Chicken Broth

Ingredients:

1 whole pastured chicken or 2-3 pounds chicken bones with or without bits of meat, including feet if you have them

4 quarts cold water

2 T vinegar

1 large onion, coarsely chopped (or your bag of collected frozen onion parts)

2 carrots coarsely chopped (I omit this sometimes)

3 celery sticks, coarsely chopped (I omit this if I don’t have celery)

The Directions:

Throw all of your chicken parts in a pot, add the water, vinegar and vegetables. Let sit for a half hour, then bring to a boil and remove the scum/foam that rises to the top. No need to remove the floating fat. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 6 to 24 hours. The longer you cook the stock, the more rich and flavorful it will be.

If you used a whole chicken, don’t leave the meat in there for more than about 3-4 hours. Remove the chicken, remove the meat and reserve, and put the bones back in the broth to cook.

Remove the whole chicken pieces with a slotted spoon. Strain the stock into a large bowl, then ladle into mason jars. Let the jars sit until they are pretty cool, then freeze or refrigerate.

If you want to defat: put the mason jars (or the large bowl) into the fridge until they’re completely cool then break off the fat. Freeze the fat for use in gravies.