Last week I roasted a chicken.  Now it’s time to use what’s left of the bird to make more chicken-y goodness.  I use chicken stock all the time, in just about everything.  Sometimes I buy it (I’m partial to the Pacific Rim Organic Low Sodium kind) but I much prefer to make my own when I can.  And it’s so very easy.

Take the carcass of your chicken, skin, bones, leftover meat and all and put it in your biggest oven-safe pot.  Add in the following:

• 1 yellow onion, cut in 1/4.  Don’t remove the skin.  It’ll give your stock a nice golden color
• 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, smashed.  Again, don’t worry about removing the skins.
• 2 or 3 whole carrots, cut into big chunks.  Don’t peel them.
• 3 stalks of celery (leaves and all) cut into big chunks.

Add enough water to cover the whole thing.  I can put about 1.25 gallons (that’s around 20 cups) in my stock pot and still have about 3-inches of headroom.  Cover the pot and put it in a cold oven.  Set the oven to 325 and let it come to temperature.  Check on the pot after about 30 mins; you want the liquid to send up the occassional gentle bubble but not to boil.  Lower to 275 and cook for 2-3 hours.

By the time you reach 3 hours, your house should be filled with the aroma of a rich stock.  My cat usually winds up asleep on the kitchen rug by this point.

Remove the pot from the oven and let it cool on the stovetop.  When it’s cool enough to handle, strain the stock using a fine mesh sieve.  I like to double strain mine; first using the mesh and then a second time through a coffee filter.  You should wind up with about 16-18 cups of stock.  I usually put half in the fridge to use immediately and freeze the rest for later in the week.

Why the oven?  The slower you cook your stock, the more flavor you get out of the chicken.   If you put the big pot on the stove and heat it from the bottom, the bottom will get too hot and begin to boil before the top is even warm.  By putting it in the oven, you can keep a very low temperature that slow cooks from all directions, not just from the bottom. It also means you don’t have to continually watch the stock while it’s cooking.  You can put it in the oven, set the temp, and forget it for 3 hours.

And believe me … this stuff is better than any store bought stock you’ll ever use.