I wrote “How to Make Homemade Chicken Stock” in a post a couple of weeks ago, but decided it’s important enough to deserve it’s own post.  Yesterday, I needed to make some more and had just bought a rotisserie chicken, so I thought I’d document the process for you in photos.  My friend Amy tried this for the first time the other day (Woo Hoo Ames!) and had some questions along the way…so in an effort to serve you all better, I hope all these pictures help!

PS. I just copied below what I’d written in the post before.  But now, I’m adding pictures!!!

First I’m going to tell you how to make homemade chicken stock…the cheater’s way!  Step 1. Go to Sams or Costco or the grocery store and get a rotisserie chicken. Step 2. Eat the chicken for lunch or dinner with simple sides. Step 3. SAVE every single piece of that carcass and the juice in the bottom of the pan. Even fill the bottom dish from the chicken with water to add to your pot and get every last flavorful dripping you can out of that thing!

 Step 4. Put all of that in a stockpot. (The one I’ve used here is an 8qt pot.) Quarter an onion. Cut some celery into about 3 inch lengths (I’d say maybe 3 stalks, and yes, the leaves can stay on the celery…they’re flavorful!) Put some carrots in too…maybe a cup or so. These can be cut big as well, or you can really cheat and use baby carrots. Put a couple Tbsp minced garlic, salt, pepper, I put some Lawry’s seasoned salt, maybe a tsp of thyme, and a Tbsp parsley flakes..

 Fill the pot up with lots of water, a  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer a long time UNCOVERED…at least 3 hours, and up to about 8 makes it really great!

 This is how my pot looked when I started at about noon. I even measured the water line so you can see what will happen over time.

This was after about 3 hours.  The stock had evaporated over an inch worth of liquid.

And then below after 6 hours it’d lost another inch!  The longer you cook it, the more concentrated it gets!

Concentration = loads of flavor!

The darker the color, the richer the broth.  When you’re done, strain out all the bones and veggies and store the stock.  I normally just freeze mine in about 6 cup (that’s 1 1/2 qts) containers, so I can use it whenever I want. Also if you’ve made it really concentrated, then when you make soup or something with it, you can usually add as much water as you have stock to make more.  So if you have 4c. stock, then add 4 c. water and your broth will still taste super rich.

This is what my finished product looked like after about 7 hours simmering once I ran it through a strainer to get all the bones and things out.

Make sure that you say things like “oui, oui” and “bon appetit” when you make this, you’ll be very European now making your own stock and all.

I thought it’d be more fun for Tid Bit (I’m in the process of coming up with a new nickname for him on here because i can’t keep track) if we made cookies together and decorated them with fun icing and each child’s name (clearly I’ll do the penning.)  We’re going to put them in the boxes and give those along with the Valentine’s cards that he’s working on. 

I’ll post pictures of the entire finished product once it’s actually finished…closer to Valentine’s Day, and I’ll put a Fab-O sugar cookie recipe that I recently discovered below.  It uses powdered sugar instead of regular granulated, resulting in a really shortbready tasting cookie…DELISH!  I scoured the internet and cookbooks to find the perfect recipe and for now, this one is about as perfect as I can find! And it makes really good thick cookies, which i love.  I guess if you’re a thin cookie person though, that’s just all up to you and your rolling pin!  To make the icing just mix powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk (or soymilk) til it’s the consistency you want.

(And as another side note for my friends who have food allergies like my little guy, to make this recipe dairy free, i substituted 1/2 the amount of butter with Fleishman’s Unsalted Margarine, and 1/2 with Earth Balance Buttery Sticks which i buy at Whole foods.  You really need to mix the two to get it right.  The margarine makes a flavorful, but super soft and sticky dough by itself, and the buttery sticks sometimes have a slightly oily taste but have a harder consistency…by mixing the 2, you’ll keep a good buttery flavor from the margarine and keep the texture right from the buttery sticks.)

