Chicken Broth

Store bought chicken broth can bring on strange conversations.  There have been many postings in various blogs I watch about the best store bought chicken broth, a quick hint, they never agree.  And then there's the conversation about the amount of sodium in store bought broth! 

I much prefer to make my own broth.  I hear you thinking, "really?".  "Now we have to make our own broth"?  No, you don't have to, but it is one of the most lovely ways to spend a Sunday morning and it's not hard.  In addition, because of my search for more local and natural meats, I'm often spending a good amount on my chickens and I want to get the most out of them!

So if you are interested in trying it, here's my rather loose formula for Chicken Broth.

After enjoying a lovely roasted chicken,

1. Remove any meat that easy to get to so I can use it for another dinner.
2. Put the roast chicken carcass in a big pot. 
3. You can use only the roast chicken carcass, but this last time I cut off the wings before roasting, as they usually aren't eaten anyway and put them in the broth pot also.
4. Add
1. A couple celery stalks cut in 2 " pieces.
2. Two Carrot sticks cut into 2" pieces.
3. About 1/2 onion quartered.
4. Some Peppercorns, maybe 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon, depending on your pot size.
5. If you have them a bunch of fresh herbs will be great.  Thyme and Parsley are common, but this time I had Rosemary and Tarragon so that is what went into the pot.
6. Some salt
5. Cover it all with water.

Next,

1. Bring the pot to a light boil and lower to a good simmer. 
2. I partially cover mine and let it simmer for about 4 - 5 hours. 
1. Note the water will condense, so make sure you started with more than you hope to have at the end.

This isn't as pretty as the starting pot, but that is all flavor!

Ready to get your hands dirty again?  Now I strain the broth and poor the broth into my containers.  I use yogurt containers and freeze it.  But I'm not done.  You still have some useful chicken in what you strained out. 

Go through the vegetables and bones and pull the last of the chicken off the bones, I just put it in one of the containers that is low.  This way I'm not wasting the chicken meat on those wings.  Below you can see the chicken floating in the far right container.  Mmm, I'm not going to freeze that container, I'm keeping it in the fridge to use for Chicken Vegetable soup this week!

If you enjoy soup in winter, I hope you try making your own broth and find it to be even better than the store bought options.