Chicken or Beef Stock

The technique is the same regardless of the basic ingredient.



1 whole chicken OR 2 lbs beef soup bones/ox tails
2-3 large organic carrots, scrubbed, trimmed and cut into 2-inch chunks
2-3 stalks organic celery, washed, trimmed and cut into 2-inch chunks
2 large white cooking onions, trimmed, skins left on, cut into quarters or eighths
8 quarts water



Place meat and vegetables in a large stock pot and cover with water.  Bring to a gentle boil then immediately reduce heat to barely simmering. Allowing the stock to boil will make it cloudy.  Cover and simmer for up to 6 hours, checking every hour or so to ensure stock remains at a slow simmer and a nice clear golden colour is achieved.

Once done, using tongs and a slotted spoon, remove the chicken to a platter and remove the vegetables to the compost bin. Pour the stock through a fine strainer or a colander lined with a double thickness of cheesecloth into another large pot and leave it to drip drain for a couple of hours.



Meanwhile, pick apart the poached chicken, separating the meat from the bones and collecting each in separate zip-lock freezer bags. Freeze for future use, or if you have collected the bones from 2-3 chicken carcasses, make bone broth. If using beef bones or oxtail, discard them to the compost bin and use fresh bones to make bone broth. Make Yucatan-Style Chicken, Lime and Orzo soup with the poached chicken meat.

Once the stock has been thoroughly drained, pour into freezer containers and freeze or process in a pressure canner -- 25 minutes for quart jars or 20 minutes for pint jars. STOCKS CAN NOT BE PROCESSED IN A BOILING WATER BATH CANNER!

Yield: 8 quarts