Remember how I told you not to throw away your vegetable stumps? That you should make vegetable broth out of those?

Well, the same applies to chicken bones – or “the carcass” as MawMaw used to call it – leftover from a roasted chicken (or turkey, for that matter). Don’t discard the carcass like a piece of rubbish – it has a future in a delicious, nutritious, sodium-free stock.

Yield: 1 quart

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken carcass
• vegetable stumps (if you have them)
• 2 qts. water
• pepper (to taste)
• 2 cloves garlic

Cut up the carcass in pieces small enough to fit into your pot –
the size of the pot will depend on the size of the bird.
For this (once) 2-lb. bird, I am using a 3-qt. pot.

Here I have the remnants of onions, celery, and carrots.
There is no law that says you have to add vegetables to your chicken stock –
but if you have them, why waste them?
Plus, they add flavor. 

So…add any vegetable stumps that you might have
collected over the last day or two to the pot with the chicken.
Cover the contents with water. 
In this 3-qt. pot, I have added 2 qts. water.

Now add about 1 t pepper (or to taste) and a couple cloves of garlic.
Bring the water to a rolling boil, then lower the heat to medium.
Boil until the liquid is reduced by half.
My 2 qts. water will yield 1 qt. broth.

Once reduced, remove the broth from the heat and strain.

Now you have a tasty  broth.
I use broth in place of water in most of my recipes.

Cool and store in plastic containers.
It will keep in the refrigerator for about a week,
or in the freezer for about 2 months.