Chicken Stock: Grow a Spine, by Making Stock
This isn't bone broth you freaking hipster ass yuppie. This right here, is chicken stock. If anyone tells you different, you respectfully show them your back hand.
Before we get into it, let me give a shout out to Stephanie for taking all of the photos, and even color correcting and formatting that shit for web. Lord knows my Samsung 4 isn't doing my blog any favors. Hey, at least it doesn't explode.
Now let's get to the meat of it. Stock is usually made from bones, and broth is made from primarily meat. So Bone Broth is just a trendy misleading marketing term for hipster soup. I digress. For this recipe, what you'll need is a bag of chicken bones, 1-2 lbs. If you go to a butcher, they'll usually sell the left over chicken backs or necks from when they spatchcock a chicken (fancy way of saying splitting open a bird) I picked mine up for about $1.50 per lb.
I've tried making stock two ways. The first few times I tried blanching the bones first, to remove impurities and funk. This step is crucial when you are making broth from mammals, like beef or pork, or anything with high collagen and marrow, but not so much for poultry. Chicken doesn't carry the same funkiness and I found you have less flavor overall when blanching (though it does make a super crystal clear broth and has a light clean flavor to it.) The second time around I decided to roast the bones prior to simmering. It still cooks off all the blood, renders off excess fat, and caramelizes the meat/bone bits (maillard reaction). If your chicken bones came frozen, like mine did, be sure to let it defrost first so you can spread them out on a tray. You want to maximize surface area to make sure every piece gets a bit of maillard love.
Season your bones with salt and oil for a nice caramelization. It's ok to be heavy on the salt because you're going to simmering the shit out of these bones later anyways. Stick it into a 450 degree Fahrenheit oven for 40-50 minutes. By the time it comes out of the oven your entire place should smell like fried chicken. You're welcome.
When it comes out of the oven, put all your bones and bits into a crock pot to simmer (don't pour the oil from the pan in unless you want a super oily stock.) You could use a stock pot and just simmer for a few hours, but I like to let my crock pot run overnight for 20-24 hours. Add enough water to cover all the bones. By the time 24 hours have passed, your water should have reduced by half and your broth should be murky and cloudy with chicken flavored goodness.
If you taste it now, you'll probably think I just scammed you with a bullshit recipe. It won't taste like much else besides salty chicken, but put it together with some veggies for a soup or make a risotto with it and you'll be like "Holy shit, you've just changed my life. Why did I ever buy stock from a box?" You're welcome fam. If you're doing it right, the stock should have enough collagen to coagulate in the fridge (it means it'll look like jelly when it gets cold.) Like many things in life, if it jiggles it's probably good for you.
Ingredients
Chicken Bones
water
salt
olive oil or shallot oil
Equipment
oven
foil
half sheet pan
crock pot
ladle
Directions
defrost chicken bones
preheat oven to 450 Fahrenheit
place foil on half sheet pan
rub oil on foil
place chicken bones on foil and season with salt and coat with oil (use your hands its ok, the chicken is already dead)
place in oven for 40-50 minutes or until golden brown
remove chicken bones from tray and place into a slow cooker
set on low for 20-24 hours
