Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Homemade Chicken Broth

*UPDATE now tht I've made this broth several times I wanted to add a few things first of all I add a big pinch of salt and about a teaspoon of whole peppercorns. You can also add whole garlic cloves and fresh herbs if you like. I prefer to make mine fairly plain so I can use it in any recipe and add additional herbs depending on the dish. Also, I no longer use glass jars because I have had several break in the freezer. I have put jars in the freezer before but with no problems. I think the problem was not that they were overfilled but that they did not cool completely before I put them in the freezer. So I recommend that whether you use plastic or glass that you put the jars in the refrigerator so they are completely cooled before freezing. One last thing if you like your broth to be completely clear, you'll want to strain it through some cheesecloth.
I cannot tell you how long it's been since I started telling myself that I needed to use the chicken bones from the rotisserie chickens I regularly buy from Sam's or Costco to make chicken broth. Honestly I kept thinking that I couldn't commit myself to staying home for several hours while it cooked when in fact I'm always home for several hours. Anyway, I finally looked at the cock pot sitting in front of me, and I realized that I could make it in the crock pot. So, I did it! Such a cinch that I can't believe I didn't do it before. There's really no right or wrong way to do it, you can search for different recipes online, but I wanted mine to be as simple as possible so that I could use it in anything from soups to taco meat (yes, my recipe calls for a little chicken broth!) I just put all the bones with all the bits of meat from a rotisserie chicken I had used along with some coarsely chopped carrots, celery and onion in the crock pot and filled it about 2/3 full with water (just so the carcass was covered. I cooked it on high until it got hot and then put it on low and left it overnight. I strained it and let it cool and then put it in some plastic freezer containers and 1 jar(expansion MAY break the jar, but I wasn't super worried about it just be sure to leave plenty of head space). I will now do this regularly, it was SO easy and I'm super excited about homemade chicken broth as opposed to the can stuff!


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