Soup from Scratch

Since I appear to be channeling Little Suzy Homemaker, I figured I should just go hog wild and use the carcass of my less than perfect roasted chicken to make homemade chicken stock. I found a recipe for Basic Chicken Stock on a blog called Vintage Victuals. The recipe is adapted from The Joy of Cooking. The whole thing is so simple I can't believe I didn't try this sooner!

As a kid, I remember my mom making chicken stock. It seemed like soooo much work. Of course my mom made it on the stove using a recipe we saw on Martha's show called Everyday. It took all day. I remember not being able to do anything or go anywhere because we had to baby sit that simmering pot. I swear Martha makes everything more difficult than it has to be.

The recipe I used from Vintage Victuals doesn't need to be monitored at all. It uses a crockpot! Brilliant!!! I tossed all the ingredients into the crockpot and let the whole mess stew overnight. In the morning, I had stock that was cheaper and more flavorful than anything I could have found at the store. Mrblocko and I picked through the bones and recovered enough meat to make a hearty chicken omelet for breakfast.

What did I make with the stock? Cinderella wedding soup! ( I wrote about the Italian Wedding Soup in a previous post. I link the recipe in that post.) This time I used half orzo and half alphabet noodles. Blockette thinks the alphabet noodles are the best noodles EVER. She gave us a narrative of what letters she was eating throughout the entire meal.
This photo gives you an idea of how much soup this recipe yields. There are four containers on the bottom shelf and if you look closely there is a half full container on the top shelf. The tall containers hold four cups. These are the leftovers after we ate dinner. Like I said...a lot of soup. Good thing the soup freezes well!

The only issue I have with this recipe was that the broth became a bit gray after sitting in the fridge overnight. I think this may have been because I didn't strain my chicken stock through cheese cloth. The color could also be a result of boiling the noodles in the stock. All the starch from cooking the noodles remains in the soup. While this probably results in a more flavorful noodle, I think the starches make the broth on the murky side.


Basic Chicken Stock from Vintage victuals
1 chicken carcass
4 quarts of water
10 pepper corns
6 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons parsley
1 teaspoon thyme
1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
3 ribs of celery, roughly chopped

Place the chicken carcass in your crock pot. Pour the water over it and add the rest of the ingredients. Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours; on high 3-5 hours. I left this batch on low overnight. Strain. Freezes well.