Easy Homemade Chicken Broth

Using ingredients you were probably going to toss out anyways, you can make rich, flavorful Easy Homemade Chicken Broth at home instead...

Okay, okay.... I know what you all may be thinking. 

Why in the world would you take the time and effort to make your own chicken broth at home when you can easily pick up a carton of the store-bought variety for less than $2 at your local grocery store?

Let me tell you all why...

It just tastes better than store-bought. Hands down.

Another very good reason? You know everything that is going in it and everything that will not be in it.  No added sodium. Or ingredients you can't pronounce. Just all of the good wholesome stuff that do you want.

Another perk of making your own chicken broth? You can tweak the flavors in it according to your preferences. Love garlic? Add more in there. Hate it? Leave it out! 

See how that works? ;)

Support for Sandy- Good Ole Fashioned Chicken Noodle Soup

Today I am joining together with other food bloggers across the country in posting a favorite comfort food recipe in order to raise awareness for the need for donations to aid the victims of Hurricane Sandy.  Homes have been destroyed, families have been devastated, lives forever changed.  Please consider clicking the button above and making a donation to the Red Cross.  

Enjoy my recipe for Good Ole Fashioned Chicken Noodle Soup.  :)  I wish I could make a few big batches of this and send them up north...

One of my favorite homemade comfort foods for fall is Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup.  And when I say homemade, I mean HOMEMADE.  I roast two large chicken breasts in my Crock Pot a few days before I plan to make a pot of the soup. (CLICK HERE for my recipe for Slow Cooker Roast Chicken.)  Then I remove all the good meat from the bone-in chicken breasts and save the rest (bones, cartilage, skin, etc) in a container in the fridge and make homemade chicken broth the next day with it.  (CLICK HERE for my recipe for Small Batch Homemade Chicken Broth.)  Then on the third day, I use my slow cooker roast chicken and my homemade chicken broth and make THE BEST homemade chicken noodle soup you will ever slurp. ;)  But, you don't HAVE to do all that to make this recipe.  You can buy a grocery store rotisserie chicken and a carton of chicken broth.  But it is worth the effort if you have the time to make it all from scratch.

What you will need:

1/2 medium onion, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 large carrots, chopped (or you can use a couple of handfuls of baby carrots & chop them)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

4 cups of chicken broth (homemade, if you got it ;) )

3 cups of water

2 bay leaves

about 5 oz of extra wide noodles

about 1 1/2 cups of chopped cooked chicken

2 tbsp of fresh parsley, chopped

Salt & pepper, to taste

Heat a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat.  Once heated add the olive oil and butter.  Once the butter is melted, add the onion, celery, and carrots.  Saute for 3-4 minutes.  Pour in the chicken broth and water.  Drop in the bay leaves.  Heat to boiling.  Once it is brought to a boil, add your noodles.  Boil for another 10 minutes until noodles are tender.  Reduce the heat to a simmer.

Fish out the two bay leaves (do this with spoon and not your fingers, please ;) ). Then add in the chicken and parsley.   Cook another 3-4 minutes until the chicken has been heated through.  Taste your broth at this point and add salt and pepper to your taste.  

Ladle into bowls and serve with a nice crusty bread or good old school traditional like us and pull out the saltines. ;)  This makes about 6-8 servings.

Please head over to Creative Culinary to check out the other comfort food recipes being linked up for Support for Sandy, and link up your own recipe too! Just CLICK HERE. :)

What is one of your favorite comfort food meals to make?

Potato & Summer Squash Chowder

So earlier this week I showed you just how incredibly easy (and non-labor intensive!) making chicken broth from scratch is. (You missed that post?  No problem.  Just CLICK HERE. ;) ) Now you need a crazy good, cozy, comfy fall recipe to use it in, right?

How about a creamy, delicious bowl of Potato & Summer Squash Chowder?

