Recipe - Homemade Chicken Stock Two Ways
Ingredients:
chicken breast bones and backbones (to fill your stock pot or pressure cooker 3/4 full
Chicken feet (optional) - hard to obtain - a few per container if you can get them
one large onion, peeled, cut in two
1 leek, white part only (optional) cut into 2-inch chunks
1 - 2 carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
1 - 2 celery sticks, cut into 2-inch chunks
1 - 2 bay leaves
parsley stems - as much as you have (see chef notes)
a tbsp of peppercorns
1 -2 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar - organic if possible (see chef's notes)
Stove Top Stock Pot Method:
Add all of the ingredients to the pot (3/4 full) and add water to cover.
Cook on high heat until you begin to see bubbles break through the surface of the liquid. Turn heat down to medium-low so that stock maintains a low, gentle simmer. Skim the scum from the stock with a spoon or fine mesh strainer every 10 to 15 minutes for the first hour of cooking and twice each hour for the next 2 hours. Add hot water as needed to keep bones and vegetables submerged. Simmer uncovered for to 8 hours.
Strain the stock through a fine-mesh strainer into another large stockpot or heatproof container and discarding any solids.
Cool immediately in large cooler of ice or a sink full of ice water to below 40 degrees.
Place in refrigerator overnight without a cover.
Remove solidified fat from surface of liquid the next day and store in containers with lid in refrigerator for 2 to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 6 months. Before use, bring to boil for 2 minutes. Use as a base for soups and sauces.
More ideas for storing stock - see chef's notes below.
Pressure Cooker Method (or Instant Pot) -
I use a stainless steel sieve that fits perfectly in the pot so that I am not wasting any space when adding all of my beautiful chicken bones. This method is a neat and easy way to process the stock but not necessary if you don't have an insert. The bones and other ingredients are removed quickly by just removing the sieve. Your chicken stock will be almost transparent and ready to chill.
Place a steamer basket into a stockpot, or Instant Pot then add chicken bones, vegetables, herbs and spices in into a 12-quart stockpot or Instant Pot.
Add water up to the max level line in your Instant Pot or pressure cooker.
Secure the lid and with the valve to a sealed position. Set the controls to Pressure Cook High or Soup High and set the timer to 2.5 hours.
Use slow-release and then remove the lid. Remove the insert with all of the bones and vegetables and discard.
Use another sieve to remove any more residue from the stock and refrigerate in an open container for several hours or overnight.
Remove solidified fat from surface of liquid and store in containers with lid in refrigerator for 2 to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Before use, bring to boil for 2 minutes. Use as a base for soups and sauces.
More ideas for storing stock - see chef's notes below.
Chef Notes:
Why just stems of the parsley? If you add the leaves of either the celery or parsley or any leafy herb, it will dissolve, and your stock will be cloudy
If you have limited freezer storage space, there is another way to store the chicken stock. After you have removed, the fat solids from the stock reduced over medium-high heat to 1/4 of its volume. Portion this in an icecube tray or silicone muffin tin or in a cake tin and refrigerate. It will solidify entirely into a jelly, and then you can package these individually and freeze in a zip lock bag. From there, you can add 4 times the water for each portion.
Stockpot vs Pressure Cooker - Using a stockpot will definitely take longer, and it takes more babysitting, however, depending on the size of your Pressure cooker, you may need to do it more than once to get a good yield. With the stockpot method, odours cannot be avoided. In the Pressure Cooker method, this will be significantly reduced.
Adding Apple Cider Vinegar to your stock at the beginning of the process will help break down the collagen in chicken bones, releasing extra gelatin. The result is a finished stock will gel up in the refrigerator, and you will have a more luxurious texture and taste.
You can use this luxurious chicken stock in place of beef stock in any recipe.
Why don't you add more intense flavours to the stock or season with salt? Chicken stock is used as a base for many recipes, so the finished product should not have intense flavours that may detract from whatever you are making. So all of the flavourings happens when you are cooking your recipe.