Chicken Stock -- In an HOUR!

Yup! I made homemade chicken stock and I am darn proud of myself. For me homemade chicken stock is something only really high end cooks bother with... and I actually did it! Unfortunately, I'm afraid that there is no going back. The aroma in my house was so wonderful and if the soup that I'm making for my Grandma's 90th birthday tastes half as good as it smelled, I think this will become a staple in my house.

I do however have a secret that made the entire process completely painless. It started with a lack of chicken bones in the house (Sorry, I'm a boneless skinless cook) and a need to make soup for my grandma. After desperately trying to find a base, bouillon, or stock, that would substitute for homemade, it seemed that for super high quality I was out of luck. And most stock recipes take 3 - 4 hours.  Then I found the recipe below (New Best Recipes) The only problem - the recipe states, "4 pounds chicken backs and wing tips or whole legs hacked with a meat cleaver into 2 inch pieces." (My emphasis, of course).

I was immediately looking back at the 3-4 hour recipes just to avoid hacking anything.

Then on Simply Recipes, she posted the same recipe with this beautiful addition ...."You can ask your butcher to prepare the chicken pieces this way." Saved!


Turns out that Harmon's butchers sell chicken backs and meat for super cheap! And I mean super cheap. I got four pounds for 3 dollars. (This helps when, like me, you don't just happen to have a chicken carcass sitting around.) Second,  I will forever praise the Harmon's butcher,she chopped it all up for me! All I did was dump it in the pot. 


So here you go!


Chicken Stock


1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, diced
 4 lbs chicken backs, wingtips, or whole legs hacked into 2 inch pieces (remember what I said!)
2 quarts boiling water
2 tsp salt
2 bay leaves




1 - Cook onion in oil then remove from stockpot.
2 - In two batches saute chicken pieces until no longer pink; 4-5 minutes
3 - Return onion and chicken pieces to pot, cover and turn heat to low and sweat for 20 minutes.
4 - Increase heat to high add boiling water, slat and bay leaves. Return to a simmer then cover and simmer for about 20 minutes. 
5 - Strain the stock through a mesh sieve. Cool skim fat. Either freeze or use in soups!