I can't advise you on the ingredients but when I made stock I put it in plastic bags, flattened. You can stack them easily once they freeze and I don't question but what you can use jars and I don't believe they have to be canning jars. JMHO.

jude

I make stock all the time usually I freeze in small dollar store "tupperware" containers. Never more than two cups to a container.

Don't use any really strong tasting veggies or herbs, it limits your use after the fact.

I only use carrot, onion and celery. Salt and pepper of course, a bay leaf too. Anything else gets added latter depending on what I am using the stock for.

I don't use carrots, they make the stock too sweet; but do use celery, onion, a garlic clove or two, bay leaf, parsley and a stem of thyme. Also, for clear stock don't boil it, let it barely simmer.

I use a big variety of veggies in my chicken stock.....I learned from Renee/Bubbe....and believe me it's the best.
I use chicken wings...as they have a good lot of bone and skin where the flavor is...
And I use an onion, skin and all, a leek 5 or 6 cloves of garlic, a couple of carrots, a couple of parsnips, couple of stalks of celery, all the stems from a big bunch of parsley...a well washed sweet potato cut into chunks and a lemon halved and seeded, a spoonfull of peppercorns about a tablespoon full of salt a couple of bay leaves and the kitchen sink!! LOL!
Seriously...it's fabulous...simmered for about 6 hours, strained through muslin and chilled and defatted.

I used to simmer mine, but since I acquired an electric pressure cooker I use that almost exclusively, now.

I use a chicken carcass fom a roast chicken dinner, may add some wings if I need to. Onion, celery and carrots, parsley, salt, pepper, thyme and a bay leaf.

I do like Sharon and freeze in cheap plastic ontainers, 2 cups per.

You will never go back to canned! I make all my own stock, now. Even have some shrimp shells in the freezer to make seafood stock! I save beef bones, and have even made ham stock from ham bones. It's delicious in navy bean soup!

Linda

I'm a Genuine Jewish Mother, and I have a pot of chicken soup on the stove right now.

I use an onion (peeled), carrots, and celery -- no leaves. Salt and pepper. I discard the onion but serve the celery and carrots. Sometimes I put dill in, but I don't really notice much difference.

Put the chicken in the pot, almost fill with water, and bring to a hard boil. Reduce heat and skim. Add about 2 T salt and some fresh ground pepper and the vegetables. Cover and simmer a long time.

Two very important factors:

(1) use a KOSHER chicken, or if you can't find one, the biggest, fattest, oldest organic one you can find. Even non-Jewish foodies insist on them; taste SO much better.

Thanks to Lindac's tip to me, the pot on the stove right now is with just wings. Otherwise I use a pullet.

(2) Cook it for a LONG time. Mine is going on 5 hours now. Then chill it overnight and remove some, but not all, of the fat. If it cooks way down, you can add more water without defeating the purpose; it will keep that very rich taste.

I freeze the leftovers in bags, usually one big one for another meal and some 1-cup and 1/2-cup (sandwich and snack bags) bags for cooking. Usually I can just put it right into whatever I'm cooking still frozen.

Eat! Eat!

If they are available in your area - Smart Chicken is a very good chicken. They are not old (and those do make the best stock!) - but they are wonderful tasting.

I cook until the meat is tender, remove the meat and return the bones to the stock for a long simmer.

Melissa:
I do the same as Marigene but use a whole Chicken, cut up.
A lot cheaper !!!
Also, I sometimes put all the veggies in a Sachet and just heave it when done.

If I want to use the Chicken meat for something else ,like Chicken Salad,
I'll pull the meat off the Breast and Thighs when tender.

I cheat a lot and use Chicken Soup Base. Just add water.
LOU

Iowa girl....where do you live? I am about 25 miles east of Des Moines....where can I buy a smart chicken?

Here chicken stock is made using hens, (the older birds) and they are sold separately just for that. Otherwise I will buy carcasses.

Here we can buy

Soup Ingredients:

Homemade chicken stock - about 2 quarts
2 carrots - diced
2 stalks celery - diced
1 leek - diced
1 cup diced rutabaga or orange squash
1/2 cup fine soup noodles
salt & pepper
oil or chicken fat

Ratio of solids to stock should be about 2 cups stock to 1 lb chopped vegetables. Add any more chopped veg if you don't have enough.

