Homemade Chicken Stock
Published September 3, 2024. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
Learn how easy it is to make homemade chicken stock, enhancing the flavor of your soups and sauces. You can immediately taste the difference between this recipe and a store-bought one, and there’s no going back.
Stock is used in so many different recipes in the restaurant industry that it’s seriously one of the most coveted kitchen tools. From risotto to heating vegetables to sauces and making delicious soups, stock is a must-have in any kitchen and is straightforward.
Chicken Stock
Chicken stock is a chicken-flavored liquid made from chicken bones, meat, vegetables, herbs, and water, slow-cooked for 4-6 hours. It’s then drained and reserved for any cooking occasion. This is often the base for most soups and many sauces.
Roasting the bones and vegetables to make a “brown stock” can further enhance the flavor of a basic stock. While I do it in this recipe, it is not necessary. You can alternatively add everything to a pot, cover it with water, and cook it.
Chicken Stock Vs. Broth
Stock is a roasted chicken bone broth slowly simmered in water with herbs and vegetables. The bones from the chicken make the broth gelatinous and extremely rich in flavor.
Broth is a thin chicken-flavored liquid that has chicken meat cooked into it with vegetables and herbs. It is often seasoned with salt and pepper and is most certainly what is in those boxes at the grocery store.
Both stock and broth are delicious, but the bones give stock a much richer flavor.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Chicken – This can be an assortment of chicken parts, including feet, skin, necks, carcasses, bones, breasts, thighs, drums, or wings. For this to be a correct stock, chicken bones, in some way, need to be included. I find it best to use carcasses.
- Vegetables – The most common vegetables are onions, celery, carrots, and garlic. However, other great vegetables include mushrooms, leeks, parsnips, vegetable peelings, shallots, zucchini, and squash. Do not use turnips, beets, or bell peppers. These things can significantly alter the flavor and, at times, cause the stock to be bitter,
- Fat – Butter, ghee, chicken fat (schmaltz), or olive or avocado oil will work. This is used to coat the bones and veggies for roasting to intensify the flavor.
- Herbs — I use thyme and flat-leaf parsley. However, the stems of these herbs are also great. In addition, I also add a few bay leaves to it,
- Spices – Whole peppercorns are used to flavor the stock as well.
How to Make Homemade Chicken Stock
- Add the chicken and vegetables to some roasting pans and rub them down with olive oil. I prefer to use a couple of different pans so that they can all be roasted.
- Roast the pans in the oven at 425° for 45-60 minutes or until they are browned.
- Transfer the roasted chicken and vegetables from the pans to a large pot and place them on the stove. When there’s a large stockpot with a spigot, it’s known as a marmite!
- Add the thyme, parsley, bay leaves, and peppercorns to the stock.
- Fill the pot up with cold water until it is 6 inches over the ingredients into the pot.
- Simmer on low heat for 4-6 hours, skimming the impurities off the top every 45 minutes.
- Strain it and store it. After 6 hours, it will not extract much more flavor.
Can I Reuse the Bones and Vegetables?
A remouillage is a stock that is made from the bones and vegetables that have already been used in a stock. After you strain the first stock, add the bones and vegetables back to the pot, refill it with water, and make a second stock.
While the flavor of a remouillage is much more subtle than the original chicken stock, it’s an affordable option for people or restaurants looking to extend the amount of chicken stock they need.
Make-Ahead and Storage
Make-Ahead: This can be made up to 3 days ahead of time for freshness.
How to Store: Once it has cooled, cover it and keep it in the refrigerator for five days. Cover it and freeze it for up to six months. Thaw it in the fridge for one day before reheating.
How to Reheat: To reheat it, add your desired amount to a saucepot and heat over low to medium heat until hot.
CHEF NOTES + TIPS
- This can easily be made using all leftover ingredients. If you often fabricate a whole chicken to use in your cooking, it’s important to freeze the carcasses. Any leftover bones should also be frozen.
- I like to freeze these in 32-ounce containers, which makes it easy to pull out what I need and allows for quicker thawing.
