Monday Meals: Chicken Stock

It's officially soup and stew season; and the Wisconsin Test Kitchen makes A LOT of hearty, fall dishes. Last week as Rebecca was loading boxes of store-bought chicken stock into the grocery cart, she had a moment. A, "I have all the ingredients to make this at home, I need to stop buying these from the grocery store!" moment. So, the boxes of stock went back on the shelf, and the crock pots came out as soon as she got home.

Word of warning: making stock is literally an all day process. Don't decide to do this at 3pm- or you'll be up at 3am cooling and filtering the stock. Also, plan to make this when you've got a chicken carcass on hand: so, plan for a roast chicken dinner on Saturday, and make stock on Sunday. We happened to have three chicken carcasses in the freezer, so we made 3 batches of stock. Yes, we go through that much chicken stock... We now have 2 jars in the fridge and 2 in the freezer. 

Homemade Chicken Stock
Recipe courtesy of: Wonky Wonderful


1 Chicken Carcass (leftover roasted chicken, bones and all)
6 Celery Stalks & Leaves - halved
5 Carrots - halved
1 Yellow Onion - quartered
Handful Fresh Parsley
1/2 Lemon
Generous Pinch Salt & Pepper
2 Quarts (8 cups) Filtered Water

Optional: I added a bit of fresh ground ginger 

Place all ingredients into large slow cooker.

Cook on low for 10-12 hours.

Turn off heat, remove lid and allow to cool 30 minutes.
Strain broth and transfer to airtight container.

Refrigerate until use.

Notes
*Refrigerate overnight then scrape fat from top for a low fat broth*
Use or freeze within 1 week

So, what do you make with all this delicious stock? Here are a few of our favorite Cool Dads recipes:

Crock Pot Chicken Soup

Irish Vegetable Soup

Tuscan Chicken Soup

Creamy Chicken & Mushroom Soup

Try a batch of our chicken stock, and let us know what you end up making with it!

Stay Cool,
The Cool Dads Crew