Favourite Homemade Chicken Stock

This is the chicken stock every home cook should have memorized. Chicken backs, necks, and gizzards (the cheapest parts at the butcher counter) simmer for two hours with celery, carrots, onions and parsley until the kitchen smells like a Sunday dinner and the broth turns golden and gelatinous.

Using chicken backs and gizzards instead of whole birds is the smart, frugal move. These cuts are loaded with bones, cartilage, and connective tissue, which break down into gelatin during the long simmer. Gelatin is what gives a real homemade stock its body and silky mouthfeel, the thing canned broth can never replicate.

The two-hour minimum simmer is when the magic happens. Bones release calcium, marrow, and gelatin slowly. Rushing it under an hour gives you flavored water; pushing past two hours gives you the deeply rich, slightly-jiggly-when-cold stock that makes everything you cook with it taste better.

The skim-and-strain finish is essential. Foam and fat floating on top during the simmer carry impurities; skimming them off keeps the final stock clear. Straining through a fine mesh removes the spent vegetables and bones, leaving pure liquid gold.

Chef Tips

• Save vegetable scraps in a freezer bag throughout the week, onion skins, carrot tops, celery leaves, and use them in stock instead of fresh produce. The peels carry as much flavor as the fresh stuff and stock is the perfect place to use them.
• Skip the salt at first. Add it only at the very end after tasting. Stock reduces during use, and salting early gives you a too-salty final dish.
• Cool the strained stock quickly by placing the pot in an ice bath. Hot stock left on the counter can grow bacteria; rapid cooling protects food safety and lets you fridge or freeze faster.
• Freeze in 1-cup or 2-cup portions in freezer bags or muffin tins (then transfer to bags). Pre-portioned stock pulls out of the freezer in exactly the amount you need.

Variations

• Add a halved garlic head, a bay leaf, and a few black peppercorns for a more aromatic European-style stock.
• Roast the chicken bones and vegetables in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes before simmering for a deeper, brown stock.
• Use the same method with leftover roast chicken carcasses for an even more frugal stock that costs almost nothing.