Chicken Broth

Hello all.  I know I have been gone for a little.  I had a dear friend who lost his battle with cancer and a dad diagnosed with Dementia.  Of course, my family continued on, with home schooling, work, and just life in general amidst illnesses here as well.  I appreciate your understanding during my absence.

Now to my topic for today:  Chicken Broth!

A common ingredient in many dishes is broth.  If you go into the broth aisle, there is a HUGE selection with varying prices.  The selection ranges from store brands all the way up to broths with famous chef's names and pictures on them.  Just as the selection ranges, so does the prices.  However, wouldn't it be even better if you could have broth that cost you nothing?  I mean, a free ingredient in any recipe you like to utilize it in.  Always available when you need.


I just bought four whole chickens for 59 cents a pound!  All four cost me a total of $11.  I will use that cost to calculate the price of meals I will make and my family will enjoy.  So, the broth is just a freebie on the side. 

Here is what I did:  I have taken two of them, cleaned them out, and placed each into two separate crock pots.  I added one cup of water to each crock pot (this is NOT necessary just to cook up the chickens for a meal).  With that cup of water and the additional juices from the seasoned chickens (I sprinkled it with whatever seasonings I wanted), each crock pot will produce at least two cups of broth.  So, I will get four cups of chicken broth for free!  NOTHING COULD BE EASIER. 

Now another way to make broth, is after you are done with the roaster chicken, throw the carcass back into a crock pot or pan (roaster ovens work great), along with some aromatic veggies (carrots, onions, celery) and cook.  Drain and voila, more broth.  To keep this price down as well, I take off the tops and bottoms of celery, along with the peelings of onions and carrots, put them in a zip lock bag and FREEZE until I am making stock, then pull them out and throw them into the pot.  This does several things:  most importantly, you save money and the second thing is to keep waste down to a minimum.  You are getting the most bang for your buck by doing things like.  Simple but effective.  Also, after the carcass has been removed, pick the bones!  You will be amazed at how much meat there is still on these things.  That meat can be used for chicken salad, for burritos, quesadillas, in casseroles, or any other place precooked meat is needed.  So, in essence it is a free meat serving, as most meals have already been calculated on what you served PRIOR to making the broth this way.  I don't know about you, but in my house, FREE is always a good thing, especially when you live with die-hard meat and potato eaters.

So, how do you store it once you have made it?  I have plastic freezer containers, but you can utilize zip lock bags, too.  Cool the broth in the fridge before freezing, and you can skim off the fat before freezing making it low/no fat.  Another great tip, freeze in an ice cube tray, pop them out when they are frozen, and store them in a zip lock bag.  That means you can just pop them out and use one or two (about a tablespoon (small cube) or two tablespoon (bigger cube) a piece) as you need them.  Plus then you don't have an open container of broth sitting there when you only need a few tablespoons!

Til our next "chat".

Susan