Time for some Homemade Stock

So I just moved into a new place and it's time to use up some of the things found in the freezer when moving.  Luckily quite a bit of the room taken up in the freezer was from a turkey, chicken and a pheasant.  Looks like it's time to make some homemade chicken stock.

After thawing out the used birds, I placed them on a baking sheet at 400° for about 20 - 30 minutes per side.  This depends on how much meat is left on the bones.  As you can see in the picture, you want a nice dark brown roasted color to the bones.

Looks like it's time to throw them in the pot.  But first we need to add a little love to the stock pot, as in some peppercorns and Bay Leaves.

This will help give the stock some additional depth of flavor.  Now we can add in our poultry bones...

While they are still very hot, we need to cover them with water to help shock them and help loosen the gelatin in the bones.

I turn the head to a medium high to get it started heating up, but please make sure to NEVER let this stock boil.  Next step is to roughly chop the vegetables and then drizzle with olive oil.  We will roast these as we did the bones earlier until they have a nice color on them.  Flip them over half way through the cooking so you get a nice even roast on them.

Here is an after shot of the vegetables.  We don't want them too dark just a nice roast on them to bring out their flavors.

We can now use tongs to transfer the veg into the stock pot.  I don't just dump them in as we did use olive oil in the roasting and we don't need all of that in the stock, it's just more to skim off later.

Now it's time to let the the heat and time do their thing.  Make sure it doesn't boil, and when you start to see the scum forming on the top, that's when we need to skim off the top and keep things looking clear.  This should simmer for roughly 8 - 12 hours depending on the color and richness that you want in your chicken stock.  Stir every hour or two and then skim off the top.

After 8 - 12 hours you can strain the stock into a large container using a regular strainer. At this point I will rinse out the stock pot and place a fine sieve or mesh strainer over the top and strain the stock again to remove and solid pieces.  Once the stock cools it is ready to put in containers and refrigerate or store in the freezer for later use.

Season Up & Enjoy...