I sometimes use whole chickens - when I want to have poached chicken meat for another recipe, such as enchiladas, crepes, etc. Sometimes I just use legs and wings and only get minimal meat from it. Sometimes I make it from bones of roasted chicken, providing that I did not use a strong seasoning for the chicken, or else the resulting stock can only be used for recipes with that seasoning.

For raw chicken, I cover the chicken with water in a large stockpot and then add four more cups of water. For vegetables, I add garlic, onion, celery (especially the leafy part), parsnips, and no more than half a carrot. Sometimes I add a couple of bay leaves and a couple of cut up lemons (or lemon rinds from my freezer, which I usually have on hand for this), but I usually do not add herbs, as those can be added later and so not require long cooking like the root and stalk vegetables do. Generally, I bring all the ingredients to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and simmer the pot for one hours. Then I remove the chicken, let the chicken cook sufficiently to handle, remove the meat from the chicken, and return the bones and skin to the stock pot and simmer that for another hour or two. I often add more onion and garlic when I return the bones to the stock.

When I am tired of simmering the stock, I strain it into another stock pot through a chinois and then put it into jars to store overnight. If I decide to freeze some of it, I remove the fat on top first; otherwise I vacuum seal the jars with enough fat on top for a hermetic seal. Stock will keep this way perfectly well for 2-4 weeks, if the seal is not broken.

I do not add salt or pepper to stock because that will limit the recipes I can use it in later.

Lars

When I don't have stock in the freezer (most of the time), I use the Trader Joe's low-sodium broth. It's really low sodium, unlike most grocery store brands.

I like mixed stocks. I usually start with bones from a roasted chicken, or use turkey necks. Toss in a couple of vegetable bouillon cubes for an 8-qt pot of water/bones. Take the turkey meat off after a few hours for other uses (we love nibbling on it; we're dark meat fiends), return the bones, cook another hour. Or two. Whatever.

I like using vegetables but limit it to onions, celery, carrots and parsley; cabbage if I have some. No herbs at all and no additional salt or pepper.

If I can work it into the dinner plans, I like to add pork bones OR Chinese roasted duck bones. Not both, as they clash.

Strain, let chill, remove all fat. Boil once a week; would probably keep for months but I keep using it up and having to start over, LOL.

I buy bone in chicken breasts on sale, remove the breasts to freeze, then roast the bones and skin. After roasting, there is still some meat left and I pick that off and make chicken salad.

All the stuff left goes in the crockpot with maybe an onion, cold filtered water and nothing else. Cook all night on low. Then refrigerate until the fat solidifies. Remove the fat, freeze the stock.
However, last week when I did this, the smell at midnight was heavenly and one of my dogs keep waking me up and whining!

Sometime bones, sometime whole birds. I rarely ever toss bones from whole chicken or parts without making some stock. Some carrot, celery and onion, a bay leaf and bones go for a slow simmer... get a few pints of stock for what I would have just tossed. Used to have a supermarket that would have serious mark-downs on meat/poultry when stuff was 2-3 day BEFORE sell-by date. Brought home 2 packages of cornish hens (4 total). Not my favorite to roats, but made a BIG vat-o-stick from them.

I save the carcasses when I roast chicken. I remove the meat for other uses, and toss the carcass, some roasted onions, carrots and celery in the pressure cooker with some salt & pepper and maybe a bay leaf and some thyme.

If I don't have time or the chicken was a small one, I put the carcass in a bag in the freezer until I have another one. Two carcasses makes a much richer stock than one.

Linda

No veggies.

Chicken bones, necks, gizzards, hearts, livers, turkey necks, and one piece of smoked turkey sometimes.

Everything in the pressure cooker WITHOUT water for 45 minutes. There will be about one cup of pure concentrated "super stock".

After the "super stock" is removed, then I add water and pressure cook another 45 minutes for something close to regular stock.

When it gets warmer, I may be trying to use a laboratory vacuum pump that I have to do low temperature evaporation of the regular stock to make bullion cubes.

dcarch

I never use a whole chicken just for broth. I use the carcass or bones of chicken I have cooked for "whatever". I do keep an eye open for chicken necks and backs on sale and add them if I have them.

Cold water, celery, onion, bay leaf, salt , pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer for an hour or so. Strain, refrigerate, skim and freeze.

To be honest, I find that the low sodium broths available these days really doesn't make it worth my while to make broth for everyday cooking . I only do it now when I make soup.

