I usually freeze stock (whether it is chicken, fish, beef or shrimp). I find it maintains its flavor profile and structure fairly well. Instead of freezing all of the stock in some sort of plastic container, I freeze my in ice cube trays. You know, those old 1950s plastic cube trays. Just fill them will the stock, freeze and store in a ziplock in the freezer. Its a very convenient way to have a little chicken stock to most dishes...I usually chuck a few into most everything I make and if you need a cup or so of stock, you can melt 8 or 10 of them at a time in a saucepan. Stock freezes fairly well, I would say for about 2 months. I find I use ALOT of chicken stock, and I go through it must faster than that. With the trays I use, 8 cubes makes 1 cup of stock.
Now, if you want to be really gourmet, you can buy a fresh whole chicken and use it solely for making stock. I find that using a chicken in that manner produces an excellent stock, very clear and light. (See my post here for a light chicken stock). But you are using the entire chicken to make stock, which becomes a rather expensive bowl.
If you want to do it the quick, cheap and dirty (and that is the way I usually operate), roast a chicken and have it as a meal. Skin off as much meat as you can from the chicken, and eat it as a meal (see my post on roasting a chicken). When you are just left with the bones (and a little meat on the bones), place it in a ziplock bag and freeze it (I usually keep it in the same bag all the chicken guts are in that I took out when I was roasting it). Once you have 2 or 3 chicken carcasses in your freezer, you are ready to make stock!
I adapted this recipe for making chicken stock from a recipe found in Susanna Foo's Chinese Cuisine.Ah Susanna! She is a real genius!! This was the first major book I purchased on Chinese cuisine, and she has really influenced my cooking! She had a restaurant in Philly, which was amazing, but unfortunately, it shut down. She now has another place open in Randor, which I have not been to.
Yet, I digress.
Yet, I digress.
One note about the ingredients. I usually save my onion and garlic skins and let them dry out in a metal vegetable/onion drawer. I then collect them in a large ziplock. When I have enough, I use them in stock. Same goes for the ends of ginger that dry out and get nasty. Let them sit around and they will get nice and hard and use can use them in this stock!
The ingredients for chicken stock:
1 large stock pot-indispensable!
2 or 3 whole chickens (frozen or fresh)
2 large while onions, quartered (with skin on)
2 large while onions, quartered (with skin on)
1/2 head of garlic (with skin on)
a handful of star anise
a handful of star anise
Roasted black peppercorns (whole)
Ginger, sliced with skin on (you can use fresh ginger or if you have little nubs of dried or semi-dried ginger in your drawer, those will do fine)
Bay Leaf
Dried onion skins (optional)Celery root (optional)
Lemon Thyme or Fresh Thyme (optional)
If you are using a fresh raw chicken, this will make a delicious stock, but lighter and clearer than a dark chicken stock. If you are using a fresh raw chicken, you can probably get away with 1 chicken plus extra wings and drumsticks. But I always use a chicken I have already roasted. No need to waste all that beautiful meat.
You can also use the neck, giblets, feet, anything you feel comfortable with. I usually with save the giblets of the bird in a separate ziplock and chuck them in as well....I usually fish them out before I press the stock, because I am not particularly fond of the taste.
If you are not using a fresh raw chicken, then you will need to thaw your frozen, cooked chicken. Take the frozen chicken carcus out of the freezer. Place them in a large bowl, cover with water, and let them sit for 2 hours. This will help bring the chicken up to temperature, but also start imparting flavor on the stock. If you don't have the time for this step, it can be skipped-you can add the frozen carcus to the stock pot and start cooking immediately. Also, if you are using a fresh, raw chicken, you don't need to do this particular step.
Pour a swig of oil into your stock pot. You can take your onion and roughly quarter them, leaving the skin on, and add them to the pot. Add the peppercorns, ginger, mikan peels, garlic. Saute the onions for several minutes until browned, but not carmelized. You will find that the onion quarters will peel off, one layer at a time. A delicious aroma should start to fill the room.
Next, add your chicken parts. You can either use the remains of a chicken you have already roasted, or, you can use a raw chicken that has not been roasted.
