crispy and brown
- Bake until chicken is 160 degrees. This is slightly underdone, but if you’re going to use the chicken meat in soup you don’t want it to be dry in the soup.
- Remove the chicken breasts and let them rest until cool until able to safely touch.
- Remove the skin and add back to dutch oven. Remove the meat and refrigerate if using later for soup.
- Add the ribs/bones from the chicken breasts back to the dutch oven.
- Do not remove any of the baked veggies.
- Add your chicken backs to the pot (I just add mine raw as they cook down in the water.)
- Now fill dutch oven with water about an inch under the rim
- Add more onion, celery and carrots
- Add peppercorns
- Bring to a boil and turn down to a low simmer
- Simmer for at least a couple of hours or longer if you want a stronger and gelatinous bone broth. I usually simmer my broth all day
- Lightly salt to taste
- Cool slightly then strain your stock/broth with a fine mesh sieve. To do that I remove all the large pieces of vegetables and bones and discard them. Then ladle the broth into a glass measuring cup and strain through the sieve into a large bowl. This will catch any small bits and leave you with a clear broth.
- I refrigerate the broth overnight and remove most of the fat that has solidified on the top the next morning.
- This will leave you with about 8-10 cups of homemade chicken stock/broth.
- You can use the chicken stock/broth for soup, gravies or stews.
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