Homemade Chicken Stock/Broth

I'm back! Deepest apologies for the absence. “Best laid plans”, and all that jazz, ya know. Anyhoo, I'm back with some of my favorite recipes and some new ones, too. Up first, Homemade Chicken Broth! We will use this later in the week for Chicken Sausage Gumbo. I personally am not comfortable cutting up a whole chicken and tend to lose a lot of meat, so the only times I use a whole chicken are when I plan on cooking the whole thing, so I can pull off the meat I haven't cut off. In this recipe, we use a whole fryer chicken, which allows us to pull off the meat from places we wouldn't have been able to cut it from. For the Gumbo, you can use this pre-cooked meat, or buy the parts of the chicken separately. Believe it or not, if you're not comfortable cutting up a whole chicken, it can end up being cheaper to buy the pieces separately once you factor in the lost meat!

Homemade Chicken Broth

1 whole chicken (3 lbs)

½ tsp thyme

2 bay leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Put chicken (cut up if it won't fit whole) and herbs into a large stock pot. Cover with cold water and bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 ½ hours. Add water when necessary to keep chicken completely covered.

2. Remove chicken and pull the meat off the bones. Discard the bones. Strain out the bay leaves and large pieces of fat left in the stock. Let it cool in the fridge and scoop off the layer of fat that forms on the top.

3. The stock can be frozen in 2 to 4 cup portions for easy use (most recipes call for 2 or 4 cups). Ziploc bags are nice for this purpose, as they can be frozen flat, then stored upright for space-saving storage.