Chicken Stock

When Ben and I put our meat order in for Polyface farm we thought one order of chicken backs was just one chicken back, so we ordered 3, to find out when our order arrived that one order came with 5 chicken backs! They were only 1.25 a pound, but needless to say I have been making chicken stock for the past 3 days, here is the best chicken stock recipe I have found from Ruth Reichl's blog. http://www.ruthreichl.com/

2 chicken backs or 1 chicken carcass

1 tablespoon oil (if using raw chicken)

1 whole carrot

1 whole celery rib

1 whole onion

a few springs of parsley

1 bay leaf

about a tablespoon of salt

water

In the biggest pot you have, heat a tablespoon oil and brown 2 chicken backs or if you are using one chicken carcass, you don't need to brown chicken as it is already cooked. Add carrot, celery, parsley, and onion and fill the pot with water (leave about an inch free at top of pot.) Add bay leaf and salt and bring to a boil. Once boiling, bring stock down to the lowest temperature and let simmer for about 5 hours.

After 5 hours, turn heat off and let cool, once cooled carefully scoop mixture into a colander over a bowl and drain stock. Put stock in glass jars and place in fridge (make sure stock is cooled completely or the glass will crack.) Leave in fridge until fat concentrates at the top of the jar, remove fat and save for cooking with greens or toss out if you are too healthy (or too much of a wimp to cook with rendered fat.)