How to Make Homemade Chicken Stock

There is no better time then now to make your own Homemade Chicken Stock.

And to be honest, it couldn’t be easier to do! However, a little patience is necessary.

But before we show you how to make your own stock, let me first explain the difference between broth, stock and bone broth.

Difference Between Broth, Stock & Bone Broth

When you head to the grocery store, you can frequently find chicken broth, stock & bone broth on the shelves close to the soup aisle.

They are sold in both cans and boxes. However, few of us know the actual difference between the terms listed on the packages.

So before we go into how we make our own Homemade Chicken Stock, let me first explain the difference between them all.

Chicken Broth

Chicken broth is made by boiling chicken meat in water. Although not necessary, sometimes vegetables are also added to the mixture. Once the chicken and vegetables are removed, the liquid that remains is called Chicken Broth.

It is typically more translucent than the subsequent products of chicken stock and bone broth.

Chicken Stock

Homemade Chicken stock is traditionally made from the bones of a chicken. Most often people use the carcass of an entire chicken, typically after buying a rotisserie chicken or making Oven Roasted Chicken. And then they add a few vegetable scraps and water to make Chicken Stock.

Although there may be some meat left on the bones, the primary ingredients in chicken stock are the bones themselves.

It is customary to cook the bones much longer as compared to making broth. However, not nearly as long as it takes to make bone broth.

Chicken Bone Broth

You might have heard about all of the health benefits of drinking bone broth lately. It seems like it is all the rage for those that are looking to cure many ailments.

And if you look at the research, there are a ton of articles to support how good it is for you to drink it.

However, it is not quite as easy as to make as you think. Bone broth is made when the actual bones of the carcass break down and collagen can be extracted from the center of the bones.

This process takes a long time to happen. In fact, it can take upwards of 24 – 48 hours of cooking time before the collagen in the middle of the bones is released into the cooking liquid.

However, once this happens, it is easy to identify. As soon as the liquid cools, the bone broth turns into a gel like substance. Once reheated, the gel breaks back down to liquid form and can be consumed as a drink or used in recipes.

How to Make Homemade Chicken Stock

So when a recipe calls for chicken broth or stock, which one should you choose?

I would have to say that we always choose chicken stock over broth whenever we can.

Chicken stock has much more flavor than traditional broth. Thus, whatever recipe that you are making, will also have that added flavor as well.

So how do you make Homemade Chicken Stock? The answer is simple – low and slow!

Actually, there are 3 different methods to making stock and we will discuss each one briefly here.

Cooking Instructions

1. Stove Top Instructions – place your chicken stock, vegetable scraps and seasonings in a large stock pot and cover with water. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for at least 6 hours.
2. Slow Cooker Instructions – place all ingredients in a slow cooker and cover with water. Set to low and cook overnight (10-12 hours)
3. Instant Pot Instructions – place all ingredients in the liner of a 6 or 8 quart Instant Pot and cover with water to the Maximum line. Lock the lid in place and move the valve to the Sealing position. Pressure cook on HIGH pressure for 120 minutes. Allow for at least 20 minutes of Natural Pressure Release after the cooking time expires.

We have made Chicken Stock using each one of these methods, and they all turn out great.

Once the homemade chicken stock is ready, it is time to strain the solid pieces away from the liquid. Place a fine mesh strainer over a large stockpot. Pour the entire contents of the chicken stock mixture into the strainer.

The liquid can then be cooled and stored in the refrigerator or freezer or can be canned for later use.

Use the liquid as instructed in any recipe that calls for chicken broth or stock.

Enjoy!

Mary and Jim

Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening, DIY and recipe articles and books for over 15 years from their 46 acre Ohio farm. The two are frequent speakers on all things gardening and love to travel in their spare time.

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