Ingredients
- chicken bones
- onion
- carrot
- celery
- 1-2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
Preparation
Step 1
1). Every week or two I buy a whole free range, organic chicken from our farmer.
2). Roast the chicken in the oven (or crock pot in summer) and enjoy one of my favorite meals – roast chicken with vegetables and millet. For our family size we always have a good amount of leftover chicken to use throughout the week in salads, sandwiches, etc.
3). Cut all of the meat off of the bones. Place the chicken carcass and any stray bones into your crock pot. For a larger chicken (6 lbs) I use my 6 quart crock, for a smaller chicken (4 lbs) I use a 4 1/2 quart crock.
4). Add any additional vegetables you’d like – onions, celery, carrots, garlic, herbs. I like to keep a bag in the freezer of the scraps left from chopping onions and celery. I then just dump this bag in with the bones when I begin the stock.
5). Cover the bones and vegetables with cold filtered water. Cold because this allows the flavor and nutrients to be fully extracted from the bones, and filtered because you really don’t want chlorine or fluoride in their.
6). Add 1-2 tablespoons of vinegar (I usually use apple cider) and allow to sit for about an hour. You really need to do this to allow the minerals to be extracted from the bones. I let it sit while I wash dishes and clean up the kitchen. This way it is no hassle at all.
7). Turn the slow cooker to low and allow to simmer overnight. I usually let it go for about 18-24 hours.
8). Once it has cooled a bit, strain chicken stock using a colander, sieve or cheesecloth.
9). Store in quart canning jars and use in soups, stews, sauces and for cooking grains.