I’m going to assume most people don’t compost their food scraps. But do you callously throw away brocoli stalks; kale, chard, collard green stems; celery hearts; carrot tops; leek greens? So long as it isn’t rainbow chard (the red stems will die everything red), you can use these traditionally tossed items to make your own homemade chicken stock. When we have leftovers like these, we simply place them in a large ziplock bag in the freezer until we are ready to make our own stock.
When we make chicken stock, we use the left over carcass from a whole roasted chicken. We roast our own chicken at home, but if you buy roasted chicken from the store, just make sure the chicken is plain roasted and doesn’t have any weird flavors like BBQ. The chicken bones will carry the flavor from how it was cooked, so a chicken cooked on the grill or seasoned with things other than fresh herbs are going to make your chicken stock taste very weird. You can also freeze your chicken carcass until you are ready to make stock. Also, you can use any type of poultry or combination of poultry to make stock. We’ve made stock using leftovers from a turkey, duck, Cornish game hens, etc. If you’re super lucky and can get some feet, add 1 or 2 chicken feet for added deliciousness.
The key to making great chicken stock is letting all your ingredients steep like tea in hot water. You don’t want to actually cook your stock with simmering or boiling water. Although we haven’t tried it this way, you could change this recipe and make it in a large crockpot or in your oven at 250 degrees F. The main thing is that you don’t want the stock to simmer or boil.
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