Homemade chicken stock, and the soup it makes.

So, the other night I roasted a chicken in the crock pot. Might sound strange but it comes out great! Very juicy and tasty. It doesn't get that lovely crackly skin, but it is fall off the bone tender. I use this recipe: The Best Whole Chicken In A Crock Pot. For this particular chicken, I also stuffed the cavity with fresh thyme, rosemary, garlic cloves and lemon. In the crock pot under the chicken, I put a chopped onion, and some fennel stalks. Last time I made this, we ate it with rice pilaf and some sort of veggie, if I remember correctly. This time we make soft tacos with sour cream, cheese, shredded red cabbage, sliced radishes and cilantro. Yum! 

Once the bones were picked clean, it was time to make stock!  I tossed the carcass and the bits that had been stuffed inside the cavity back into the crock pot with the leftover soggy onions and fennel. To this I added more onion, more garlic, some chopped celery, and carrot. Some salt and some peppercorns, a couple of bay leaves and a chunk of fresh ginger. I think that was it? I have a tendency to cook with an "everything but the kitchen sink" style, so I may have added other stuff from the fridge. Next, the crock pot was filled with water and turned on low.

Magic in the making.

After cooking for a very long time (I cooked mine for 12 hours, but mostly because I was too tired to deal with it in the morning, so it continued cooking till afternoon) I poured it through a strainer into a large bowl. Then I poured it through a mesh strainer to make sure I got all the non-stock bits out. You can skip the second strainer step if you have a large enough fine mesh strainer, but I do not. So two steps it was!

White strainer, purple bowl, incredible scent.

The stock, and the "bits".

Straining, step two, to get all the wee gross bits out.

Now you have homemade stock! You can do this with any meat bones- beef, pork, even fish heads. You can also make veggie stock easily this way. Homemade stock is healthy and so dang nutritious.

After finishing the stock, I threw together a small pot of soup, to celebrate. To three cups of stock, I added some chopped potatoes and brought to a simmer. I then added some chopped yellow farmer's market carrots and some celery. After these had cooked through, I added some beautiful farmer's market chard, some celery greens (also from the farmer's market and a favorite of mine!) and some of the leftover chopped chicken. Simmered for a few more minutes and then it was ready! This was so great. I know if I had made the same soup using purchased stock or stock cubes, it would have been tasty, but the homemade stuff really elevates it.