Homemade stock is one of the healthiest, cheapest, and easiest way to introduce delicious nourishing food in to your diet. When I say easy - I mean EASY! I don't lie. Ever. Ok, I just lied about that, but I didn't lie about the stock.
When you're cutting up veggies throughout the months, save all the peels, tops, and parts you wouldn't eat, and keep them in a Ziploc in your freezer. This will be a major ingredient for a healthy stock, and it's something you were literally going to throw away or compost (you were totally going to compost it, weren't you? Just say yes because it will make me happy).
The next time you roast a chicken -whether in the oven or in the crockpot - keep the carcass (sounds delish when I put it like that, right?) to make the stock.
Stock it to me
1 chicken carcass (off to a great start...)
2 tblsp of apple cider vinegar. Plain white vinegar will work too
Garlic
Salt & pepper to taste
Discarded veggies
Stock recipes usually have you simmering a pot on the stove for hours. No thanks I say. Here is my crockpot I say. Who am I saying this to? No one knows. Troy is gone all the time. I get lonely. And weird.
Place the carcass in the crockpot along with the veggies, vinegar, and seasoning. Cover with water and set the crockpot on high for about 2 hours. Reduce your crockpot temp to low and allow it to cook for 24 hours. See why you should use the crockpot instead of your stove? Do you want to keep your stove on for 24 hours? I don't!
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| Doesn't that look disgusting? |
Put a strainer over a large bowl, and slowly pour the contents of the crockpot in to the strainer.
I usually discard the chicken and veggies because at this point, they're mush. I then either run the broth through a metal sieve, or I place my little metal sieve over the tops of pint or quart jars and ladle the broth in to the jars. The metal sieve is a great step to make sure you have a broth free of bits.
At this point, you can allow the broth to cool, and then freeze. Now that I have a pressure canner, I can them according to directions that came with my canner.
The apple cider vinegar is rumored to pull all the good nutrients out of the bones and allow it make your stock nice and gelatinous (yum!). Don't worry, you won't be making chicken noodle jell-o soup; the stock turns in to liquid again when heated.
Don't just save this stuff for soups; stock is a great substitution for water when cooking rice, veggies, etc.
This is a great use for the turkey after it has been picked clean after Thanksgiving! You can also use beef bones as well, but I'd recommend you roast them in the oven for an hour or so before placing them in the crockpot.Labels: Canning, Chicken, Crockpot cookin', Main dishes, Poverty Cookbook
