A Quick & Easy Chicken Stock Recipe
The average homemade chicken stock recipe takes hours of simmering on the stove to reach its full-bodied flavor potential. While it tastes amazing, it’s just plain time consuming. Today I’m sharing how to make chicken stock, the quick and easy way! We’re taking a few notes from my Instant Pot pulled pork and making Instant Pot chicken stock. This method shaves off hours from the total time and still yields an incredibly hearty and flavorful broth. You’ll never make it the old way again!
Why make Instant Pot chicken stock?
It’s effortless and rewarding; all you have to do is set your ingredients in your pressure cooker and let it do its thing. You don’t even have to peel or dice your veggies! Tastes like it’s been cooking for hours! Use it in any recipe that calls for chicken stock or chicken broth, like my soup recipes, garlic butter shrimp or risotto. Great way to reduce waste! I’ll usually toss a leftover chicken carcass (from making chicken tortilla soup or white chicken chili, perhaps!) in a bag in the freezer for future stock. I do the same thing with vegetable scraps like onion peels or chopped onion, celery leaves, carrot peels and end pieces, etc. Versatile. Great for sipping when you’re sick or using in any recipe that calls for chicken stock or chicken broth (I use it in place of the chicken broth in my potato soup and chicken pot pie).
In the past year, we’ve transitioned to making almost everything that we eat at home from scratch. From sourdough bread, to homemade bbq sauce, to this homemade broth, everything tastes better when it’s homemade.
What You Need
Technically, you can make chicken stock with just chicken and water, so everything else is really a bonus (a bonus that adds flavor, nonetheless!). Here’s what I use:
Chicken. I pick my chicken carcass before using it to make stock, but it is not 100% clean. I am happy to get some flavor from the meat as well. You can use also a raw chicken carcass/bones instead. Herbs. I use thyme, bay leaves, and parsley, but you can really use whatever you have on hand or prefer. Lemon juice. A squeeze of fresh lemon juice lightens and freshens the chicken stock to keep it from being too rich. Peppercorns. I like using whole peppercorns for easy removal. You could use ground pepper (preferably freshly ground), but it can make your chicken stock a bit cloudy. Salt. Many cooks suggest you leave salt out of your chicken stock to have a greater amount of control over your final dish. I can understand that, since I prefer to use unsalted butter in my baking recipes. However, I feel the salt helps develop the flavor of the stock and elect to include it. You can certainly leave it out if you prefer though!
SAM’S TIP: While I wrote my chicken stock recipe to include a lot of specifics, there’s really so much wiggle room here. Use whatever herbs and spices you enjoy or have on hand, and I can guarantee you’ll still end up with a flavorful stock! Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Chicken Stock
SAM’S TIP: While my chicken stock recipe isn’t supposed to be perfectly clear, I do typically like to skim off the fat. To do this, I place my stock in a large container in the fridge overnight. The next morning, I’ll skim the fat off before pouring it into containers or into silicone molds for freezing. One important thing to note: while I am sharing exact measurements today, I am not so precise in real life. A large handful of parsley, a smallish bunch of thyme, a sprinkling of peppercorns, a squeeze of lemon juice…that is how I typically make my stock! Feel free to do the same 😊 Enjoy! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
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