TCC&#39;s Favorite Chicken Stock

If you are like me, you use stock instead of water whenever you can in recipes. If I am cooking a dish of veg or meat or both, and it says add water, you can bet your next beer that I'm ignoring the suggestion and dropping some stock bombs on that recipe. Each pod in this recipe is 1/2 cup of concentrated stock. Use one of these for every 2 cups of water or stock/broth called for in the recipe. Just add the remaining water to equal the liquid called for.

NOTE: It is not uncommon to cook a stock for up to 72 hours. This reduces the bones to a sandy, mealy texture and guarantees a rich and nutritional stock.

3 frozen carcasses I got from my butcher for free!

Chicken carcasses or bones and bits can be obtained from your local butcher for mere pennies OR sometimes they will throw them in for free if you purchase something else. Just ask. Your butcher can't keep all of it and if they don't make it into stock themselves they usually throw it away. I find it a crying shame when I see recipes for broth or stock that calls for actual chicken breasts or thighs or legs. An utter waste of good meat. Don't be afraid of the food that doesn't look perfect. In fact, challenge yourself to find uses for the parts of fruit, meat, and veg that you usually discard.

Ingredients:
2-3 Chicken carcasses or accumulated leftover bits and bones
2 large onions, quartered - Do not peel. keep those skins on!
2 bay leaves, whole
1/4 tsp black peppercorns
1 Tbl salt
Lots of water

Place all items into a large pot and fill with enough water to fully submerge. Cook on high until boiling then reduce to simmer. Cook for 4 - 6 hours. 4 - 6 HOURS! WHAT! Read further down for bone crushing reason.

Every hour or so give the pot a really good stir. At the 3 hour mark begin mashing the contents of the pot with a potato masher. Mash gently. Most of the bones won't be willing to bend to your will just yet. You'll be doing this a few more times so no need to gorilla crush everything into goo. Slowly press down onto the ingredients to loosen connective tissues and crack the bones. Why? The bones contain gelatin. We want that gelatin! Read up on the health benefits of gelatin from Grass Fed Girl. When the contents have reduced by half and the resulting color is a lovely light brown (from the onion skins), then strain into a large bowl. Go slow as the contents are still hot. Discard the meaty pulp. It isn't safe for consumption by human or animal as the bones are dangerous, even at the state they are in.

Place the stock back into your pot and cook on high until the contents have been reduced by half again.
(This part is optional. I do this for freezing purposes as you will see below).

After stock had reduced by half, turn off heat and let cool completely (1-2 hours). When cool, pour into pre-staged containers (pods).
The pods I am using here are 120ml (4 oz) cups. I'm only filling them to the 3 oz mark.