Super Easy Chicken Stock

Making chicken stock is a great way to put leftover chicken bones to good use, and it can be frozen and thawed for use in a variety of soups and other recipes. Don’t be married to the recipe here, use whatever ingredients you have on hand, in the quantities available to you. The ingredients I list below represent what I happened to have in my kitchen at the time. I had about 3/4 of an onion here, so that’s all I used. Another carrot or different herbs would also work well. If you don’t have garlic, just do without it. You get the idea.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 chicken carcass, leftover from roast chicken
• 1 onion, halved
• 1 large carrot, halved
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• fresh thyme

PREPARATION:

Tear the carcass into pieces and place in a large pot. It’s okay if pieces of meat are still attached to the bones, everything gets drained anyway. Cover with water by about 1 inch. Simmer on low heat for 2-3 hours. Add all of the other ingredients. Increase heat to medium-high to get a rolling boil going and cook another hour longer.

Strain the contents of the pot through a fine mesh strainer. Refrigerate and use within 1 week, or freeze and thaw when needed.