- It is okay to eyeball the sizes of the onions, celery, carrots, leeks, and herbs. These details won’t affect the recipe.
Recipes Using Chicken Stock
Video
Homemade Chicken Stock Recipe
Ingredients
- 5 pounds chicken bones
- 4 roughly chopped medium size onions
- 4 roughly chopped carrots
- 1 roughly chopped bunch of celery
- 2 roughly chopped leeks, green parts ok
- 2 cups button mushrooms
- 2 cups cremini mushrooms
- 6-8 garlic cloves
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 10-15 sprigs of fresh thyme
- 1 bunch Italian flat leaf parsley
- 3-4 bay leaves
- 15-20 peppercorns
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°.
- Add the chicken, onions, carrots, celery, leeks, mushrooms, and garlic to a large pan or 2 roasting pans.
- Evenly drizzle the oil over the ingredients and mix until coated.
- Roast in the oven at 425° for 45-60 minutes or until lightly browned.
- Transfer the ingredients to a huge stockpot and place them on the cooktop.
- Add in the thyme, parsley, bay leaves, and peppercorns, and fill it with water until the ingredients in the pot have been covered by 6 inches.
- Simmer on low heat for 4-6 hours while skimming the impurities off of the top every 45 minutes.
- Strain entirely through a chinoise or fine mesh strainer. Cool the stock completely and store it.
Yes, Billy! You are a chef still, no doubt… you are teaching me. If I am pulling saved chicken bones from the freezer to make stock, is it best to thaw them before roasting? Thank you and happy cooking!
you don’t have to.
Hey Billy- great, great, great ! I pretty much do this but the Remouillage is an AWESOME idea !! Thank you, Bill L.
Many thanks!
Can this be made in the instant pot?
I’m sure, but honestly I don’t even own one so I’m not sure what you would need to do.
Like I have mentioned before, I have never been much of a cook, but you have made me change my evil ways..hahahahaha
I make this a lot and often. I enjoy drinking a cup full in the morning as a change of pace for coffee. It is full bodied enough to enjoy as a meal. I use mine for soups, my Chicken and dumplings, Pilaf, and I think everyone should be making this delicious Bone Broth. It is so Healthy for you. Great for your hair, nails, and strong bones in your body. I try to drink a full coffee cup full 4 to 5 times a week. Good stuff here Chef…Great recipe too…
I can TOTALLY see that this would be a satisfying “Latte'” Donna !
Bill L.
I’ve been making our own broth for years. Trying to eliminate all the jars in the freezer I’ve now been canning it for years. I don’t put the extra veggies in beyond the carrots, celery, and onion, cuz I’d prefer to add them to a soup I’ll be making later. An old book of mine suggested some cloves so I’ve been sticking about 4+, depending on the amount I’m making, in my onion quarters. Then I add peppercorns, salt, and sometimes a bit of vinegar for more bone nutrient extraction. Whenever we eat chicken in recipes I stick the bones in bags and keep in the freezer till I have a lot. I use a big roasting cooker for the broth. But I’ve always cooked the broth a long time. There’s a diet referred to as GAPS, and people drink and use a lot of broth for healing their gut, etc. And they suggest doing the bones for up to 24 hours to extract all the healing properties in the bones. I don’t need that diet for my health, but I did start cooking my bones overnight and canning sometime the next day.
Will be definitely be make this for my hotpots
I just started watching your YouTube videos and love them! For this stock, can you use leftover frozen bones from roasted chicken you had for dinner and then just skip the roasting step?
ABSOLUTELY save those used bones in the freezer● .EVERY chef will advise saving bones. I like to use FREEZER bags, not just food storage bags, cuz they are less semi permiable .
■ Always read all the intro stuff Billy provides BEFORE the listed recipe. Billy brings ALOT of experience to his recipes.NEVER just ” jump” to recipe” Go back & check his notes SOOO many people ask questions that are already answered in the above notes
I’m planning on making a large batch and “canning” it in jars. Is it ok to make batch of the full strength broth, and then a batch of the remouillage, and then blend both together for an average consistency? Is just a matter of dilution? Or are there reasons not to do so?
We would do similar.