Chicken stock, broth, and remouillage recipe

One easy way to stretch out a whole chicken into a bunch of meals is to make chicken broth and soups.  Chicken stock and broth is very nutritious and very healing for the digestive system.  I'm going to show you my process of cooking a whole chicken, while making chicken stock, chicken broth, and a remouillage. (which is a weak chicken broth) To learn more about remouillage click here.  To learn more about the stocks and broths click here.

Here is what you are going to need:

- A whole chicken
- chicken feet (optional)

- Veggies (I usually use carrots, celery and onions)

- Salt 

- Filtered water

- raw apple cider vinegar

- a crock pot

- a ladle

- some glass jars or containers (sometimes I use plastic but I'm trying to make the switch over to all glass)

 1. Take the chicken out of the packaging, take out the giblets and put the chicken in the crock pot, add the veggies, a couple teaspoons of salt and 2 1/2 quarts of water (the amount of water you need might depend on how big your crock pot is) I usually fill the crock pot up to about an inch of the top. Cook on high for about 4 hours or on low for about 6 hours.  This will be your chicken stock.

2. Once the chicken is finished, take the chicken out of the crock pot and let cool enough to take the meat off.

3. Take all the meat off the chicken and put in a storage container or use some for dinner.

4. Take all the chicken stock out of the crock pot, first removing the veggies and discarding or composting them.

5. When the crock pot is all empty put the chicken bones in along with a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, some fresh veggies, I used a couple carrots, a stock of celery and about half an onion, a couple teaspoons of salt an I used 3 quarts of cold  filtered water and let it sit for about an hour to let the apple cider vinegar pull the minerals out of the bones and cartilage. This will be your chicken broth.

6. Turn the crock pot on low and let simmer for about 10-12 hours or longer if you like.  I usually turn this on in the evening and let it cook over night.

7. After the broth is finished take out the cooked veggies and discard or compost them and spoon the broth into jars. (You do not have to continue on and make the remouillage, I like to because I like to get the most of the chicken bones that I can, and we go through lots of broth to make soups, to cook rice in and to drink plain)

8. I usually leave the bones in the crock pot.

9. Add 2 quarts or so of filtered water a teaspoon of salt and some more fresh veggies I think I used one carrot and half an onion. Cook on high for like 4 hours.  This will be your remouillage. 

10.  Take out the veggies and the bones and spoon out the broth into jars and discard the chicken carcass (I usually keep the chicken carcass in a couple plastic grocery bags in my freezer until my trash day so I don't stink up our garage) 

11.  You can put the stocks, broths, and remouillage in your fridge for up to about 7 days or you can put them in the freezer and defrost them on the counter before you need them.  If you do put the glass jars in the freezer make sure that the jars are cool, if you stick a hot jar of broth in the freezer it will break. It is best to leave an inch of room at the top of the jar giving room for expansion. Let the jars cool on the counter, then stick them in the fridge, then in the freezer.  After this you should have some chicken for a dinner or two or three and be well stocked with stocks and broths for soups or to drink plain to boost the immune system as well as strengthen the digestive system.

**If you just want to cook the chicken you can and then you can put the bones in a large zip lock bag in the freezer until you are in need of making more broth.  I usually start cooking the chicken and chicken stock in the morning and then cook the chicken broth in the evening and while I am sleeping then cook the remouillage the next morning.  The crock pot only gets dirty once and it is a good time to stock up on broths.