Having your own chicken stock on hand is a great 'pantry' (or freezer) staple. It tastes infinitely better than the storebought version, and can be altered to suit your own needs. But instead of using a big stockpot on the stovetop, keeping an eye on the water level, heating up the kitchen and generally making a mess over the course of a day - using a slow cooker means you can get it done without worrying and with exactly the same benefits.
Using the Slow Cooker for Chicken Stock
Once the slow cooker is filled and put on, it can bubble away on its own without the water escaping, so there's no need to worry about the fluid level evaporating, the pot burning or about your kitchen heating up, a bonus in the heat of Summer. The slow cooker uses less electricity than the stovetop does, so it is economical, and combined with the chicken carcass and the vegetable scraps from your freezer can provide good healthy stock, far cheaper than the storebought version. The stock can be put together into the slow cooker before you go to bed, when it can simmer away on Low while you sleep, filling the house with good smells and doing all the work so it is ready to sieve and refrigerate in the morning or when you have more time.
Homemade Chicken Stock is Economical
Chicken stock can be made with the leftover bones of chicken dinners, collected and frozen until there are enough to use for stock. Similarly, vegetable scraps from peelings and odds and ends can be kept and frozen for stock too. Even throwing in leftover baked vegetables can flavour up a stock. The celery that looks a little sad and wilted at the bottom of the fridge can go in, and so can the carrots that are too soft for carrot sticks as long as they aren't mouldy, and if you have herbs growing in your garden, pick a few of your favorite as a personalised bouquet garni.
Basic Chicken Stock Recipe for the Slow Cooker
This recipe makes a large amount of stock and can be halved or doubled to suit the size of the slow cooker and/or the weight of ingrediants available (i.e. halve the recipe if you only have one kilo (2.2 pounds) of chicken carcasses in the freezer) but remember that when using the slow cooker, it will cook faster if it is under half full.
For a large Slow Cooker
Ingredients:
- Water to cover:
- 2 kilo (4.5 lbs) of chicken pieces, carcasses, or a whole weight of chicken (a boiler is good and cheap)
- 2 onions peeled and quartered
- 3 stalks of celery, roughly chopped, leaves included
- 2 carrots, peeled and halved
- 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and squashed (more if you prefer)
- 1 teaspoon peppercorns
- 2 - 3 bayleaves
- a few sprigs of thyme, parsley and rosemary (any or all of these if available fresh, or a tsp of dried if not)
Directions:
- Throw all these into the slow cooker, add water to cover, put the lid on and set to Low for 10 to 12 hours, or High for 5 to 6 hours. Salt after tasting.
- When cooked, pass the stock through a fine sieve, remove meat from chicken, and set aside if a whole bird was used. Once cooled, refrigerate the liquid and skim the fat that rises to the top if desired. Stock keeps refrigerated for approx. 4 days, or can be frozen for up to 6 months.
- It really is such a casual recipe, all manner of options exist and the stock can be made according to what you have in the fridge. Any of the following can be added: tomatoes, dried mushrooms, leeks, leftover root vegetables.
Tips for Making Chicken Stock
Roasting the chicken carcass bones before putting them in the stock, adds a great depth of flavour and darkens the color of the stock.
An instant chicken soup can be made by using a whole chicken to make the stock, removing the meat and freezing it in a portion of the liquid. All that is required to make the soup is to defrost the liquid and meat, and add vegetables or noodles (or neither) as it is heated through.
Whole chicken, or meaty pieces produce a better flavour stock, with more fat. Cheap pieces such as wings, necks, backs and drums can be used for this purpose, as can whole boilers.
Remember, the next time the family has a roast chicken dinner, or even a barbecue chicken from the store, to save the leftover bones and freeze them for making stock with. Leftover baked root vegetables from dinner can go in for added flavour too.
Saving the bones from a roast turkey dinner will probably provide enough weight to make a turkey stock from just one meal using exactly the same method.
Making your own stock is wonderfully frugal, and lets you know exactly what is going into your family's food. Using the slow cooker means you don't have to supervise evey minute, and helps your energy bill too. The slow cooker is an easy way to make chicken stock, and well worth a try.
For other stock ideas, see also Homemade Vegetable Stock in the Slow Cooker and Homemade Beef Stock in the Slow Cooker.
Alyson Hill - Alyson is finding her feet at 40! She lives on five acres in Australia with three kids, a husband, and a menagerie. And while she happily ...
