Homemade Chicken Stock

I've always been kind of intimidated by making my own stock. I'm not sure why, it just seems overwhelming to me. But I had two rotisserie chickens that I used to make my famous chicken salad (recipe is not found here, and other than the rotisserie chickens, I'm not sure I'm ready to give up the whole recipe!), and after pulling off most of the chicken, I was left with two pretty nice looking carcasses. I couldn't see throwing them out, so I gave it a shot. I decided I wanted a rich chicken stock so I was going to roast the carcasses with the vegetables.





I used onion, celery and carrots. The classic combination to use. There isn't much prep. Just cut them all into big pieces and toss them with a little olive oil. Make sure you use those celery tops! I roasted them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30-40 minutes. Once everything was nicely browned, I took them out and put them in a pot with enough water to cover everything. Then I added about 5 peppercorns.




What did I forget to do? Add salt. Add herbs. Duh.





I let it simmer on the stove for about 3 hours or so. After that amount of time, the broth looked delicious! It was so rich in color. I let it cool for a little while then strained out the bones and the vegetables. You can do whatever you want with that stuff, most people just discard it. Then pour it into containers to store. I use containers that I have kept from Chinese take out.






After you refrigerate it for awhile, you can remove the grease that will harden at the top, and discard. Or not. If you're going to use it soon, you can refrigerate it. But if not, then freeze it.




I did taste it and it was pretty bland because of forgetting the salt, but I added some before it cooled too much and I'm not worried about how the final product will be when I use it. I think it's going to be great!