Stock ingredients:

1 meaty chicken carcass or piece of whole chicken
2 heads of garlic
1 onion - cut in half
celery stick - sliced
1 carrot sliced
fresh thyme - large sprig
1 bay leaf
black pepper & salt

MAKING STOCK:

1. Early in day or day before:
Preheat oven to 350F. Cut top off heads of garlic.

2. Put bones into a very large pot. Squeeze one head of the buttery garlic cloves into the stock pot, saving the other head of garlic for adding to the soup. Add the rest of the stock ingredients and fill pot with water to cover. Grind in fresh pepper. Bring to boil, turn down heat, put on lid and simmer for a couple of hours.
Skim off any grey residue that rises to the top.

3. Afterwards, strain the solid debris from the stock ---(REMEMBER you're saving the stock so don't pour it down the sink - as has been done LOL !).
I look through the solids and pick out the meaty chicken pieces to save for the soup. Throw away all the rest of the solid material.
Here I let it cool and refrigerate until next day when it's easy to remove solid fat from top. Otherwise continue to make soup.

MAKING THE SOUP:

1. Sauté the chopped ingredients in a frypan in a TBS of chicken fat or oil until lightly golden. Squeeze out the buttery cloves from the 2nd head of garlic and add to pan.

2. Put soup ingredients including small bits of chicken into large saucepan and add an appropriate amount of stock - about double the amount of liquid to vegetables.
Put on lid and simmerwith lid on for about an hour. Add soup noodles during last 5 minutes.

3. Check seasoning, add salt.

SharonCb

I find the more expensive it is to make a stock the longer it will sit in the freezer waiting to be used for a "special" soup or something. Kind of defeats the purpose. So while I like to add stuff like celery, leeks, carrots and a bouquet garni of fresh herbs, I will not go out and buy them just for stock. The only thing that's a given for me is chicken, onion, bay leaf, peppercorns.

I'll save a carcass if I butcher a chicken (I've never used roasted - should try that) but I don't go out of my way to buy whole chickens for this purpose. Like Sharon, I can buy stripped carcasses for $.59/lb and this saves me freezer space and the cost of ziploc bags.

I don't make much soup, so for me one cup portions are a good size to freeze.

If/when I can find them (usually a 15 minute drive, no big deal), I toss in a few chicken feet - they add a delicious element. We don't eat or serve them, though, LOL.

I save the bones from chicken breasts, the wings, necks, and backs, and have them in a big freezer bag labeled "Chicken for Stock". When I have enough to make a goodly batch of stock, I put the chicken parts in a large pot with outer stems of celery, a carrot, a yellow onion with the skin on (for color) chopping all the veggies up fairly small because that gives more surface area to give up flavor, a few peppercorns, some marjoram, oregano and parsley from the herb garden, and a bay leaf, then add enough cold water to cover. Simmer all day, strain out the solids (the vegs go to our chickens) and chill. I freeze some in 1 or 2 cup containers, and some in ice cube trays. The ice cube stock is about 1 tblsp. per cube, and comes in handy for thinning sauces or adding to mashed potatoes.
Beef stock follows the same process, except I roast the bones and beef bits first, then put them in the stock pot.

Referencing our feet frenzy from last year, I will go through the lengthy and painful process of making chicken stock with chicken feet. Family members started last month asking for the chicken feet gravy for Thanksgiving dinner. I have been using my stock of stock from the freezer since last year.

I mentioned in a thread a while back, that I keep an x-large ziplock freezer bag in the freezer, and add leftover roasted chicken carcass/bones, as we get them. When the bag is full, I make stock.

As far as herbs go, I normally only add a bay leaf. But if I have parsley, rosemary or thyme on hand, I will add that as well.

I tend to try to keep the stock simply seasoned, so that it can be used in most anything later. You can always add flavors, (like lemon) later, but you can never take flavors out.

I usually don't add very much salt at all. I figure that I can always add it later when I use the stock for soup or in whatever I'm cooking. DH has high blood pressure, so I try to be conscious of how much salt we eat.

I freeze my stock in flattened freezer bags, like jude mentioned above. They are much easier to store in the freezer that way. Plus if you only want to use a portion from one bag, it's much easier to break off a piece, rather than try to scoop some frozen mass out of a jar.