Amazing Sugar Cookies
yield: about 75 medium cookies

• 24 ounces butter (softened)
• 20 ounces powdered sugar (sifted)
• 3 whole eggs, plus
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 ounce vanilla extract
• 1/4 ounce almond extract
• 6 1/2 cups flour

1. With paddle attachment, mix butter for 30 seconds. Add a 1/3 of the powdered sugar, mix on first speed for 1 minute. Add another 1/3 of the powdered sugar, mix another minute. Finally, add the last 1/3 of sugar, mix 1 minute.
2. Combine eggs, vanilla, and almond extract together, add to butter/sugar mixture. Mix for 30 seconds.
3. Add a 1/3 of the flour, mix 1 minute.
4. Scrape.
5. Add the next 1/3 of the flour, mix 2 minutes.
6. Scrape.
7. Add the final 1/3 of the flour, mix 3 minutes.
8. Refrigerate until able to be rolled out and cut into desired shapes. (if you’re using the dairy free version i told above,  I’d refrigerate it AT LEAST 24 hrs before rolling out to make sure it really sets up.) Bake at 350 for 9-15 minutes depending on the size you cut them!)

Ok…got to run. The Hubs gets every other Friday off from work, so I don’t want to spend too long on here!

Logan

As promised earlier…recipe for Brunswick Stew!  I really don’t think that you can mess this up unless you burn it on the bottom of the pan, but I’ll tell you what i do most of the time (because every time it’s a tad different based upon what i have in the pantry!)

Make this in the morning because it MUST cook all day if you want it to be amazing…which I’m sure you do! And for you working gals out there…throw it all in the crockpot for the whole day and it ought to turn out wonderfully! I’m a stockpot kind of person ,when I can, because I like walking by and giving it a stir!

First I’m going to tell you how to make homemade chicken stock…the cheater’s way!  Step 1. Go to Sams or Costco or the grocery store and get a rotisserie chicken. Step 2. Eat the chicken for lunch or dinner with simple sides. Step 3. SAVE every single piece of that carcass and the juice in the bottom of the pan. Step 4. Put all of that in a stockpot. Quarter an onion (use the method i showed you earlier today!) Cut some celery into about 3 inch lengths (I’d say maybe 3-4 stalks). Put some carrots in too…maybe a cup or so. These can be cut big as well, or really cheat and use baby carrots. Put a couple Tbsp minced garlic.  Fill the pot up with lots of water, and add salt, pepper, I put some Lawry’s seasoned salt, maybe a tsp of thyme, and a Tbsp parsley flakes.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer a long time UNCOVERED…at least 3 hours, and up to about 8 makes it really great!  The darker the color, the richer the broth.  When you’re done, strain out all the bones and veggies and store the stock.  I normally just freeze mine in about 6 cup (that’s 1 1/2 qts) containers, so I can use it whenever I want. Also if you’ve made it really concentrated, then when you make soup or something with it, you can usually add as much water as you have stock to make more.  So if you have 4c. stock, then add 4 c. water and your broth will still taste super rich.  Also, make sure that you say things like “oui, oui” and “bon appetit” when you make this, you’ll be very European now making your own stock and all.

Ok. Now for the Brunswick Stew.
Ingredients.
cooked chicken (you can use a whole chicken, a rotisserie one, about 6 breasts. It doesn’t matter…just cook it first and rough chop it. It’ll get all shreddy in the soup)
2-ish qts chicken stock or canned broth (stock makes everything richer tasting…see above for how to make it.)
1 can rotele tomatoes
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
2 cans creamed corn (today I only had 1 can creamed corn, so I used one of regular corn too…)
1 bag frozen baby butter beans
4 potatoes diced (any kind is fine…today I had baking potatoes that were huge so I just used 3)
2 c. chopped carrots
2 med onions diced (again, I had giant onions today, so I just used 1)
about 3 Tbsp brown sugar
about 3-4 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 lb BBQ pulled pork (buy this already made somewhere. But, if you don’t have it, or don’t have time to get it like me today…omit it.  Just makes it better, but it’s amazing even without the pork.)

Put all of this in a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer…all day!  Your pot will reduce by at least 1/3 or more. Make sure you scrape the bottom well when you stir it so it doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pot.

You will love this.  And, it makes a lot…so share it or freeze it, or eat it every day for lunch the rest of the week!  I’d love to know what you think of it when you try it, so be sure to leave a comment!

**After I initially wrote this post I did a step by step guide to making homemade chicken stock (complete with pictures and everything.)  I linked it up top, but if you missed it, you can click HERE to hop over and learn how!