Next time you cook a whole chicken - or take the easy way out for dinner and pick up one of those rotisserie chickens at the grocery store (not that I EVER do that) - use the leftover carcass to make your own chicken broth. It's done in the crockpot. It's easy peasy.
1. Pick the bones clean and save chicken pieces for chicken noodle soup.
2. Place the bones (that sounds better than carcass, no?) in the crockpot.
3. Now look in your fridge and grab any veggies you see. These are to add flavor and nutritious nutrition to your stock. This time for my stock, I used celery, carrots, onions, and garlic. You don't need to spend much time at all preparing these veggies for their bath. A rinse and very rough cut for the celery, carrots, and onions (I didn't even peel the carrots since they are organic) and a smash for the garlic. Throw them in along with a few bay leaves.
4. Now cover all the stuff with water and add a generous amount of salt.
5. Now turn your crockpot on low and wait. At least let it simmer overnight. Me? I let it go a little longer. Typically, I let it go overnight. Then in the late morning, I steal enough broth to make some chicken noodle soup for lunch. Then I refill the crockpot and add a little more salt and let it go until after dinner.
6. Strain out all the stuff and pour your stock into whatever containers you are using. I use mason jars. I usually put the jars in the fridge overnight and then into the freezer the next morning. This way they aren't in total shock!
And that is all there is to it! I got about 14 cups out of this (plus the generous amount I stole at lunch for our soup!).