Remember to leave some space in the bag or jar before freezing. Liquid expands a bit as it freezes, so if you try to fill right up to the top and seal it, the stock may bust open the bag or force your jar open. Don't ask how I learned this. :-)

I freeze homemade stock in various sizes of the Gladware plastic containers. I make alot of soups and stews and hate to run out of homemade stock. I use whatever leftover chicken caresses I have from roasted chickens or store bought rotisserie chickens. DH had unexpected heart surgery a week ago - so using the rotisserie chickens will probably be a thing of the past, but they make delicious stock - I'm guessing the yummy flavor comes from all that salt injected into them. Another tip to making clear stock is not to stir the chicken while simmering; stirring also makes the stock cloudy. Some people don't care if their stock is cloudy - I always aim for clear, but often fail. Doesn't affect the flavor, and I am the only one who notices if it is clear :).

I also make stock from all the accumulated chicken "pieces", the wing tips and arcasses, whatever I have. Add onion, carrot, celery, salt, pepper, bay leaf. I put it all in my electric roaster because I can make a big batch and simmer it for 6 or 8 hours, refrigerate it overnight, skim off the fat and can it.

However, if you want to freeze in canning jars, you can. Most say on the box "canning or freezing". Just be sure to leave plenty of space for expansion while freezing. The jars don't stack as well as those square containers or ziplocks, though.

Annie

Thank you all for your input. I definately feel more confident now. I am laying out a large chicken I have frozen and will be making my first pot of stock on Sunday.

Thanks again everyone

I should have added that I never make stock from a full chicken or even chicken parts.

I always use the carcass of a roasted chicken along with any chicken carcass pieces I can find at the store. Given the price of wings, I never use them in broth!

I also don't use a whole chicken for stock....the stock may be a by product of poaching a chicken for another dish....but if I want to use the meat, I don't cook it long enough to make a good stock.
I often find wings on special....and they are really the best for stock!...outside of feet of course!!

FOAS:
I'm do the same now.
Just make the Chicken Wedding Soup with the small meatballs
and freeze in 5 Dish Portions.
Last time I bought Chicken Thighs and Legs for $.56 a lb.
They come in a 10 lb. bag and are packed in Pa. or Md.
Lou

For chicken SOUP I like to use raw chicken parts along with celery, onion, lemon and salt. As much as possible, I use the parts of the celery that I normally would throw away, you know, the leafy stuff, as they impart the flavor just as well. I like using raw chicken because I LIKE the cooked chicken. I like to put some of it back in my soup after chopping it up into chunks, and the rest makes good chicken salad. I know some people don't like that chicken and feel like the flavor is all gone after simmering for so long, but that's the way my mother did it so I guess that's what I grew up on! LOL

But for stock to use in recipes, thanks to clare_de_luna, I learned the trick mentioned above of using the bones after a baked or roasted chicken meal, OR the bones of a rotisserie chicken, and putting them into the Pressure cooker. Just did this last night. 45 minutes in the pressure cooker and you have a wonderful rich stock. And lots of it! And no additions needed because the flavor is already cooked in before you add the water.

Low spark : The soup sounds good to me. I cut up the meat off the bones too,
before it are overcooked.
In fact we just had 2 bowls each. 15 minutes ago.

I add the small baked meatballs, about 10 minutes before the soup is finished.
Sometimes I also add Noodles.
Lou

LindaC - I buy Smart Chicken at Hy-Vee.

Smart Chicken is not processed in cold water - they air chill it instead, so it hasn't taken a bath with thousands of other chickens ;)

The chickens are raised without antibiotics, they are grain fed, and not fed animal by-products.

I am not on the organic bandwagon by any means - but this is superior chicken. It has great flavor and doesn't get that icky brown/red color on the meat against the bones as bad as some chicken does. My mother said that discoloration is due to the chickens being fed out to fast. I am not sure if that is fact, but she raised a lot of chickens in her day!

If cooked properly, it is very moist and has great flavor.

Here is a link that might be useful: Smart Chicken

Went to the Smart Chicken website and there are no retailers near me - Poo!

Me too, and I was disappointed, until I looked at the prices. The chicken must be about four times smarter than any other chicken, because it costs that much more.

They do have Smart Chicken on special quite a bit. I buy several when they are on sale and freeze them.

Yep....my Hy-Vee carries them....and I bought 2 chickens yesterday, at HyVee for dinner tomorrow.....but they're not smart...
Nor, apparently am I!...

Must add the feet. They give so much flavor, but you do need to get past the pedicure part.

I only use "used" carcass and bones..as in already cooked chicken...

I also pour into canning jars and freeze, leaving head room.