I never use whole chickens - they are simply tooooo expensive here. I save the bones from cooked chicken in a "bone bag" in my freezer, and when the bag is sort of full, I add a chopped onion, celery, and carrots to my pressure cooker, and cook under pressure for about 30-45 minutes. It makes about 3 litres, which I freeze.

if you use a raw whole chicken is the flavor more full than just bones?
Chicken feet does it really add do you cook them first?
I normally use bones I have saved up but always add OXO but am trying to get flavor without the msg or added salt.
I don't have a pressure cooker. But that super stock sounds yummy.

You do get more flavor using a raw whole chicken than you do just from bones, but I use it mainly because I want the poached chicken meat.

There was a thread on chicken feet in broth, and it looked like something I wanted to try, but I haven't seen the chicken feet in the market so far. It's on my list of things to try, however.

I would caution against using smoked chicken or turkey in stock - I tried it once and it was horrible - the smoke flavor overpowered the other more delicate flavors. Also, if you are concerned about salt, you should remember that most cooked chicken will have salt on it, but usually not so much that it will make the stock too salty. I rinse it off before using it. I do not add salt to stock until I am using the stock in its final dish.

If you are going to add a bouillon cube, check the ingredients before you buy it. You can buy some that do not have MSG. I used to buy Kosher vegetable bouillon cubes that had tiny bits of vegetables you could see when they were rehydrated, and they were very good. You can also use dried vegetables in your stock.

Lars

The best stock comes from stewing hens, but they are difficult to find these days in most supermarkets. Luckily, I live in Amish country and can buy them fresh dressed or frozen from the Amish butchers and meat markets in my area. I keep several in my freezer just for stock and pick them up in quantity when they are on sale.

Lars-I'm not sure if any of our stores here sell chicken feet but if I see them I might just give it a try. Thanks for the link to that thread.

arebella- I think our co-op has a sale on stewing hens in the fall I will check that out. I know they are so much cheaper than regular chicken.

CLBlakey, try an Asian market, they usually have the feet for sale. They are full of collagen, which will give you a more "unctuous" broth, it'll turn to chicken jelly when chilled.

Mine does even without feet, I also have a bag in the freezer. Actually, I have two. One is for chicken "parts", that includes carcasses, wing tips, backs, necks, etc. The other has a lot of vegetables like carrot peelings and ends, celery leaves and tips, etc. It's my soup bag.

I toss all the bones into my Nesco roaster and roast them. When they are nicely roasted I add some carrots, onions, celery, parsley, a bay leaf, peppercorns. I don't peel the carrots or the onions, I just cut them into pieces and toss them in.

Then I simmer all day, sometimes overnight. When it's reduced by half I taste, when it tastes good I strain out the bones and vegetables, add salt to taste and can it.

I do the same thing with the beef bones, and so I always have home made stock on hand and it doesn't take much "Hands on" time, it cooks for a long time but I can ignore it and do whatever else suits me.

I always let the stock set and cool long enough to skim the fat off, it'll rise to the top and congeal. Then I can it.

Annie

Lars, the big Asian store in your town has everything.

When I was there I saw a ton of chicken feet. They had old free range chickens, with heads on. They were meant to be used for making stock. They also had chicken carcasses two in a bag, $1.00 a bag. The carcasses had a lot of meat on them.

dcarch

We only have one small Asian store with nothing fresh. My only hope is Superstore they have a large international section but meat might be another thing. I am hoping they have frozen at best.

Prime rib is on sale today for $5.44 per pound the cheapest I have ever seen so guess who is stocking up.

Happy Good Friday

re: Chicken feet - I've not made chicken stock without them since the first time I made it with. You will never make a stock without good mouth feel and that doesn't gel if you throw some in the mix. I don't use "only" chicken feet, my preference is for a mix of roasted and unroasted meaty carcasses and bones.

For a typical batch of stock made in an 8 quart pot I'll throw in one package of feet, which in my case is probably somewhere around a pound, give or take. Fingertips get cut off, and then based on recommendations I found on the 'net I slice off any rough callouses (rarely much to do here) and then boil the cleaned feet for five minutes before adding to the stock. I don't know how if either of these latter steps is critical, but that first boil does release a bunch of scum that's more easily dealt with by pouring the cooking liquid down the drain than by skimming it off the surface of the stock. Between using a good percentage of roasted bones and pre-boiled feet, there's little scum left to skim off of the actual stock.

Besides chicken, the only things I absolutely add to my stock are onion and a few peppercorns. I'll also add some carrot, celery, thyme and parsley depending on what I happen to have it on hand.

