DIY-Chicken Stock

Ok...Homemade Chicken Stock! Cheap...Easy....Delicious...Freezable...Versatile....mmm how many more words can I come up with to describe this????

<Smiling> I'll quit now that you get the point.

I am going to tell you something...I don't really care for chicken! I know...What? How did you lose so much weight without eating chicken? Isn't it supposed to be the ultimate diet food? Well see chicken gets really dry really easy....and dry meats and my tummy just don't agree. So unless it is floating in some kind of sauce I don't dare eat it....however I have a hubby that would eat it roasted every other meal. So I tend to cook it quite frequently. My other problem is doing the whole deboning thing. Can I just say YUCK!?

Bob the Rooster

 If it is boneless I can pretend it doesn't look like Bob the Rooster in the backyard....but boneless chicken is expensive and I can generally find chicken with bones in it a lot cheaper a lot more often! I mean I found whole chickens for $.99 each a while back! So I suffer through the deboning process...and I tend to do alot at once so that I don't have to do it very often!
Now this is how I do it...if you have a different easier method please share it with me!

DIY-Chicken Stock

1 Large Stock Pot (it is even better in a Crock Pot but you can only fit in one at a time)
1-3 whole chickens (breasts, thighs, leg quarters or whatever kind you prefer...mine is called the cheapest!)
2-3 carrots
2-3 stalks celery (that limp stuff you forgot you bought works great!)
1 large onion
water to cover completely

Remove you chickens from the packaging, remove neck and gizzards (I throw them away...you do what you want) and rinse thoroughly.
Place in pot with enough water to cover. Now wash a couple of carrots, you don't even have to peel them, just give them a good washing and cut the tops off! Wash your celery. Peel and quarter your onion. Now throw all these veggies in the pot...don't worry you won't be eating them...they are for flavor and vitamins! Place lid on pot and simmer until you chicken is falling off the bone.
Remove chickens from pot and debone! Use chicken immediately or store for later use.
Place bones back in pot and simmer overnight! (And yes I said place the bones back in the pot...didn't you know that's where all the good stuff is? That's why doctors want you to eat homemade chicken soup when you are sick....all those wonderful nutrients from the chicken stock!) The next morning turn the heat off and let stock cool. Then strain off all the solid stuff in the pot, discard....and all that liquid is your chicken stock! Yummy!
I place mine in glass freezer jars and freeze it...but any freezable container will do!
I do hope you enjoy this...it always takes me a couple of days to eat chicken after this whole process...but I am weird like that!
God Bless, Mama D