Remember that yummy roast chicken you made yesterday in your crockpot? When last we left Mr. Chicken, he was spending the night in the fridge. Now we're going to pull him out and put him back in the crockpot.
Add water to about two inches from the rim of your crockpot and set it on high for about 6 hours or until it boils. Or you could do it on low, overnight. All you need is water because you still have all those chopped onions, celery, and garlic cloves in your pot to flavor your broth. You can also toss in the chicken neck, gizzards and liver you fished out of the cavity yesterday. Can you see the water line here?
When it's reached the boiling point, turn off the heat. This is what you're fresh cooked broth will look like. Look at how rich that is.
Set up your strainer over the top of a bowl or stock pot.
Set up your strainer over the top of a bowl or stock pot.
Pour it all into the strainer to separate the meat from the broth. The point of boiling the carcass is to cook the meat right off the bone. The neat thing about this is you'll get to see just how much meat goes uneaten on a chicken.
Let it all cool and then pick out the chunks of meat to be stored in a container. Measure out the broth and store that also.
We are also fighting the flu bug here so not only is homemade chicken broth one of the traditional immune builders but those roasted garlic cloves have mellowed enough to eat whole and build immunity also.
I finished up with 9 cups of broth and one large container of nice sized chunks of chicken meat that will go in my freezer. Make sure to mark the amount and date on the outside of the container and you've got enough for another meal or two.
You could make:
I finished up with 9 cups of broth and one large container of nice sized chunks of chicken meat that will go in my freezer. Make sure to mark the amount and date on the outside of the container and you've got enough for another meal or two.
You could make:
Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup (you could save the meat for another recipe and just use veggies, beans and noodles in this. This is how I use up pasta odds and ends and veggies that need to be eaten.)
And that is why a whole chicken is both frugal and easy.
22 comments:
Okay, this is a weird observation, I know .... but has anyone ever told you that you and your husband look alike?
That's exactly the way chicken is double used around here! :o)
I've never known how to make the real rich broth. Headed to the store today with a whole chicken on my list. Thanks Gayle!
I have plans to do this exact thing this week! Roasted chicken and potatoes one meal, chicken and dressing casserole for meal two, and chicken and dumplings (using the broth) for meal three. All for about $7.00 with all the other ingredients needed. I love this!! Have a great weekend!
Thank you! I've wondered what you do with the carcass but have been too embarrassed to ask. So excited to do this!
Add a small amount of cider vinegar. The vinegar puts minerals from the bones (break the bones up if you can) into your final broth. Lots of good things in broth- It's a lucky family who gets real broth when they're not well!
http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/broth.html
I took your advice awhile back, and started doing this. Thank you, it's wonderful and a real money saver. The flu has also made a visit to our home, so tonight I used some of the broth to make chicken noodle soup and substituted little ravioli for egg noodles. It was really good. Thanks for all your great tips!
Thanks so much for your instructions!
I love this!! For some reason, doing it in the slow cooker seems so much more doable and less trouble! I'll try it soon - homemade chicken broth, here I come!
I do this, too, and especially with my Thanksgiving turkey! http://www.outofdebtagain.com/2008/11/turkey-soup-from-your-thanksgiving/
I LOVE your blog! You're such an inspiration, and you have this uncanny ability to cover topics I just happen to be searching for. I've been buying whole chickens obsessively lately, searching for the perfect stock/broth recipe, but I love roast chicken and feel cheated just boiling the whole bird. This sounds like the perfect solution to both, it's in my crock pot as I type! Thanks!
I just wanted to let you know I did your chicken in the crock pot and then the stock today and it turned out DELICIOUS!!! Thanks so much! Tonight I made Chicken and Dumplings with the stock and leftover chicken:
http://familystampingfood.blogspot.com/2009/10/recipe-easy-chicken-and-dumplings.html
Thank you so much for sharing this...I have been trying to save money on my groceries and wanted to try and cook a whole chicken but didnt have a clue how too:-) I saw your first post right before I left for the store so I took the plunge:-) It was sooo yummy and it feels so good to have the extra chicken and broth saved.
I was going to wait and see if you added a "day 3" before I mentioned this, but I get one more thing out of my stock. You know how they say to refrigerate the stock, then skim off the fat that solidified on top and THROW IT AWAY? Don't! That's chicken schmaltz. Rendered fat. I skim it and store it in the fridge. Then I use it in place of oil or butter for sauteeing. Or for frying vegetable fritters. Wonderful flavor! Also better for you (yes) than bottled oils. I just sauteed shredded kale in nothing but chicken schmaltz and onions, and oh, it's so good!
I think I may have done something wrong. My broth ended up being very dark, almost like beef broth. I'm a bit concerned.
Has this ever happened to you, at least when you were just starting out?
Please advise!
Sometimes it looks dark until you strain it. It could also be the spices you used, or maybe the bones disentegrated into the broth if it was cooked extra long. But it should still be usuable. I'd try it. Don't throw it out.
What containers are you using to freeze here? Just curious as I've just done your Day 1 and 2 for the chicken and will be ready to freeze my broth in a few hours.
This time I froze them in large yogurt containers but sometimes I freeze the broth in a gallon freezer bag and lay it on it's side so that it's stackable and doesn't take up as much space in my freezer.
This worked so well. Thank you for posting this.
Thanks so much for sharing your frugal tips! I had a turkey carcass that I was about to throw out on Sunday night like I always do and then I remembered seeing this post. I searched for it and put it into action! I am amazed at how much good turkey was still left on the bones!
I know this is an older post, but I wanted to tell you how useful it was to me. Saturday night I wasn't feeling well and wanted to quickly start lunch for Sunday. I had a whole chicken and remembered that you had a post where you did something very simple with it in the crockpot. I did a search on your site and found these two posts. Our whole crockpot chicken was very tasty for Sunday lunch. What I was most impressed with, though, was how much meat I was able to pick off the bones after making the stock. I always pick the bones, but since it had literally fallen off the bones this time I had a lot more meat. I also froze lots of broth. Thanks for sharing this frugal tip.
Yahoo! I'm so glad you liked it!
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