Oh, I wish chicken feet were available here. I got pig's feet last year but, alas, no chicken feet. The pig's feet came from Terra Firma Farms. Hmmm, they sell eggs. I wonder if they butcher chickens? If so, maybe they would sell me some feet? I'll give them a call after Easter. I'd love to try this stock.

/tricia

No chicken feet here either but they did have backs and necks cheap but I think I will just keep on saving up carcasses unless stewing hens come on sale. On second thought the Hutterites might have them at the farmers market next week

If you can't get chicken feet, just throw in some unflavored gelatin. Easy-peasy.

Okay, I'm going to claim authority on making chicken soup, because I am a Genuine Jewish Mother, and therefore I was born knowing how to make the best chicken soup. :-)

Well, anyway, I do make really good chicken soup. I make it the way my mother and grandmother did. It is the simplest possible recipe, and I've never found anything that made it better.

I don't distinguish between "broth" and "stock" and "soup." I just make the stuff, eat some, and freeze the rest in bags (1, 2, and 1/2 cup) to cook with later.

My recipe couldn't be less complicated. But honestly, the two most important things make all the difference -- that's why things like pre-roasting don't make a difference if you do these two things:

1) USE A KOSHER CHICKEN. There's no substitute. Well, I guess if you simply can't find one, use a free range chicken, the biggest and fattest and oldest you can get.
They just plain taste better. Most kosher chickens aren't even bought by Jews, they're bought by foodies, by the way. A friend who owned an excellent restaurant only used kosher chickens. He explained that the kashering process, which includes soaking and salting, amounts to brining. Also, he said, they don't feed the chickens chemicals or hormones (not for kosher reasons, for the foodie market), and they are generally bigger and fatter. Yes, it's expensive, but you get at least another meal out of it, as you can use the chicken (albeit very cooked! See below) for chicken salad, chicken patties, etc. -- unsurprisingly, I have a LOT of recipes for soup chicken.

2) Cook it for a LONG time. Bare minimum 1 1/2 hours, but I like to go 4-6. If it cooks way down, just add some water. You'd think that would defeat the purpose, but it doesn't.

After that, anything else I've tried -- roasting it first, using bones, adding dill or parsnips or garlic -- didn't make much difference. The soup is so rich it really doesn't need more, I promise. My foodiest friend, the kind who researches cooking like it's string theory, makes it much more complicated. But she says mine is the best (she's a Jewish mother, too, she just can't get herself to keep it simple!).

So here is how I make it:

1 raw, cut-up kosher chicken, the bigger, fatter, and older, the better. (You can also use a 3-4 pound package of kosher wings, which have a lot of gelatin. Lindac taught me that.)
2 large carrots, scraped and cut into sticks
2 large stalks celery, scraped and cut into sticks -- no leaves (they make it bitter)
1 whole onion, peeled
About 2 T salt and plenty of fresh-ground black pepper

Rinse the chicken and put it in a big pot. Fill to about 1-1 1/2 inch from the top. Bring to a boil. Skim off scum. Lower heat and add vegetables, salt, and pepper. Simmer over very low heat (a simmer burner if you have one) for as long as you dare! Discard onion. Strain soup (it may not need it) and re-add vegetables.

If you make it ahead and chill it, don't skim off all the fat -- leave some or all. Just don't tell your cardiologist. If you do skim some, don't throw it away! Use it as schmaltz (like for the matzo balls, for example).

Serve with matzo balls, kreplach, noodles, rice, or some of the chicken, or use in other recipes.

Guaranteed to cure colds and flu. For heartbreak and disappointment, make Cabbage Soup.

Seeing as how I can't buy chicken feet I think I will try the whole chicken method and then the chicken wing methods just to compare. No Kosher chickens here either. The joy of living in the frozen north. The whole chicken method will be cheaper as a bag of wings is 15$ I might be able to get a chicken for 10$. Any body ever tried making broth with thighs or legs?

CLBlakey, I don't know where you are, but if you have Trader Joe's, they usually have kosher chicken. Maybe just breasts though. Meantime get an organic chicken.

What part of the frozen north are you in that is so devoid of chicken choices?

Don't discount the chicken backs and necks. And ask the Hutterites for chicken feet. If they have chickens - they have feet.

No Trader Joe's actually I have only heard of TJ on here. Northern Canada. Zone 2 for growing. Eight lovely months of winter. I will check if the Hutterites sell feet or for that matter stewing hens.

Ooh, a stewing hen. Perfect. And cook it four to six hours.

I agree, a stewing hen would be perfect. I've made soup with legs and thighs and it works, but not as well as the backs/necks/wing tips. You can get that "gel" with the backs and necks, you don't have to have the feet, but they sure make nice stock!

Annie