Homemade Chicken Stock

Chicken stock is nutritious and delicious on its own. It can also help to form a rich-flavoured base of any savoury dishes. Many of my readers and fans asked me where I get the chicken stock, whether I made it myself. When you are too tired or don’t have time to cook, the store-bought stock might be your first choice. I’m quite fond of using Campbell’s chicken stock (Hong Kong version 史雲生) for making Chinese dishes, especially for noodle soups, or the salt-reduced Campbell’s chicken stock (Australia) to make other dishes.

Homemade chicken stock is another choice. It’s quite simple and doesn’t take too much time than you expect. Best of all, you can have the real unsalted stock with rich flavours. All you need is to make use of some leftover chicken bones (carcass) and vegetables. You can use a whole chicken if you like of course. Put all ingredients in a large pot for several hours of slow cooking. Refrigerate or freeze it until you’re ready to use them.

Homemade Chicken Stock (Printable recipe)
By Christine's Recipes
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 3 hrs
Yield: makes about 2 liters

Ingredients:

• 1.5 kg chicken bones
• 3 liters water
• 1 to 2 carrots
• 1 onion
• 2 stalks celery
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 sprigs thyme, optional

Method:

1. Rinse the chicken bones. Chop into smaller pieces if necessary. Blanch in boiling water to remove blood and impurities, for about 3 minutes. Drain up the bones. Set aside.
2. Put the chicken bones, water and all other ingredients into a large deep pot. Cook over high heat. Bring it to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 3 hours, until about 2 liters of water left in the pot. Strain the stock through a fine sieve placed over a large bowl. Don’t press on the vegetables when straining. The soup won’t be clear otherwise. Let it cool down. Refrigerate and the fat will solidify on top of the stock, that can be easily removed with a spoon. The stock can be stored in an air-tight container in fridge for up to a week.

Notes：

• You might pour the chicken stock into an ice-cube tray. Freeze the iced stock cubes in a sealed plastic bag for up to 3 months. (Remark: The capacity of each hole of my ice-cube tray is about 35ml. When any stock is needed, I can easily retrieve the amount that I want.)