Crock Pot Chicken Stock Recipes

CHICKEN BROTH IN A SLOW COOKER

Steps:

• Place the chicken pieces, water, celery, carrots, onion, and basil in a slow cooker.
• Cook on Low setting for 8 to 10 hours. Strain before using, and discard vegetables. Chicken may be removed from the bones, and used in soup.

CROCK POT CHICKEN STOCK

Steps:

• After eating the cooked chickens for the original chicken dinners pick all meat from bones and reserve for other purposes.
• Break the bones apart so that they'll fit better into the crock pot.
• Put bones, skin, and fat from the chickens and the giblets, if available, into a 6qt crock pot.
• Add vegetables.
• Add cold water until crock pot is full to 1 1/2 inches below the rim.
• Cook on high 4 hours and then on low for another 6-8 hours.
• Strain the stock through a colander or cheesecloth and chill to solidify the fat for easy removal.
• Portion out and freeze stock in whatever quantities suit your needs.
• Tip -- Be sure that the water is COLD. Cold water draws the goodness out of the bones and veggies while hot water seals it inches So for stock you want to start with cold water and heat slowly to draw all the flavor into the stock while for cooking the meat/veggies to eat those you would plunge them into boiling water and cook rapidly to preserve the flavor in the meat/veggies.
• Tip -- Don't avoid using the fat. It adds flavor as it simmers and you remove it at the end anyway.
• Tip -- Unless your budget dictates that no possible source of protein/calories should be overlooked any meat that might be remaining on the bones is not worth salvaging because it will be mushy and tasteless.
• Tip -- This strong, jellied stock can be diluted with up to an equal quantity of water if you need to stretch the supply.
• Tip -- If one of the other uses you have for the chicken meat is chicken salad or any other dish that calls for celery you can substitute the leaves and trimmings from several celery stocks instead of using whole stalks.
• Tip -- Some people use the onions peel and all. I find stock made that way can be a touch bitter. But it does give a very rich color when using yellow onions. Try it once to see if you like it. (If you don't the stock is not wasted because you can use it in curry where the intensity of the spices will overpower the unwanted flavor anyway).
• Tip -- you can save chicken carcasses and giblets in the freezer until wanted.
• Tip -- You can substitute turkey or use a mix of turkey and chicken if you have it on hand.

CROCK POT CHICKEN STOCK

Steps:

• Collect chicken bones and veggies and freeze until ready to use (or until you don't have any more space in your freezer and need to clean something out!).
• Place everything in your crock pot's ceramic liner, and fill with cold water to within one inch of the rim.
• Cook on high several hours until boiling, then turn back to low several hours (the total time could be as short as 4 hours, or as long as 24--it just depends on how long you want to leave it).
• Fish out all the bones and veggies.
• Let cool about an hour, and then strain, using a colander and a layer of paper towels, or a clean dish towel, into a clean container large enough to hold all the liquid.
• Place in the refrigerator several hours or overnight.
• Skim the fat off the top, and store in freezer bags in your freezer (which hopefully now has room for about 12 cups of stock!).