Roasted Chicken Stock

Stocks are very important when making food for several reasons. They are the base for making many more delicious dishes because they are flavor builders, meaning they add flavor, color, and wholesomeness to soups, rice, braised foods and more.

Stocks are also a way to utilize scraps and bones.  You can make stock from beef, veal, chicken, duck, and even pork bones.  I also will make stocks from vegetable trimmings and with mushroom steams which have a lot of wonderful flavor.

Above is an example of a roasted chicken stock, I prefer to do a roasted chicken stock (rather than a raw bone stock) because I feel it adds further complexity and deeper color and it is a good way to utilize bones from when I roast a whole chicken (which is how I generally prefer to buy my chicken).

Here is what to do with bones from one whole chicken (it can be larger than this if you have the bones for it).

1 - carcass of a chicken (they can be raw or from a previously roasted chicken)
2/3 - medium carrots, roughly chopped
2/3 - stalks of celery (or it equivalent, i usually use the tops and save the center of the stalk for later)
1 - medium or large onion diced (I usually don't peel the onion either)

Then I will put the vegtables on the bottom of a large sheet tray and lay the bones on top


Break the body of the bird up to make the pieces a little smaller and easier to roast and to fin into your pot.


Roast in a 425 - 450 degree oven 10 - 15 minutes until some browning has occurred (cook a little longer for raw bones)

Remove from oven and place all ingredients in a large stock pot, cover with water about 2-3 inches above the product. Add whole peppercorns, a few bay leaves, I like to add a few thyme stems (parsley or other herb stems can be added here as well.

Turn your range onto medium heat and bring to a gentle simmer, reduce heat to medium/low or so it occasionally will produce bubbles.

During the first hour or two skip off the foam from the surface (these are impurities but they won't harm you if you skip this step)

Simmer your stock for 4-6 hours, strain out the product when finished and chill over night.  In the morning skim off and fat from the top and enjoy your fresh stock or what I often will do is I will use my food saver to package 1 quart bags and then I will freeze them.  Then you can quickly thaw them out when you need some stock.