I recently bought 2 chickens at Sam's Club for $8. $4 a chicken is pretty good! All I do is rinse my chicken well and pull out any giblets, etc in the cavty. I pat her dry and place her in my crock pot. No need to add water or any liquid. I sprinkle mine with salt, pepper, garlic and a drizzle of olive oil. Then cook on low all day (8-10 hours).
So moist and delicious! Seriously yummy. We usually just pull off some meat to eat with a veggie and some rice or potatoes for that nights dinner. Then I pull all the meat off the bones and shred it into small pieces and divide it up into 3 plastic baggies. These go into the freezer for other meals.
Then, all of the bones go back into the crock pot where you should have a cup or so of juices/drippings on the bottom. I chop up a carrot, celery, onion and more garlic and toss that on top of all the bones. Any meat, fat, gristle, etc. can be left on the bones too. Add more salt and pepper and fill the pot up with water. I just fill mine up to almost the top and turn the pot on low again. Then we go to bed.
The next morning, I strain the stock so that it is nice and clear and golden. Your house will smell very yummy when you wake up too. :) I also divide up the stock, usually into two big batches, and put it in the freezer. This makes the broth I'll need for the next 2 week's of soups. It tastes amazing and is very healthy! You get a ton of vitamins and nutrients from cooking the bones.
I never get over the thrill of this. You can buy a carton of good quality chicken stock for around $4, the cheap chicken flavored broth for $2 maybe. A rotisserie chicken at the market will run you at least $5. Here, we get the whole delicious chicken plus the equivalent of what I truly believe is 3 cartons of stock. I think I once measured the cups and got 16 cups of stock.
You can stretch this even further by using less meat in a recipe and making a soup with no meat at all. If you use bone broth, you'll get the nutrients from the meat anyway. My most recent roast chicken went into making a pot of chicken chili, topped several salads, stuffed a batch of chicken enchiladas and made 2 sandwiches. :)
6 comments:
You don't soak your bones in the water overnight? That surprises me. If your crockpot has the removable insert, you can stash your bones and water in the fridge overnight with some vinegar. This will get more nutrients from the bones into the stock. Crock the next day as usual.
I read the vinegar tip in The Tightwad Gazette. I read the soak the bones tip on one of those "nourishing" blogs you sent me, and also on The Grocery Cart Challenge. :)
I have a freezer full of stock on a regular basis. :) Crockpot chicken is definitely the way to go. :) We don't get quite as many meals out of the chicken meat as you do, but we do stretch it a good bit. The Tightwad Gazette calls it rubber chicken. :)
Oh, have you seen Glamour's recipe for "engagement chicken"? I tried it the last time I bought whole chicken. You do roast it in the oven rather than crocking it, but it was good...and I still did my stock in the crockpot. :)
Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear. I cook the chicken all day and after dinner, I soak the bones with the onions, etc. all night long but the crockpot is on low so they're cooking, not just soaking. Are you supposed to soak them cold and then cook them to make the stock the next day? I've never done the vinegar thing, so I may try that next time. Thanks! :)
Yeah, I think soaking 12-24 hours before cooking, especially combined with a splash of vinegar, enables more nutrients to be drawn from the bones into the stock. :)
I guess I could try this. I've never made stock because it seemed complicated. I have to pay like$18 for a small kosher bird but if I can get some stock out of it that would be good. I pay like $3-$4 for kosher broth anyway so I might come out ahead.
Karen, I'm not sure why I've never heard (or remembered?) the soaking tip before, but I'll try it from now on. Thanks!!
Dena, I understand. I paid $22 for a free-range organic chicken. It makes it a lot easier on my budget when I take into account all the stock we get out of it and not just meat. I think you should give it a try. :)
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