If you elect to use a chicken you have already roasted, cut the carcuss up into quarters with a cleaver or sharp knife. You can also snap it into 2 pieces. Put it in there and stir fry it for a few minutes with the onion mixture. If you are using the remains of an already roasted chicken, you don't have to stir fry it too long, as the meat is already cooked.
If you elect to use a raw chicken, either cut it yourself of have your butcher quarter it for you. If you are doing it yourself, remove the wings and drumsticks (cut the meat around the joint, exposing it. take your thumb and snap it backwards and the joint should "pop" out). Take a cleaver and then quarter the rest of the bird.
Add some more oil to the pot and brown the chicken with the vegetable mixture until no longer pink.
Fill the pot with water. How much water you ask? That always depends on how much chicken you have in your pot, and the size of your pot! I usually fill it with water up to the point where all the bones are submerged in water. 
Bring the whole mixture to a boil and reduce the heat to low. Let it cook for a few hours. I usually prod the chicken with a pair of sharp tongs and cut into the meat to see when the chicken cooked through. You can leave it cooking for as little as one hour, but I would recommend at least 2, possibly three.
You know when it is done when the liquid has thickening somewhat and it has taken on a dark golden color. All of the meat should easily come off the bone.
Please not there is no salt in this recipe, which is how I prefer it. If I need more salt for a particular recipe, I add it in after I have melted an chicken cube!
After the chicken has cooked for a few hours, turn off the heat and let it sit. This helps the flavors develop, and it also cools the liquid off.
Once the stock has cooled down to room temperature or so, I start the straining process.
There are several stages to this process and it all depends on how hard core you want to go.
There are several stages to this process and it all depends on how hard core you want to go.
The first thing I do is take my tongs and remove and many of the major bones that I can.
Next, I prepare a large bowl and put a colander in it. I then pour the stock through that colander. This gets most of the medium sized bones,vegetable mesh and all the small bones and meat of the chicken out of the stock ("the moromi"--see below). Once the stock filters through, you will be left with something that looks like this:
As you can see from the above picture, the stock is free of major bones and vegetables. However, there are still particles in the stock. There are also smaller bones etc.
Now, at this point, this stock is almost ready to use for cooking. The smaller particles COULD interfere with flavor profile and texture for your dish though. As a minimum, I usually like to strain it one more time to remove those particles and any smaller bones, which could be dangerous.
If you want to go hardcore, proceed to stage 2!
If you want to go hardcore, proceed to stage 2!
Stage 2!
The next thing to do is to strain through the stock again, but this time with a fine
hand held sieve. Each time you run your have held sieve through the stock (In this pic, the blue bowl) wash it out in a separate bowl to remove all the smaller chicken meat. (In this pic, the red bowl).
This will significantly improve your stock. There will still be very small particles in the stock that the sieve cannot get though. Usually, I let bygones be bygones and let them be. I usually freeze my stock in ice cube trays (see below). When that happens the remaining small particles sink to the bottom and freeze. Once you take the frozen chicken stock cubes out of their trays, you can cut off the bottoms, removing the last remaining chicken bits and use them to make a light broth. Another option would be to melt the number of cubes you need for a recipe, and then strain them again, which usually catches them.
Stage 3
Chicken Moromi
After you have strained the stock with a colander and a smaller sieve, you are left with a mush of soft vegetables, chicken parts and bones. I refer to this as moromi. Moromi is a Japanese word referring to the rice, kojikin and yeast that is left after sake is strained. The chicken moromi is all the little bits of chicken meat, bone and vegetable after an initial straining.
Again, you have a four options here: You can continue to extract all the remaining juices from the moromi by running it through a fine cheese cloth (option 1), you can use a colander and press the moromi into the colander hard (option 2) or you can squeeze the moromi with you bare hands to extract the stock (option 3). Finally, you can simply throw the moromi away, but that is wasteful! (option 4-proceed to stage 4) Option 1 is the most time consuming, but it will leave you with more stock, and richer stock. Option 3 is also a great way to get more stock out of the moromi, but it is messy. I think Option 2 is the happy medium.
Option 1
Take the chicken moromi and put it in a cheesecloth and wring it out. This will allow you to extract even more of the stock from the moromi. The best way to do this is in very small batches, as it will allow you to extract as much stock out as possible. This is the best way to extract as much stock as you can from the moromi. However, it is a very time consuming process. The cheesecloth also takes a real beating doing this. Cheesecloth is expensive, and I would prefer to use it for something other than making stock.
