This homemade chicken stock will knock the socks off of anything you can buy at the store. Use leftover bones or use chicken parts.
Watch The Video
Related: We love this whole roasted chicken recipe!
Not only does this taste better than the box, but it is also easy to make, and this homemade chicken stock lasts in the freezer for up to 3 months. By the way, you can use leftover bones to make this, here’s how to roast a whole chicken with lemon and garlic. You can roast the chicken for dinner and make stock the next day!
More: For a more delicate flavored broth, take a look at how we make chicken broth, which cooks for less than 2 hours and starts with a whole chicken.
How to Make the Best Chicken Stock or Broth
Homemade chicken stock is easy to make. Use any part of the chicken — whole chickens, bones, wings, and legs are excellent options. Leftover bones from roasted chicken also work really well.
Here are three tips for making the best chicken stock at home:
1) Add more or less chicken, depending on how rich you want the stock. Our recipe below calls for 12 cups of water. Use about 4 pounds of chicken parts for a light but flavorful chicken stock. For a rich ultra-flavorful broth, use about 8 pounds of chicken.
2) Add plenty of aromatics. Add chopped onion, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, and fresh herbs for the most flavorful stock. Other vegetables like fennel and leek are also excellent.
3) Keep the stock at a gentle simmer. Staying at a low simmer helps keep the stock as clear as possible.
Our Favorite Ways To Use Homemade Chicken Stock
We love soups, here are a few of our favorites:
- Easy Homemade Vegetable Soup
- Creamy Potato Soup
- Quick, Creamy Veggie Soup
- The Best Chicken Noodle Soup
- Delicious Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
We also love using homemade broth to cook rice. Try our Cilantro Lime Rice!
Recipe updated, originally posted October 2010. Since posting this in 2010, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne
Easy Homemade Chicken Stock
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This homemade chicken stock will knock the socks off of anything you can buy at the store. It requires minimal effort, and you can store it in the freezer for up to 3 months!
We will often use chicken wings when making stock — they are cheaper than other cuts of meat. Other chicken parts will work nicely, such as whole chicken, bones, breasts, and legs.
Depending on how rich you want the stock, use more chicken parts. For example, four pounds of chicken parts will do for a light but flavorful stock, or use more for a richer stock.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
4 to 8 pounds chicken parts, such as whole chicken, bones, wings, breast, and legs
1 pound onion, peeled and chopped (2 large
1/2 pound carrots, chopped (4 to 5 medium)
1/2 pound celery, chopped (3 to 4 celery ribs)
6 medium cloves garlic, crushed with the back of knife
2 bay leaves
6 sprigs fresh thyme
Small bunch fresh parsley or dill
2 teaspoons whole peppercorns
2 teaspoons sea salt, or more to taste
12 cups cold water
Directions
1Place the chicken, onions, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaves, thyme, parsley or dill, peppercorns, and salt in a large stockpot.
2Add 12 cups of water and bring to a boil. If the water does not cover the contents of the pot, add a cup or two more water.
3Reduce the heat to low and cook at a gentle simmer, uncovered, for about 4 hours. As it simmers, it is normal for some foam or scum to rise to the top; we use a spoon to remove it.
4After three hours, taste and adjust the broth with more salt.
5To strain the stock, we use a slotted spoon to remove the larger pieces of bone and vegetables. Then we pour the stock through a fine-mesh strainer to catch all the smaller bits.
6Transfer to containers and refrigerate for up to five days or freeze for up to 3 months.
7After the stock has chilled, fat will rise to the surface. We usually leave this, but you can remove the fat for a leaner broth.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Nutrition facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA database to calculate approximate values. It was difficult to estimate actual numbers for this recipe, but we have done our best.
Recipe updated, originally posted September 2009. Since posting this in 2009, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne
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What did I do wrong? The water kept disappearing and I had to keep adding more as time went on. By the time it was done simmering for the 4 hours the water had all evaporated!
Hi Molly, It sounds like you we over-simmering a bit. Next time, reduce the heat so that the stock is barely simmering. You can also partially cover the pot with its lid towards the end of cooking to prevent some reduction.
What do you do with the chicken and veggies once drained? Thanks!
We typically discard them. While it’s possible to salvage some of the meat, it won’t have as much taste since it’s been simmering for so long.
Very nice. It’s what I was looking for. Used it with my grandma’s poor man’s soup recipe, which is a ton of roasted garlic, some cabbage and potato. Turned out very close to hers. Took me back to younger winter days.
I am 88 and just finished making Chicken Stock, so very good.
So good, so very easy to make! Used recipe as guide. Filled cast iron stock pot with onions, celery, etc. Plus added 3-lbs smoked turkey neck. Strained out amount of liquid needed for Thanksgiving. Everything else made three nice containers of veggie turkey soup for the freezer. Best part, zero salt.
This looks delicious. What we usually do is we use coconut milk instead of cream minus the dry white wine. Instead of the basil, we use moringa leaves. Would like to give this a try and see the difference in taste. 🙂
These recipes are right up my street can they be printed off
Yes, just click the print button in the recipe area. That button will take you to a printer friendly version. Happy Cooking!
Used a roasted chicken carcass and added all other ingredients to my crockpot. Added water until the chicken was covered and then cooked on low for 8 hours and left it over night. Total time in the crockpot was probably 14 or 16 hours. I don’t remove the fat from my stock or broth because I eat low carb high fat and want the fat in my cooking.
Hi, I just want to say you guys are so awesome a real life saver. I recently got married and started to cook. I’d pick recipes from all over the internet & my husband was not very happy with them (don’t get me wrong he’s very appreciative of me cooking but none of them were his taste). One day I discovered your blog & decided to give it a go: I made the pulled chicken recipe & the tortilla soup and it was all golden from there! I’ve been making your recipes since then & really enjoying it. Your talents really shine through & you’ve simplified everything so cleverly it works nicely for working women & mothers. Thanks again!
I use a pressure cooker and save a lot of time and fuel/electricity. I also brown the chicken parts or roast them before cooking the stock. (or broth)
Hi! Is it possible to use a slow cooker for this recipe? That would be so awesome!
Hi there, you can use your slow cooker. I’d expect that you will need to cook at HIGH for about 4 hours or on LOW for about 8 hours. I’d also suggest looking at our bone broth recipe. In that article/recipe, we share our method for using a slow cooker to make it.
I don’t add salt to any stock. Leave that for whatever dish you’re using it for as many ingredients already have sodium content. Same thing for the garlic. Many dishes don’t have garlic in them. Adding dill to the stock also limits it’s uses as dill is very powerful but seldom used in daily cooking which is what you’re making a stock for. If you put the herbs in a cheese cloth you don’t end up with little bits of vegetation that the strainer doesn’t catch. Those bits also end up rising to the top and getting trapped in the oil when you want them in the water. You also need to skim the natural scum that is released before straining it. I do that throughout the cooking period. With that scum I also skim the oil. If the oil has herbs in it they end up getting scooped up as well, another reason they should be in a cheese cloth. The refrigeration process solidifies the remaining fat making it easy to remove the last bits of it.
Easy banana bread…. delish. Banana and blueberry muffins also just ready… smell & look gorgeous.. followed recipes to a t really.. can’t wait, SUCCESS THANKS SO MUCH
So this chicken stock makes great banana bread?!?! Where’s that recipe?!? I’d like to add that it makes for a great substitute for salmon in the grilled salmon recipe too!
Homemade stock is so easy to make and is waaaay beter than the store-bought stuff. This recipe and technique looks like a keeper to me.
Thanks Eliana, it is the technique I was taught in school. It leaves you with a simple, clear and delicately flavored stock.