How to Make Chicken Stock
How to Make Chicken Stock can help you make delicious homemade stock, and this post has all my tips from many years of making stock.
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I wrote this post on How to Make Chicken Stock many years ago and I’ve been making homemade chicken, beef, ham, and turkey stock for more years than I can remember. If you come to my house, I’ll usually have at least 10 containers of stock in the freezer, despite the fact that I use it all the time. I’m religious about saving scraps, chicken carcasses and leftover veggies, and make stock at least once every month. If you ask me, homemade chicken stock is a wonderful thing!
And I love the way making homemade stock uses things that would be thrown away. But you can also buy pretty good chicken stock (the kind in the cartons at Costco is great), so if making stock is not in your schedule, no worries.
I’m not a purist, and I often use a little bit of chicken soup base to add more flavor to the stock. My favorite is Better than Bouillon Roasted Chicken Base (affiliate link) or the one in the photo, made by the same company. Do NOT use bouillon cubes, they are way too salty. (Edit: Shirley from Gluten Free Easily tells me that Better than Bouillon no longer guarantees their products are gluten-free, so that brand won’t work for people who have to avoid gluten.)
How to Make Chicken Stock:
(Scroll down for complete printable recipe.)
- Start with scraps of chicken or chicken carcasses, which I freeze until I’m ready to use them. (Save them up in the freezer until you have enough to make a big batch of stock.)
- You also need onions, celery, and carrots. If you have any veggies that are past their prime, this is the perfect use for them.
- If you’re going to make stock often, you might want to invest in a tool like this which is called a stock skimmer (affiliate link). It’s used for skimming off the foam from stock while it’s cooking. I also use it to scoop out the cooked vegetables when I’m discarding them.
- Put the chicken scraps, chicken base (if using), onions, celery, and carrots in a huge stock pot with water.
- Let it cook all day at a very low simmer, adding water whenever it gets low.
- After the stock has cooked all day (or at least for about 6 hours), I let it reduce it by about 1/3 before I scoop out the vegetables and discard them.
- When you’re through cooking it, remove the meat and veggies and strain the stock somehow.
- I use a yogurt strainer and a fat separator, which removes the fat by taking the liquid off the bottom. Any fine strainer will work.
- You can also remove the fat by cooling the stock and then scraping off the fat from the top.
- Now you have delicious chicken stock ready to put in the freezer and which can be used in a huge variety of dishes.
If you’re wondering why I don’t label the containers, it’s because I label my beef stock, turkey stock, and ham stock, and leave the chicken stock without a label, since I make it the most. Enjoy!
More Ways to Make Stock:
Weekend Food Prep:
This recipe has been added to a new category called Weekend Food Prep to help you find recipes you can prep or cook on the weekend and eat during the week!
How to Make Chicken Stock
Homemade chicken stock is so much better than the kind you find in a can or a carton, and it's a good way to use chicken scraps that might get thrown away.
Ingredients
- chicken scraps or chicken carcass with bones
- 1 - 2 onions
- 4 stalks celery
- 2 - 3 large carrots
- enough water to cover the chicken and vegetables
- Better than Bouillon roasted chicken base (optional but recommended)
Instructions
- To make chicken stock, start with scraps of chicken or chicken carcasses. (Save them up in the freezer until you have enough to make a big batch of stock.)
- You also need onions, celery, and carrots. If you have any veggies that are past their prime, this is the perfect use for them.
- Put the chicken scraps, onions, celery, and carrots in a huge stock pot with enough water. to cover the chicken and vegetables by a few inches.
- I always use a little bit of chicken soup base to speed up the process a little. I like Better Than Bouillon Roasted Chicken Base, but there are a few good brands. (Do NOT use bouillon cubes, they are way too salty.)
- Let it cook all day (or at least six hours) at a very low simmer, adding water whenever it gets low.
- After the stock has cooked all day I usually reduce it by about 1/3 before I scoop out the vegetables and chicken.
- When you're through cooking it, remove the meat and veggies and strain the stock somehow. I use a yogurt strainer and a fat separator, which removes the fat by taking the liquid off the bottom. Any fine strainer will work. You can also remove the fat by cooling the stock, then spooning off the hardened fat.
- Now you have delicious chicken stock ready to put in the freezer and which can be used in a huge variety of dishes. (Taste to see if you want to simmer longer to concentrate the flavor.)
Notes
I like to freeze this in two cup containers, which is just slight more than one can of chicken broth.
Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This much-used recipe for chicken stock was first posted in 2006, and I had been making it years before that. It was last updated in 2021.
53 Comments on “How to Make Chicken Stock”
Where is the printable recipe?
Sorry about that! Something obviously went wrong in the new blog design. I had to re-create that but there is a printable form there now. (Luckily I have an old site that stores all the recipes!)
Somehow it also lost all the star ratings, so if you feel like rating it that is always appreciated!
Kalyn How much of the chicken bouillon do you use? Thank you!
It depends on how much stock I am making. For a big pot of stock, I would start with a big heaping tablespoon and then taste after it cooks for a few minutes and see if it is flavorful enough.
I always make a large "full" stock pot of soup but we have to be careful of the sodium. I don't understand the sodium numbers yet but I wasn't sure how much you put in to start with. Thank you I will start there. 🙂
I know that this post is kind of old, but one question I have is when do I have "enough" chicken scraps?
Actually that's a good question if you haven't made stock before. It's not exact, but I probably use about 4 times as much water as chicken scraps, cooking the stock down so some of the liquid has evaporated by the time it's done. It
Monicqa, I do have an extra freezer, which is very nice. But if you're limited on room in the freezer you can reduce the stock (until it's much stronger than you'd want when you use it) then just add water to it when you thaw.
Great tips – I am just making some chicken stock now with the chicken carcass from our roast dinner tonight. Wish I had a huge freezer to store containers and containers of stock! We sometimes double up our balcony as a fridge in the winter but could do with an extra freezer!
Christina, I'm not sure, although I think some of the yellow color of my stock is from the Better Than Bouillon chicken flavor base, which is slightly yellow. Carrots probably add to the color too, as well as cooking the stock down. Mainly though I'd say if the stock has a good flavor, dont' worry about it.
I've tried making chicken stock, but it doesn't turn out yellow…it's an ugly gray color. Any ideas on what migh be causing that?
Desertplantlady, Yaaay!!! Thanks for your patience. I'm hoping it is fixed for everyone now.
Hi Kalyn, It worked, whatever she did, I can now use the search feature. Thanks!