Skip store-bought! How to make chicken stock in a crock pot is simple, delicious, and you will never want to purchase another carton again!

Growing up, my mom made whole chickens in the crock pot. Every time that she made them the house would smell so delicious. And, I knew one of my favorite meals were coming. Chicken and biscuits with homemade gravy. It was one of my favorite meals (and one of the only ones she created from scratch). It wasn’t until years later that I realized you could create chicken stock in the crock pot after you pulled all the meat off the chicken.

So picture this, you found this whole chicken on sale for about $6. You get a ton of meat off the chicken. for us, a whole chicken can feed our family of four for two dinners and sometimes one or two lunches. And now you can make 6 quarts of stock using the same remains you already have. Stock cartons usually cost about $2 per carton. So you’re getting more than $12 worth of stock in addition to the meat, all for the prices of chicken and a few vegetables and spices. It’s definitely a huge win!

Can you make stock in a crock pot?

The answer is a resounding yes. Not only can you, but it’s even easier because you throw everything inside of the crock pot and you get to forget about it until it’s done. The even better new is that you can repeat the process multiple times. We reuse the same bones and vegetables up to three times, just changing out the water each time. At the end of the third process, you will have 6 quarts of chicken stock.

How to Make Chicken Stock in a Crock Pot

The first step we recommend is to make a whole chicken in a crock pot. Once you have a whole chicken, you want to separate the meat from bones, fat, and any vegetables you were using. Strain out any stock that was in the crockpot after cooking the whole chicken. This is the best stock. If not using it immediately to make gravy, store it in a mason jar and it will turn gelatinous and full of rich antibodies and immune benefits.

It’s okay if there’s a little meat left on the bones here. But ideally, you are just looking to separate the white and dark meat chicken from everything else that was in your crockpot.

Now that everything is separated, you are going to add it all back into the crockpot. The bones, the fat, the vegetables.

Add 8 cups of water to the mixture. Put the lid on and cook on low for at least 8 hours.

Once the 8 hours is up, strain the stock from the bone and vegetable mixture.

This mixture, when chilled, will have a gelatinous texture.

Why is my chicken stock gelatinous?

First, this is an amazing thing and you actually want to see this Jell-O like substance when your stock is chilled. What happens is that you have extracted collagen from the bones. Literally, you’ve made gelatin. This only happens when you make a rich stock and you will never see this in store-bought chicken stock cartons. When heated, it will liquify again.

This is actually why chicken soup is supposed to be great for cold and flu season. Because this is how our grandparents would make chicken soup. Besides the comfort of warmed soup, canned soups on the market today don’t have the same health benefits.

The benefits of this gelatinous mixture including joint protection, boosting your digestive and immune systems, giving you healthier hair, nails, and skin, and more.

Once you have strained the liquid from the bones and vegetables you can repeat the process using the same bones and vegetables two more times, just adding an additional 8 cups of water each time. The mixture from the last two runs won’t gel, but they will still have an amazing flavor that’s better than any store bought brand.

Each time you process the color will get lighter and lighter, but never as light as you would see from a store carton of chicken stock.

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How to Make Chicken Stock in a Crock Pot

Skip store-bought! How to make chicken stock in a crock pot is simple, delicious, and you will never want to purchase another carton again!

Author: Larisha Campbell

Ingredients

1 chicken carcass
4 large stalks of celery
6 large carrots
1 large sweet onion
10 cloves of garlic peeled
2 bay leaves
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp chili powder
8 cups water

Instructions

*Please see notes below for tips
Put all ingredients inside a crockpot.
Pour in water.
Heat on low for 8 hours.
Strain chicken stock from ingredients into two quart sized mason jars.
Store in fridge and use within 7 days or freeze up to 6 months.
Repeat process using same bones and vegetables two more times.

Recipe Notes

If you are using our How to Cook a Whole Chicken in a Crock Pot recipe, then you don't need to start with new vegetables. Just use the same ones. You can do this a total of three times, using the same bones and vegetables and adding new water each time.