second try

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Chicken Bone Stock ANYONE Can Make- even if you don't like cooking!


The best quality stock will come from a pastured chicken and include rooster feet. But obviously, that isn’t for everyone! Chicken stock made from a Foster Farms chicken at 99 cents a pound will be both economical and full of more nutrients than you can get in a can or box of from the store.  It will also give you usually at least 6 quarts of stock. (Two whole chickens are just $10 at Costco.) You can’t beat that, especially using food remains that most people usually throw away. It puts extra, super nutrition in your bodies and keeps money in your bank account. But this recipe will call for something even easier than one little Foster Farms chicken- a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken. By all means, if you use organic or pastured chicken, then do so, but don’t miss out on a real nourishing bone broth just because you don’t like to cook or don’t cook a whole lot, or don’t buy organic. Though the Campbell’s chicken soup can at the store with MSG in it won’t be doing much for you or your family when you are sick, chicken stock that you make this way will truly be Jewish Penicillen, and even more so with better quality chicken. Either way it beats store bought, every time. There is a reason an old proverb says a good stock will raise the dead. The value only goes up with the best chicken, but this stuff is amazing no matter what type of chicken you use. I suggest making it monthly if this is new for you, and gradually easing into making it once a week. Regardless of frequency, just get this in your diet, one way or another. It's worth it!

Below is my basic recipe, with the few new additions of garlic, peppercorns, dill and thyme inspired by the Barefoot in Paris cookbook.

1 rotisserie chicken carcass with small bits of meat still attached
(A  pastured chicken is best, organic is  second best, and antibiotic and regular but hormone free is third best. Either way, whatever you are buying, utilize it and change it from trash to superfood!)
A big pot full of filtered, fluoride free water (or us a crock pot)- use your biggest pot
1 tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 onion, chopped
1 full head of garlic, unpeeled and cut two times across the top to make an x
3 carrots, chopped
2 parsnips, chopped (optional, but helps flavor and Sprouts carries them)
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 tablespoon whole peppercorns
1 bunch of dill, snipped with scissors
1 bunch of thyme, snipped with scissors
½ bunch of parsley, roughly chopped and reserved for the last 10 minutes of simmering
2 teaspoons of celtic unrefined sea salt

  • Place the chicken carcass in your stockpot and let it sit with the vinegar for 30 minutes.
  • Boil. Skim off the foam impurities that float to the top. If you leave it will alter the taste.
  • Reduce to the lowest possible heat.
  • Now add the vegetables and herbs except for parsley.
  • Leave it simmering for two days, occasionally checking to make sure the water content remains high.
  • Yes, two days. When it is done you will possess a stock that is full of minerals and nutrients drawn out from the bones.
  • Add the chopped parsley and let it sit there for the last ten minutes of cooking.
  • You can immediately turn it into a chicken soup with some of your chicken leftovers. Or, package it in glass mason jars and put into the fridge or freezer. If you don’t have those, let it cool some and put it into a large glass container of some sort.


Here is some great information about bone stock.

“Properly prepared, meat stocks are extremely nutritious, containing the minerals of bone, cartilage, marrow and vegetables as elctrolytes, a form that is easy to assimilate. Acidic wine or vinegar added during cooking helps to draw minerals, particularly calcium, magnesium and potassium, into the broth. Dr. Francis Pottenger of the famous cat studies as well as articles on the benefits of gelatin broth, taught that the stockpot was the most important piece of equipment to have in one’s kitchen…

…Gelatin acts first and foremost as an aid to digestion and has been used successfully in the treatment of many intestinal disorders, including hyperacidity, colitis and Crohn’s disease.”

-Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon, with Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. Page 116, P. 3 and 4

Ok, so most people won't want this in their pot, but the photo below is of three roosters from our chicken family here crammed into my largest stock pot. The rooster's feet are full of gelatin which is why they make the absolutely best stock. (I immersed them in boiled water first.) I usually don't recommend putting all the meat into the stock pot, but his time I did. It takes too long to pick off the bird and gets dry being in the water long. I prefer to roast my chickens in the oven and then immediately start a stock after I get the meat off.