I am building a pantry. A virtual pantry! I decided to start creating some general recipes that are simple and everyone can use, like simple syrups, rubs, sauces and condiments and homemade chicken broth. When you hover over ‘Chews‘ in the navigation bar, there will now be a ‘Pantry‘ option where I will store all of these great staples! 

Homemade chicken broth is really easy to make especially if you live in a household like we do, where you pick up a roasted chicken from the supermarket almost weekly. And after we are done devouring the chicken, I always throw the carcass in a sealable bag and into the freezer. Then eventually I end up with a freezer of three or four chicken carcasses… nice eh? I also keep vegetable scraps in the freezer to add flavour to the homemade chicken broth. You can keep celery tops and bottoms, carrot tops, onion pieces, etc… basically anything that could add flavour to a soup base! 

Homemade Chicken Broth

This recipe is easy to alter based on what you have on hand. I am using four chicken carcasses, but you only need one to make a small batch. The more chicken bones you have, the more broth you will end up with. 

I chopped up a medium onion, a whole bulb of garlic, the tops of a fennel root, tops of a leek, celery bottoms and tops and 15 medium sized carrots. All of these vegetable pieces and scraps went into a large soup stock pot, along with the four chicken carcasses. I filled the pot with water, enough to cover all of the ingredients and added in salt, pepper, dried basil and oregano and three bay leaves. Bring the broth to a boil and let simmer for about 2 hours. 

Once two hours is done and you are left with a flavourful broth, strain all of the bones and vegetables out of the broth and now you have some options. You could make soup right now, like homemade chicken noodle soup. Or you distribute the soup into freezer safe containers and store in your freezer for about 6 months. Or you can preserve the soup by jarring it in sanitized canning jars and processing them in a water bath for 25 – 30 minutes. This should keep your homemade chicken broth for over a year on a shelf! 

Homemade chicken broth is a great staple to have available. You can quickly make soup or use it to make rice more flavourful by using some broth instead of all water. It is also great to add to make mashed potatoes, add it to stuffing or make gravy with it. It’s also a clean way to add flavour to stir fries or steamed vegetables, instead of adding butter or oil!