Simple Chicken and Veggie Stock (Homemade Chicken Broth)

I bought a giant family pack of chicken thighs on Friday, anticipating that I'll be cooking next week. I buy family packs and divide the meat once I buy it into single serving portions. The majority gets deboned, skinned, diced, and into little sandwich baggies for the freezer. (all labeled neatly with the date of course) Its not a clean job, but that one hour of prepping the chicken saves me a lot of time come Tuesday night when I hate my job, my life, and all I want is stir fry and a pillow.

Like my mom (the master of penny pinching), I save the thigh bones in a nice big quart sized freezer bag. When the bag is full, I make chicken stock! Now homemade chicken stock is awesome for a few reasons: you save money, you can save the stock into the portions you need, and you can tailor the stock just how you like it! Personally, canned broth tends to be too salty for me and I actually only want half the can. Which means, I pour in a quarter of  a can, then a quarter cup of water, and then have to figure out how to save the rest. :-P I like my broth a little less concentrated, not too salty, and with a good round veggie flavor.

Homemade Chicken Stock

Olive oil
1 quart bag of chicken bones (no skin, remove as much fat as you can, defrosted!! Having leftover meat on the bones is cool.)
3 cloves garlic
2 coins of ginger root
1 big carrot
2 ribs celery
1 onion
1 parsnip (optional)
1 bay leaf (sorta optional)
salt, pepper to taste

The process:

1. Large dice the veggies (mirepoix, as the French say. Smash the garlic cloves with the back of your knife and cut two coins of ginger root, about a millimeter thick. This stuff doesn't need to be pretty, so no pressure to be exact about keeping things the same size.
2. Get a large stock pot (say 4 quarts?). Put it on the burner on high heat, add a tablespoon of olive oil, and let the pan heat up first for about 30 seconds.
3. Dump the chicken bones in. You're looking to sear/brown the bones. Sounds unnecessary, but definitely gives your stock a better flavor. The brown bits will stick to the bottom of the pan. Brown bits = yummy.
4. Dump in your onions, garlic and ginger and turn the heat down to medium high. Mix them around with your trusty wooden spoon and scrape the bottom of the pan to "deglaze" the brown bits. The water in the onions will help the brown bits come off.
5. Add the celery, carrots, and parsnip. Make sure you've gotten as much of the brown bits off as you can.
6. Add water and the bay leaves. Add enough to cover the bone/veggie mix and then some. For me this ended up being 3.5 quarts. Don't fill to the absolute top of the pot or once it boils you have a mess.
7. Leave it alone for a bit (a good time to clean up). When the pot starts to simmer, turn it down so it stays at a simmer and does not boil. About 20 minutes in, you'll start seeing a lot of gray scum float to the top of the stock. Its totally normal. Start skimming off the scum with your ladle, being careful not to get too much stock with it. (This is a skill you'll have to practice). Dump the scum down the sink and run some hot water after it. As the stock continues to simmer, check back every 20 minutes or so, skimming more scum off each time. Eventually you'll get it most of it.If you don't get rid of the scum or accidentally let the stock boil in the scum, you get cloudy chicken broth. It won't kill you, but it looks pretty gross.
   
   
   
   
   
8. After you get most of the scum (say an hour after you add the water?) add the pepper and salt. I used about 2 teaspoons of salt and a teaspoon of pepper for my 3 quarts. Let the pot simmer for about three hours. The longer the better really. I let mine sit overnight. Taste it periodically and see how you're doing. 
9. Drain! I usually spoon just plain broth into ziplocs. As I get to the bottom of the pot and its hard to navigate around all the goodness on the bottom, grab a sieve and another pot or pitcher and drain the whole thing. While there's not much left to do with the bones, I personally love the veggies and I'll eat them right up. The chicken veggie mix is perfect to take it one step further for chicken soup, when you just add in a handful of rice or noodles and diced chicken.

How to store it:
ice cube trays
Ziploc sandwich sized bags (store it upright, lined up in a container. Break off pieces as needed.)

What to do with it: soup, flavoring veggies or rice, deglazing pans, making sauces.