Homemade chicken stock for just pennies per gallon!

(FYI - another Foodgawker rejected photo. Reason: out of focus/blurry. Hello... the center is very focused and the edges are intentionally out of focus, like a million other photos on their site. Click on the photo to see for yourself... you can see a microscopic spec of something on the side of the middle storage container... clear as a bell. Oh well, TasteSpotting accepted it - 35396 )

How do you make a gallon of homemade, uber flavorful, super rich chicken stock for just pennies? First start with the leftover carcasses of two roasted chickens - skin, bones, pan dripping, the works (giblets too, but no livers please).

I used the worlds juiciest oven-roasted chickens ever for this batch, but rotisserie chickens work wonderfully as well. I'll spare you a photo of the carcasses :), but put all the icky bits in a really big stock pot; I like a 12qt, heavy duty.

Incidentally, you can make this stock with uncooked chicken, it just won't be nearly as colorful, and it won't be quite as flavorful, but hey, it'll still be way better than the canned stuff.

Additionally, you'll need 3 peeled carrots, the leafy top 2 inches of a bunch of celery, 2 jumbo onions, 1 head of garlic (yes a whole head), 15-ish peppercorns (no salt yet), 2 large bay leaves (Turkish please, California bay is way too strong), and a good palm full of dried parsley; like 2 tablespoons (or a bunch of fresh parsley stems if you happen to have them hanging around). I'll also add the following if I have them on hand - mushroom stems, a few sun-dried tomatoes, scallion trimmings, parsnips, leek trimmings, etc.

Okay, time to prep the veg - chop the onions into big chunks, leaving the skins on - they add wonderful color. Cut the head of garlic right in half - skin and all. Cut about 2 inches off the top of the celery bunch. Peel and trim the carrots and chop into 1-inch pieces - leaving the peel on makes the stock taste bitter. Been there, done that!

Now throw everybody into the stock pot and cover with water. Crank up the heat and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce the heat to barely simmering (if you're making this with raw chicken, you may want to skim the scum off the surface after 15 or 20 minutes). Simmer, uncovered, for at least 2 hours, but you can let it go for as long as 10 or 12 hours; add more water if you need to, but if you're simmering on a low enough heat, and you're using good heavy stock pot, you shouldn't need to. Oh, be prepared to fight off the nosy neighbors who'll want to know what that amazing smell is!

Mmmmm... see how the onion skins have turned almost a mahogany color? That color equals tons of flavor. Yum!

What's that you ask... what about the rest of the veggies? Er, uh, well... I'm sorry to be the one to have to tell you this but... they're dead. Very, very dead.

Hey, don't be sad... they knew what they were doing... they wanted you to experience this stock... they knew you couldn't do it without them... if they were here today, they would be very proud.

Now, observe a moment of silence while you strain all the the dead veggies out of this rich, nutritious, and delicious liquid gold.

Okay, snap out of it and be happy I didn't post a photo of the last step - not pretty!
Now, add salt to taste (very important!), and there you go... the most amazing homemade stock imaginable. So easy to make and SO much better than anything you can get at the store... and let's not even attempt to compare it's virtues against that other stuff... you know... that stuff called bullion (please don't say that word out loud - there are impressionable children all around).

You can easily cut this recipe in half, but why make a little when you can make a lot. Did I mention it costs mere pennies to make a gallon of this stuff? Literally, this huge batch of stock cost me less than a buck. You can't even think about buying a vastly inferior can of the grocery store stuff for less than a buck, forget about 8 cans. Stock your freezer, and you'll never have to settle for less again! Stay tuned for my quick and easy chicken noodle soup.