Food From Scraps - Part 2

"Are you just going to throw those away?" half shouted Supportive Husband Guy at his father after a lunch enjoyed at their home. Father-in-law was clearing away the chicken bones from the counter and scraping them into the trash.  Poor man got scolded.

We don't throw bones away. For years now when we purchase a whole bird or have a ham with bone in I know I'll get the base for another two or three meals.  If you own a slow cooker you have two options. One is easier than the other.  Which I do depends on how tight our finances are or how much time I have.

Option 1: Making broth or stock
This is as easy as dumping things in a slow cooker. It doesn't take much time and costs pennies. 

• Save the bones from a whole chicken, duck, turkey, ham or whatever other bone-in meat you've recently had for dinner. 
• Put the bones in your slow cooker along with a carrot, half an onion, celery stalk some garlic cloves, salt, and pepper. You can do this without the vegetables if you don't have any on hand.  I personally think the vegetables create a more complete flavor in the final stock. 
• Fill your slow cooker with water and set it to low for 10 hours. You don't need to be precise about the time or amount of water.  Most slow cookers will default to a "keep warm" setting if you don't get to it within the cooking time. 
• After the bones, water and vegetables are done cooking get a strainer.
• Set it in a large pot, large enough to hold the contents of the slow cooker.
• Dump the contents of your crock into the large pot letting the strainer filter out any bones and unwanted vegetable chunks. 
• Remove the strainer from the pot containing your broth.
• Using any freezer safe containers you like portion out the broth to freeze for later use. Be sure to label your stock with what it is and when it was prepared. I like to portion my stock into approximately 2 cup quantities. It is convenient if I want to make soup for my own lunch and is an easy number to multiply if I want to make a large pot of soup for the family.

Another option you have regarding the vegetables which really makes this food from scraps is to save your carrot ends, celery leaves and other vegetable bits in a bag in the freezer throughout the week.  Then use those saved scraps as the vegetables in your stock. I've not done this very often. Previously it was because our pet guinea pigs loved the vegetable bits and lately its because we are using our scraps in different ways.

Option 2: Separating the meat from the bone and making stock
This option is more time intensive.  It is also a little messier for the hands but  I just did this today.  Supportive Husband Guy picked up a rotisserie chicken last night for dinner.  We had yet another sick child home from school. That makes at least one day every week this month where some child missed a day of school. With a sick child and the tasty blue cheese mashed potatoes not much of the chicken was eaten making it worth the time to separate the meat off for later use.

•  Place left over rotisserie chicken in slow cooker.
• Add one carrot roughly chopped, half an onion chopped in quarters, as much garlic as you like and salt and pepper.
• Cover with water.
• Set slow cooker to low for 3-4 hours.
• Place strainer in large pot and after cooking is complete strain crock into large pot.
• Set broth aside.
• Into clean bowl separate meat from the bones, vegetables and other matter.
• Store separated meat however you wish based on your plan on using it.  I just put mine in a zip-lock bag tonight.  I'm making it into chicken salad for The Alpha's lunch the rest of the week. Usually I freeze it.
• Portion broth into freezable container of choice, label and freeze.

From this chicken I got about 2 cups of meat and about 10 cups or broth. The meat would have cost me $3-$4 canned at the grocery store. The stock would cost me $8-$10. Total savings for 20 minutes of work was almost $15. Supportive Husband Guys spent less than $8 for the original chicken.

I have a ham bone in the freezer waiting for the slow cooker to get washed so it can become a delicious part of our dinner plans too.  The Sharp Shooter has already placed a meal request for the ham broth I haven't made yet.

Do you make your own broth or stock?  Use a different method than me?  Have questions about how to get more food from your grocery store roast chicken?

Keep chasing perfection, people. Eventually we are going to Catch Excellence.