I don't defat. But I do use some of the fat for the dogs dog treats when I bake them.

saved a carcass from a roasted chicken dinner and am going to attempt this for the first time tomorrow. how do you know how much water to use? this really needs to simmer for 5 hours? can you tell I'm new to all this.

thanks!

Malhgold, I just fill my stockpot and let it simmer until it is reduced to a nice, golden color. It's not written in stone that it has to simmer for 5 hours, but longer makes a richer stock.

Linda

Malhgold, add enough water to totally cover the carcass, add some chopped onion, celery, carrot and a bay leaf or two.

Bring up to a boil and then a low simmer for at least a couple of hours. As Linda says the length of time isn't written in stone a small carcass will take less time than let's say a turkey carcass.

Strain everything out of the stock and toss it....not the stock, the veggies etc!

Place the broth in the fridge overnight. Next morning skim off all the fat.

Strain through cheese cloth to get rid of all the bitties. If the stock is too concealed to strain through cheese cloth (that's a good thing!) then place back on the stove, bring up the temperature until it's all liquid again and the strain through cheese cloth.

Besides the occasional batch of stock made w/feet, I usually save chicken pieces-parts in a ziplock bag in the freezer until I have enough to make stock (wings, backbones, necks, etc.).

I like to roast my chicken parts with the usual veggie mix of onions, carrots, celery, and garlic till everything is a golden brown. I then simmer the roasted mixture with peppercorns, 1 or 2 bay leaves, some fresh parsley for a couple of hours, strain, and store.

I find roasting first gives off a much richer, carmelized "chickeny" flavor and doesn't put as much fat into the stock. Most of the fat is roasted out in the oven.

It's definitely not something I just "whip up" but it's absolutely worth every ounce of effort!

okie redhead, you must have conjured up a big ole' batch of chicken stock because my grocery store has legs and thigh quarters on sale for 39 cents a pound this week, available in 10 pound bags only.

Now, I can take advantage of that sale as long as I'm willing to make an can stock, because I just put 210 pounds of home grown grass fed beef in the freezer on Saturday and ended up canning beef stock because I'm out of freezer room. Couldn't waste those bones, though, so into the roaster they went.

I might make a batch of chicken stock this weekend, if I can recover from this flu....

Annie

Wow Annie I wish I could find that around here. My plans to make stock this weekend fell through. I kept my 2 year old nephew all weekend and his allergies were acting up so he pretty much clung like a bug to me all weekend. By the time his parents came on Sunday afternoon it was too late to start. I am definately going to make some next weekend I may have to turn off the phone and lock the gate but it will get done.

Melissa

I'm glad to see you're not going to use canned chicken stock again. Soups and stocks are one my favorite things to cook. Once you start making your own stock, you're not going to go back to cheap imitations. Please, please do not add chicken base to your stock.

Other than that, you can't really screw it up. Play around with the ingredients. That's part of the fun of making soup. I tend to use a lot of root vegetables in my stock. Carrots, a few parsnips, parsley root, turnip, a leek, parsley, celery, bay leaf, a small onion, and whatever else looks good at the market. You may also want to play around with your spice selection.

Again, you're not going to mess it up. I tend to let my stock simmer for about three to four hours. It may be excessive, but I believe a longer cooking time creates a better tasting stock. Again, do not use any kind of bullion or paste to spike things up. If you think your stock needs it, add more salt. A splash of Worcestershire adds an interesting flavor.

It's great to hear you're headed into some of the best comfort foods out there.

hey phil , welcome aboard!

Just finished off a big batch of beef stock, half used for brown sauce and then half again used for demi glace.....I'm good to go for the winter!

I also use my pressure cooker to make stock. It takes it from being an 8 to 10 hour affair down to about 2 hours.

Coming out of lurkdom here, to add something, if I may. If you chill the stock overnight to allow the fat to rise to the top for removal, you need to know that the hot pot of stock does not cool down quickly enough in the fridge to be safe without a little help. Bring the stock temperature down quickly by setting the pot in ice water in the sink, and you might even hold a frozen water bottle in the middle of the stock. When the temp is significantly lowered, you can put it in the fridge until morning.

I just want to say that I enjoy this forum very much, and love reading and learning here.

I do it similarly to others, except I sautee the onions first, and sometimes garlic too. I dislike the taste of non-sauteed onions.

"you might even hold a frozen water bottle in the middle of the stock."

Excellent point to remember.
I keep several 1 and 2 litre soda bottles full of water in the freezer that I use exclusively for cooling brines and stocks.