The Whole Chicken

For the last year, we have only purchased whole chickens. Why? Couple of reasons:

1. Price: On average, a whole chicken runs you about 1.99/lb compared to 6.99 or 7.99/lb for boneless skinless breasts
2. My goal is to buy organic, natural or free range meat at all times and it is expensive and hard to keep up with if you buy only the parts
3. I like the breasts more than the legs and thighs, and Ben likes the legs and thighs more than the breast - so when I was buying the breasts, they often got wasted
4. I have found great ways to satisfy the entire households palette with the whole chicken
5. #5 is my favorite - we freeze the carcass and make our own stock

The last point may make a few of you say 'ewww'. It may induce some to say 'yeah right'. And hopefully I inspire others to say 'yeah all that makes sense and tell me more about your stock because maybe I can do that".

The stock recipe is really easy. We don't like to waste in our house and the flavor you get out of homemade stock is amazing. Truly. I don't lie about this - I have not bought boxed stock in at least 5 years.

Stock Recipe/Process:

Basically what we do in our house is any time we have a whole chicken, we cut it up and then freeze the carcass and wings. Any vegetables like onion, garlic, bell pepper, asparagus, celery, carrots, herbs that have been chopped up and the ends are left, skin left over or are about to go bad, we stuff into a freezer bag with the chicken. Once every 2-3 weeks we dump the bag out into a roasting pan, crank the oven up to 375 degrees and roast everything for 45 minutes. Take it all out, dump into a large stock pot and cover with cold, filtered water. Let it simmer for as little as 1 hour and up to 5 hours. I use the Oxo fat separator but you can just as easily put it in the fridge where the fat will rise to the top and chill out and you can scoop it off. Then store in plastic Tupperware or glass Mason jars and you are good to go with excellent stock any time.

The best part is this is mostly just assembly. True the cooking can take up to 6 hours, but you can do other things while it cooks! The rest is a few extra pots and pans to wash, and some assembly of putting the stock in the freezer - all to not waste precious onion or garlic skins, veggies about to go bad, or a whole chicken carcass and to get the best tasting stock you will ever have.