Easy Homemade Chicken Stock

The holidays are coming up and it’s a perfect time to know what to do with all that leftover turkey or chicken meat stuck to the bone… just make a simple simple stock. It’s so easy you’ll wonder why you’ve never done it before. And if you have--well then you know! Above in the photo is the remains of a rotisserie chicken—meat, bones, all of it. Just throw it into a large pot, about half full with water and then toss in whatever spices, seasonings and/or veggies you have on hand. Here’s how I make mine, but you can really alter this and put whatever you have into it!

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken/turkey with most of the meat used and/or picked off
• water
• 1-2 onions, rough chopped
• oregano
• thyme
• any other savory herbs/spices you have on hand (italian seasoning, parsley, rosemary, etc.)

Place chicken or turkey carcass into pot and fill until water covers about 1/3-1/2 of the pot. Throw in the onion(s) and add several teaspoons of each herb depending on how large your pot chicken is. Cover and turn up heat to high until simmering. Once simmering, turn heat down to low and let simmer for 2-3 hours.

Once it’s done I put a large colander into another large pot and pour the contents out—that way the additional large pot under the colander catches all the stock. From there you can also pull off all the remaining meat from your chicken/turkey. There is always a lot more than you think could be left, and boiling it takes all that meat right off.

For the stock if there are any large pieces of herbs or it doesn’t look strained enough to you, you can also run it through a sieve. Store in an airtight container in your fridge. It will last for about 3 days in your fridge so if you don’t plan to use it soon, wait for it to chill then pour into a freezer Ziploc bag and freeze for up to 6 months! It tastes so much better than store-bought stock… I of course still use store-bought stock all the time but when I have a chicken or turkey I love using this recipe to make great stock.