Chicken Stock in the Crock Pot

Crock Pot Chicken Stock is easy to make. This tutorial will show you how we make homemade chicken broth in our slow cooker.

Chicken Stock ready for the freezer.

I’ve been making my own chicken stock for many years. That’s one thing I knew how to do when I got married! 🙂

In my teen years I became interested in eating healthfully, and spent a great deal of time at our local Whole Foods Market. For my birthday one year, my mom gave me a cookbook about whole foods, and I learned so much from that first introduction.

One of the things I learned from this book was how to make my own stock. For years I made it regularly, using a large stock pot on the stove.

Several years ago, however, I learned an easier, quicker method for making stock, and now I make it usually once a week, because it’s so easy.

How to Make Bone Broth in the Crock-Pot

A friend asked how I make this, so I thought I’d share it with you here.

First, I begin by making baked chicken. And I do this really simply, also. I just wash the chicken, sprinkle some sea salt and lemon pepper over it (or freshly ground black pepper, and sometimes I add rosemary or other herbs if we have them growing–or you can also use dried herbs or spices).

Then I cover it and bake it at 350 degrees for about an hour to an hour and a half, until it reaches the right temperature. {Usually I stick some potatoes in the oven with the chicken to bake at the same time, too.}

When I serve the chicken, I remove all the meat from the bones (I don’t serve the meat with bones, because I want to use those bones!).

Then, I just put the bones in the slow cooker along with the leftover juices, fat, etc.

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Cover with water and add a few tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, about 10 peppercorns and some celery from the freezer (and parsley, if I have it).

I save the center parts of the celery (and even limp celery that we just didn’t get around to eating before it lost its crispness) in a freezer bag, just for the purpose of making stock.

I turn the slow cooker on high and let it cook for several hours on high. Before I go to bed, I turn the temperature to low, and it cooks all night on low.

I know some advocate letting the bones sit there with the water and vinegar for an hour or so, but if I do that I’m likely to forget to ever turn it on! Besides, it takes our slow cooker a while to fully heat up anyway, so this is fine and works for me. 🙂

Crock Pot Chicken Stock

By the next afternoon, I will turn the slow cooker off and let it cool for a bit. Then I strain the stock.

At this point, you can either use the stock right away or freeze it. We often will have soup in the winter on the day that I make stock, but I also like to have a supply in the freezer.

I also have a collection of recipes that call for chicken broth, and sometimes I will use the stock in those recipes, instead of making soup.

To freeze the chicken stock, you can use plastic freezer containers, plastic zip bags, or glass canning jars, which is my preferred method. I’ve used all three of these freezer containers, and they all worked fine.

If you choose to use glass canning jars, the wide mouth jars are recommended for freezing. I try to leave a good bit of head space at the top (about 1 1/2 to 2 inches).

The narrow mouth jars are prone to cracking in the freezer. I found a helpful article here and here on this topic.

The plastic lids I use on my jars are these Ball lids here. You can also just use the two-piece canning lids.

So, that’s all there is to making crock-pot chicken stock! It’s really very simple, and easy to fit into the weekly routine.

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Comments

Andrea Bates says

July 23, 2014 at 3:36 am

I'm so glad to stumble across this on Pinterest! I am making stock for the first time tonight, I usually make chicken soup, so the broth is different when cooking all day. I'm leaving it on low in the crockpot tonight and hoped to find someone saying that was okay. 🙂

- Joy Kincaid says
  
  July 23, 2014 at 4:33 am
  
  I'm so glad if this was helpful to you, Andrea! I make chicken stock like this at least once a month (sometimes once a week), and it's so easy and works great!
  
Joy Kincaid says

August 30, 2011 at 7:32 pm

This is really so easy, Heather, and I always love knowing I've used the whole chicken. And it's so much better than store-bought.

Thanks so much for your sweet and encouraging comments! 🙂

Many blessings to you as you prepare for your upcoming marriage~such an exciting time!

♥Joy

Sneakers Of Faith says

August 30, 2011 at 1:23 pm

I've never tried my hand at homemade stock before, but better late than never! 🙂 I think I'll make some this week & stick them in my fiance's freezer ~ that way I'll already have homemade stock on hand as a newlywed! Yay! 🙂

Thank you for helping me in my wife training! Sewing, preserving… what's next? 🙂

Blessings,
Heather

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