Strain the stock, through just a sieve or through cheesecloth, depending on how clear you need it.

Season with S&P if necessary.

Cool and chill in the refrigerator.

Tomorrow the broth should be jellied and have a layer of yellow fat on top. Remove some or all of the fat, depending on your preference.

Did I answer your question?

Jim

Here's how I make my chicken stock and soup:

Here

Soup Ingredients:

Homemade chicken stock - about 2 quarts
2 carrots - diced
2 stalks celery - diced
1 leek - diced
1 cup diced rutabaga or orange squash
1/2 cup fine soup noodles
salt & pepper
oil or chicken fat

Ratio of solids to stock should be about 2 cups stock to 1 lb chopped vegetables. Add any more chopped veg if you don't have enough.

Stock ingredients:

1 meaty chicken carcass or piece of whole chicken
2 heads of garlic
1 onion - cut in half
celery stick - sliced
1 carrot sliced
fresh thyme - large sprig
1 bayleaf
black pepper & salt

MAKING STOCK:

1. Early in day or day before:
Preheat oven to 350F. Cut top off heads of garlic. Place on roasting pan together with chicken carcass and sliced onion and drizzle a bit of oil over top of all.
(I had two carcasss to roast as they are sold this way in pairs at our supermarket. I also added a couple of beef bones.)
Roast in oven about 40 minutes or until all is toasted.

2. Put bones into a very large pot. Squeeze one head of the buttery garlic cloves into the stock pot, saving the other head of garlic for adding to the soup. Add the rest of the stock ingredients and fill pot with water to cover. Grind in fresh pepper. Bring to boil, turn down heat, put on lid and simmer for a couple of hours.
Skim off any grey residue that rises to the top.

3. Afterwards, strain the solid debris from the stock ---(REMEMBER you're saving the stock so don't pour it down the sink - as has been done LOL !).
I look through the solids and pick out the meaty chicken pieces to save for the soup. Throw away all the rest of the solid material.
Here I let it cool and refrigerate until next day when it's easy to remove solid fat from top. Otherwise continue to make soup.

MAKING THE SOUP:

1. Sauté the chopped ingredients in a frypan in a TBS of chicken fat or oil until lightly golden. Squeeze out the buttery cloves from the 2nd head of garlic and add to pan.

2. Put soup ingredients including small bits of chicken into large saucepan and add an appropriate amount of stock - about double the amount of liquid to vegetables.
Put on lid and simmerwith lid on for about an hour. Add soup noodles during last 5 minutes.

3. Check seasoning, add salt.

SharonCb

To make stock, you will need some source of flavoring besides just chicken bones.
Celery, carrots, a couple of heads of garlic, I use leek too and a sweet potato and a lemon as well as a good amount of parsley.
simmer it for 6 or 7 hours,strain and there you have it!

Like LindaC, I add other things to my stock besides chicken. Mine always has onions, carrots and celery and a bay leaf, salt and pepper.

simmer it all, strain out the solids and refrigerate. I skim the fat off that rises to the top, but many people like to keep that in.

It can be frozen but I usually can it so I can preserve my freezer space for other stuff.

Annie

I use little to no carrots because I don't like the sweet taste it gives the broth. I replace the carrots with parsnips, add onion, celery, bay leaf, parsley, salt and pepper. I skim off fat and freeze if I'm not using that day.

Beverly

I never use salt or pepper when making stock - that gets added to the final dish that I'm using the stock for. You can always add salt later, but you can't remove it if it gets too salty, especially if you reduce it down.

If you don't skim off the fat, you can store it in a jar in the fridge, and the fat will form a seal that helps preserve the stock. I always freeze leftover stock once that seal has been broken, but generally not before.

Lars

Remember to keep removing the icky bits that float to the top. And don't boil after the initial boil - keep it on low. Otherwise you'll end up with a cloudy stock.

I don't bother to skim....that's just coagulated protein bits...and when you are cooling the stock will settle out very well. And it does no harm and adds some flavor. Strain it through a colth if it bothers you.....easier than skimming in my opinion.

If you make "stock you can walk on" you can unmold the whole container and just skim the cloudy bits from the bottom.
Linda C

Don't let it boil, all the fat will churn back into the liquid and make the broth cloudy and oily tasting. If you have time put it in the fridge over night (let it cool down first) to easily skim the fat. If you want a strong taste of herbs put them in towards the end of the process, last 30 minutes maybe.

The slow cooker didn't let it boil - thanks for all of your help! I'm looking forward to using it, now - it's in the fridge ready to have the fat skimmed from it.

DonnaR/CA

I make a small amount of stock from chicken carcasses every time I buy a rotisserie chicken. I put the carcass and all skin and juice into a pot and cover with water. I simmer it for 4-5 hours or more. Then strain it all though a cheesecloth lined sieve. I chill it until the next morning then remove the fat. If I feel like it, I will clarify it too.

I like the chickeny taste better without other vegetables added.

I've started using my pressure cooker.

In 45 minutes I can do what used to take me 8 or more hours.

One thing I do is place a couple of paper towels over the top and gently press down into the fat before refrigerating.
The next morning you can lift most of the fat off by just lifting the paper towels. The fat soaks in, then hardens and sticks to the towels. There will be just a tiny bit around the edge of the pan.

Deanna (who believes Laziness breeds Ingenuity!!)

Don't forget to use another pot to catch that wonderful stock when you are straining it....I've lost some down the drain more than once over the years. LOL!

David

A follow-up - I used the stock today to make Chicken and Dumplings, Cracker Barrel style. I took most of the fat out and my husband didn't like that at all - he said it would take the flavor out! I don't think it did at all (just his imagination), but next time I won't tell him.

Basically, I heated up the stock, adding the leftover chicken from Sunday's "Old Hen and Noodles", and also adding some more cooked chicken breast meat that I'd cooked on the Foreman-type grill. Then I added dumplings, which were made from 2 cups flour, 4 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt mixed with 2 tsp margarine (I used light) and 2/3 cup milk (I used 2%). I boiled the dumplings for about 10 minutes. Both DH and DD declared these "yummy!"

Thanks for the help, everybody!

DonnaR/CA