Chicken Stock

On Thursday this week, I made a roasted chicken in the crockpot for dinner. After we'd eaten, I removed all the meat from the bones, pulled the foil from the crockpot, leaving the juices in the bottom. Then I threw in all the bones, the wings since we never eat them, and the innards (all but the liver) that I'd removed before cooking and put in the refrigerator. I then chopped up about four stalks of celery, three medium sized carrots, and two small onions to throw into the mix. Also a bay leaf. Then I just filled the crock up with water to about an inch from the top and put it in the fridge overnight. (By the way, I used a six-quart oval crock) On Friday morning, I put the crock in the pot on low and let it simmer all day. When I got home from work Friday night, I had a great stock in the crockpot. I then strained it to remove all the chicken, bones and veggies and put it in the fridge again overnight. This way I could skim the fat this morning very easily. Then I dumped it in a sauce pot on the stove and brought it up to a slow boil while I prepared my canning supplies. I pressure canned it at 10 pounds of pressure for 20 minutes (for pints - it'd be 25 minutes for quarts).

I almost always make stock after doing the crockpot chicken, but have always frozen it. Considering my freezers are stuffed, I figured I'd can it since I have the ability to do so now. I love having my own stock on hand for cooking. And having it canned saves the time of thawing the stock, which will be nice.