Chicken Stock

If you know me, you know I am not a fan of eating anything that resembles an animal. Bones, blood, even dark meat on a bird just makes me nauseous, and once I usually see any of it, there is no way I am eating it. Well, you will be proud to know that I made my very first whole chicken tonight, and ate it too. When I was a teenager, my mom had bought a thing of chicken parts, and asked me to clean it up. She never asked me to do that again, because I cut everything I could off the meat and tossed it. I think we all had a very small dinner that night.

Anyway, for some reason, I was grocery shopping a few weeks ago, I decided that I was craving rotisserie chicken. But I live in Kenosha, and our grocery stores don't do that. So I bought a 5 pound chicken and a bag of seasoning. Then I started thinking, what in the world am I going to do with 5 pounds of cooked chicken. So chicken stock it is. And once again, you all should be proud of me because after I ate my dinner, I stood there and tore up the rest of the chicken. But I would rather not talk about that.

Chicken Stock:
Chicken, leftovers, bones, everything but the gizzards and the neck
Carrots, chopped into 3" pieces
Celery, leaves and all, chopped into 3" pieces
Whole yellow onion, skin included, cut into quarters
1 Bay leaf

Toss everything into a stock pot. Cover with cold water. Bring to just a boil, and reduce to a simmer. It is important to not let it come to a rolling boil. Check it every half hour for the first few hours and skim off the foam that rises to the top. Let it simmer until the broth is the right consistency and taste for you. You may have to add more water if the level gets to low in the pot.

Once the stock is done to your liking, remove it from the stove, and pour it through a fine mesh strainer to remove all the chicken parts and veggies.

Put the strained stock into the fridge and let it cool down. Once cold, remove the layer of fat that has accumulated on the top. At this point, I divided the stock in half, some to freeze for sauces, and some for soup.

For chicken noodle soup, I brought the stock to a simmer, and tossed in bite sized pieces of carrots, celery, peas and a few cloves of garlic. In another pot, I boiled egg noodles (can use rice also). When the veggies were tender, I added in the cooked pasta, and the chicken, and simmer for a few minutes to warm the chicken. Next time, I think I will add some cold water to the stock, and boil the noodles in it rather then a separate pot.

The soup turned out well, but next time I will use uncooked chicken so that the broth with be a little less savory.