Super Frugal Cooking: Reusing Stock Chicken

I guess to begin with I need to make a distinction between several ways of making stock. The first method, which is what you see in cookbooks, involves buying a whole chicken or something like that and then boiling the heck out of it. This inevitably leaves you with delicious stock and a bunch of flavorless chicken.

The second method, which isn't particularly relevant here, is using only inedible chicken parts to make stock. For instance we save all our bones and scraps (like wing tips) in a bag in the freezer and then when we have enough we use those to make stock, maybe with a bag of chicken feet (think I'm kidding?) thrown in. I like this method a lot because it makes you feel like you really aren't wasting anything. But to be fair I'll admit that is a cultural bias, in some places chicken feet aren't considered inedible.

So back to the method of chicken stock that involves a whole carcass. What bugs me about that is all the wasted meat. Some people still use the 4 hour boiled meat for some things but I've tasted it and it just doesn't work for me. So I started doing my own version of this process which involves cooking the chicken for only an hour, taking off the meat and freezing it and returning the bones and scraps to the stock to continue cooking. This way you get chicken that is still edible (although not the tastiest you've ever had) and good stock.


(Bag-o-cooked-shredded-frozen-defrosted Chicken)

While I have described this method previously I don't think I've ever really talked about what we do with the shredded frozen chicken. You might expect these bags to languish in the freezer, forgotten and frostbitten but quite the contrary, they are in high demand. This is because we've found they make really good chicken pot pie (or chicken and biscuits, or chicken and dumplings, or chicken over rice).

Of course when we make any of these variations on the basic creamy chicken stew with veggies over starch recipe we use our homemade chicken stock, which is kind of funny because we are reuniting the chicken with the stock. And although these all come out good there is just something about the frozen chicken that doesn't quite live up to using fresh (by grocery store standards) chicken. But this is a frugal recipe so of course we're going to find a way around that arent' we?

One day inspiration struck me, why not try a little curry powder? (Or perhaps it was the need to use up the gigantic jar of Madras curry powder I had bought.)


(This is the aforementioned giant jar of curry powder.)

I put in a couple teaspoons or so to my basic recipe (flour, fat, stock, milk, misc. veggies, chicken), not so much that it tasted like a full on curry but enough that you got a little of the spiciness. And it was surprisingly good and made up for what the chicken itself lacked. (I'm not giving you a recipe since I don't really have a set one but if you wanted one you could look up any good chicken pot pie recipe and just add a couple teaspoons of curry powder.)


Anyone else use curry powder in something that isn't strictly Indian cuisine? I'm curious because this is a new concept to me and I'm surprised I don't see it as an ingredient more often.

A New Low Point

How could I have forgotten to tell you about this incident at the farmer’s market this weekend:

We approach the stand of the farm from which we usually buy chicken feet. Since we had inquired about them the week before as soon as the farmer saw us he asked if we wanted our chicken feet. He sent someone to grab them and while we were waiting another person working at the stand asked if we were being helped to which we responded that we were just waiting for the feet.

And this is what she said: “Ah I should have recognized you, the chicken feet family.”

My response was “Oh dear, is that how we’re known?”

She reassured me that it was a good thing and we discussed the wonders of homemade chicken stock.

And it is a good thing, I’m proud of making my own stock with chicken feet. I find it dishonest to enjoy eating meat products but to be unable to deal with those parts that actually remind you of an animal.

But still, I’m not sure I want this nickname to spread.

And to remind you why more people don’t make their own stock here’s a picture of a bag of frozen chicken feet!

Chicken Feets

Before I outline the process involved in making our own chicken stock I think it is necessary to explain why we would go to such great lengths when there is chicken stock available at the grocery store:

1. it's more frugal
2. it's more environmental (no boxes of what is essentially water being shipped around the country)
3. no MSG!
4. no god-knows-what-other chemicals
5. you can control the amount of salt
6. it can be used for Asian soup (which boxed celery flavored stocks can’t)
7. it’s a lot better, and I mean a lot

So here’s how we did our latest batch: first we bought a several pound bag of chicken feet from an organic farm at our local farmer’s market. (Note: you must be strong willed and strong stomached to stir a boiling vat of chicken feet.) (And if you aren’t lucky enough to have a local farmer who sells chicken feet try looking at ethnic markets, I recently saw them for sale at an Asian market.) Next we bought a huge package of chicken legs (bone in and skin on of course) at the grocery store which was on sale for $.79 a pound!

I started the stock by covering the chicken leg parts with just enough water so they were submerged. I brought it to a boil and then simmered it covered (or uncovered, probably doesn’t matter as you’re going to want to reduce it later) for about an hour. I then removed the legs and let them cool.

The reason I cooked these for only an hour was that I wanted the meat to still be usable and if it is cooked for too long it becomes pretty much flavorless. So while the meat still retained some flavor I boned and skinned it and ripped all the nice pieces off (with my bare hands…not a pretty sight to see) and threw them in a bowl. I then threw the bones and skin and all the other little bits back in the pot of water with the frozen chicken feet and simmered that uncovered for at least another hour.

The useable chicken bits I bagged and froze for future use in soup or chicken salad, making sure it was well labeled as it would otherwise be quite a mystery when dug out of the back of the freezer six months down the line.

When the stock had cooled enough I strained out all the bones and was left with astoundingly golden chicken broth which I put in a smaller pot in the fridge overnight. The next day when I removed it had a nice half inch of fat on the top which I skimmed off with a spoon. The fat went into a small pan so I could cook out the moisture over low heat. The fat then went in the fridge for some future use…although I’m not sure what yet.

The stock also got warmed again but just enough that it could be poured into several containers to be labeled and frozen.

Although I find plain chicken stock to be the most useful, if you know you are going to use if for Asian soup (Japanese, Chinese, etc.) you can flavor it with some garlic and ginger while it is still cooking.

And a note on salting: you should probably wait until the end of the cooking process to salt, because if you salt it early on, as it reduces it can become way too salty. In which case you might as well go out and buy commercial stock with its 900 mg. of salt per serving.

But beware the homemade chicken stock: if you make it you will become so spoiled that you will find it impossible to go back to the store bought kind and you will be forever burdened with the task of locating and then cooking down scary chicken parts for your stock.

And again, I have no delicious picture of a boiling vat of chicken feet for you, but I just can't stand to have a pictureless post so how about a cool squash blossom?