How to Make Chicken Stock

By Christina Cherrier

Updated Apr 23, 2021

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A good chicken stock can add more taste and flavor to your dishes, especially when it comes to make a good stew, soup or risotto.

If you want to make a large dish, then you should definitely look to cook your own chicken stock. Not only is it very easy to do, but it’s also a good plan to have a chicken stock bottle in the fridge or in advance in the freezer.
This chicken stock recipe takes less than an hour to make. It has a clear, clean flavor, and gives you cooked (not overcooked) chicken parts to use into your salad or for any other use, like deep-fried chicken wings.

You can also read this article to learn the basics of making stock.

How to Make Chicken Stock

Utensils you need for making chicken stock:

A stockpot is a dedicated cookware especially designed to prepare stocks. Its is taller than regular pots and allows you to cook larger volumes of liquid. Here are some examples of stockpots via Amazon.
A chinois strainer will be useful: it is a kind of very thin strainer that allow you to filter liquids and coulis. Here’s an example of a chinois strainer.
A laddle

Ingredients you need:

2 lbs (1kg) of chicken wings(or necks, or poultry carcass parts that always present lots of bone and cartilage, bones giving the taste and cartilage the texture)
3 1/2 ounces (100 g) of carrot
3 1/2 ounces (100 g) of onion studded with cloves
1 small leek
1 to 2 small celery stalks
1 bouquet garni (parsley, a sprig of thyme and a bay leaf… see the bouquet garni recipe here)
1 pinch of salt

Cooking Instructions:

Wash the celery.
Peel and wash the leeks.
Cut leeks in half and tie them with celery.

Peel and wash carrots, cut them into sections.

Make a bouquet garni.
Prick the peeled onion with the cloves.

Cut chicken wings in two or three parts.
In the stockpot, place the wings with a large amount of cold water.
Bring to a boil over high heat.

Skim regularly during cooking.
Blanch two to three minutes to a simmer.
Drain, rinse under water and cool completely.

Notes:
Blanch and skim it up to remove impurities.

Place the chicken back into the stockpot once it has been cleaned. Add the aromatics and bouquet garni.
Add water and a pinch of salt

Notes:
Onions, carrots, celery and leeks are called “aromatics” in this kind of preparation.
The pinch of salt is here to promote exchanges between the different elements.

Bring to a simmer and cook for 1:00 to 1:30.
During cooking, skim and degrease with a pouch (small ladle) regularly.

Notes:

Skim to remove impurities for the least troubled stock possible.
Degrease the chicken stock to avoid having points of fat in the different recipes that you will make later using the stock base.

Tips
Making a big batch of stock is only marginally more difficult than making a small one: Double the recipe—or make as much as you can, in the largest pot you have—then divide the chicken stock among small containers to keep in the freezer.