I have found a better alternative! Robyn got these bags from her mom called 3BBags. They are perforated and have a fine mesh, so they allow the vegetables to breathe, and thus extending the life of the vegetables. These are great because they are really lightweight and you chuck a few in your shopping bag when you go to the grocery and use them instead of plastic bags. They also work wonders for straining chicken stock and the best part is that they can be washed in the dishwasher! Just put some of the moromi in the corner of the bag and squeeze!
Chicken balls
After you have squeezed the liquid out, go through the small batch and look for any bones, peppercorns or parts of the star anise that broke up. I also don't like ginger in there. Throw those away. Place the "chicken ball" in a tray. Once you have gone through that process, you should have around 12-15 balls of chicken. I then use those as filling in sandwiches! I find it really delicious, but my fiancee thinks its gross!
Option 2
If you don't have a cheesecloth you can also squeeze the moromi using a colander. Place the colander over a large bowl. Place the moromi in the collander and press down on it with a hamburger presser or your hands. Strain the stock that comes out in a fine sieve. Pick out the bones as described above "Chicken Balls) under Option 1
After you have strained the stock with a colander and a smaller sieve, you are left with a mush of soft vegetables, chicken parts and bones. I refer to this as moromi. Moromi is a Japanese word referring to the rice, kojikin and yeast that is left after sake is strained. The chicken moromi is all the little bits of chicken meat, bone and vegetable after an initial straining.Again, you have a four options here: You can continue to extract all the remaining juices from the moromi by running it through a fine cheese cloth (option 1), you can use a colander and press the moromi into the colander hard (option 2) or you can squeeze the moromi with you bare hands to extract the stock (option 3). Finally, you can simply throw the moromi away, but that is wasteful! (option 4-proceed to stage 4) Option 1 is the most time consuming, but it will leave you with more stock, and richer stock. Option 3 is also a great way to get more stock out of the moromi, but it is messy. I think Option 2 is the happy medium.
Option 1
Take the chicken moromi and put it in a cheesecloth and wring it out. This will allow you to extract even more of the stock from the moromi. The best way to do this is in very small batches, as it will allow you to extract as much stock out as possible. This is the best way to extract as much stock as you can from the moromi. However, it is a very time consuming process. The cheesecloth also takes a real beating doing this. Cheesecloth is expensive, and I would prefer to use it for something other than making stock.
Chicken balls
After you have squeezed the liquid out, go through the small batch and look for any bones, peppercorns or parts of the star anise that broke up. I also don't like ginger in there. Throw those away. Place the "chicken ball" in a tray. Once you have gone through that process, you should have around 12-15 balls of chicken. I then use those as filling in sandwiches! I find it really delicious, but my fiancee thinks its gross!
Option 2
If you don't have a cheesecloth you can also squeeze the moromi using a colander. Place the colander over a large bowl. Place the moromi in the collander and press down on it with a hamburger presser or your hands. Strain the stock that comes out in a fine sieve. Pick out the bones as described above "Chicken Balls) under Option 1
Option 3
If you don't mind getting messy, you can take a handful of the moromi and squeeze it by hand, extracting all the stock you can. Pick out the bones as described above "Chicken Balls) under Option 1
Stage 4!
I then put the strained chicken stock in the fridge. I usually let it sit overnight, or at least a few hours. The stock should be completely cool. Now, depending on how long you cooked the chicken, the type of chicken, etc, you should have a nice layer of fat on top of your bowl of chicken stock. I will skim that off with a spatula, and then freeze it. I find it to be excellent when making pizza dough, cooking eggs for breakfast or even make scallion pancakes! (More on that later).
Chicken fat ready for freezing!
Chicken fat ready for freezing!
I then take a baster with one of those heat resistant tops and a small strainer. Place the strainer over the ice cube tray and pour the stock into the tray. The strainer should catch most of the meat particles. Place those in the freezer and let then stay there until they freeze. Transfer to a zip lock bag and you are done!
Its a really arduous task, but well worth it! My fiancee calls it a labor of love!
It takes around 8 cubes to make 1 cup of stock!
Enjoy!!!
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