I went 100% local and picked up Russian Fingerling Potatoes from one of my favorite vendors from the farmers market.  Another local farmer also turned me onto to how incredibly delicious and tender the smaller summer squash are.  Usually I think bigger is better (and goes further).  But not with summer squash.  I will never buy another larger, dark yellow summer squash again.  Look for squash with a pale, almost milky yellow color and that are less than a foot long.  Trust me on this, and thank me later. ;)

I also lucked out that another farmer had thick cut bacon available for sale.  I mean, you have to top potato chowder with bacon, right?  If you can't find a good local thick cut bacon, just pick up the thickest you can find at your local grocery store.

What you will need:

About 1 lb of potatoes, chopped into 1 inch pieces 

1/2 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 cups of chicken broth (homemade! homemade!)

1 cup of milk

1/2 cup half 'n half

1/2 cup of water

1 small light yellow summer squash, chopped

Salt & pepper, to taste

2-3 springs of fresh parsley, chopped

1/4 lb of thick cut bacon

First start by prepping and chopping everything.  I usually do this and set them aside in small bowls.  Get all the veggies, the potatoes, and the garlic chopped and minced.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Line a RIMMED baked sheet with aluminum foil.  Please make sure the baking sheet is rimmed.  (Trust me on this.  I speak from personal experience.  It is not fun setting your oven on fire! ;) )  Chop your bacon in about 1 inch chunks and place them in a single layer on the lined baking sheet.

Next heat the olive oil in a dutch oven or a stock pot over medium-high heat.  Add the garlic and onions, and saute until tender about 2 minutes.  Add the chicken broth, milk, half 'n half, and water.  Heat until you bring it to a slow boil.

Once the broth has been brought to a boil, add the potatoes and summer squash.  Boil for 3-5 minutes, and then reduce to low heat and allow it to simmer for 15-20 minutes until the potato chunks are fork tender.

While the chowder is simmering, pop the bacon chunks into the oven.  It will take them about 15 minutes to get crispy and yummy.  Remove from the oven and set aside.

At this point, take a potato masher or the back of a large wooden spoon and mash up some of the potatoes and squash in the pot.  This will make your soup a bit thicker.  But make sure to leave a decent amount of chunks!  This is a chowder after all. ;)

Be sure to taste your soup and add salt and pepper to taste.  During the last 2 minutes of cooking time, add the fresh parsley.

Ladle your Potato & Summer Squash Chowder into deep bowls.  I topped mine with some shredded cheese and a few chunks of the thick cut bacon. 

Spoon up and enjoy!  :)

Making Small Batch Homemade Chicken Broth

Inspired by a post from Budget Bytes on how to make your own chicken broth, I decided to finally dive head first into making my own.  This is something that I have been wanting to try for myself for a little while now.  You could say it has been on my foodie bucket list.  (I keep talking about this foodie bucket list of mine.  Maybe I need to do a post on it soon. ;) )  For the longest time, the thought of making chicken broth from scratch was daunting to me.  Why go through the effort when I could so easily pick up a carton of organic chicken broth at the grocery store?  But then as I read the Budget Bytes post, it occurred to me that it wasn't as complicated as I had been making it out to be.  My recipe below is adjusted slightly from the Budget Bytes recipe.  I didn't have an entire chicken of bones to use.  Just two large chicken breasts, so I adjusted the recipe for a small batch.  All in all, my recipe made 4 cups of finished chicken broth- perfect for say a chowder or a some homemade chicken noodle soup.  (Ahem... recipes for both are forthcoming. ;) )

What you will need:

Skin/Bones/Cartilage from 2 large chicken breasts

Skins/peelings from 1 large onion, plus 2-3 slices of the onion

2 cloves of garlic, smashed

The tops & leaves of 2-3 celery stalks

2-3 large sprigs of fresh parsley

9 cups of water 

(If you happen to have any carrot peelings or tops, you could add those too.)

* Make sure all the veggies scraps are well washed.  You don't want any dirt or grit in your broth!

This is what I had left ^^^ after I had roasted two large chicken breasts in my Crock Pot and had removed the meat from the bones.  To see my recipe for slow cooker roast chicken, CLICK HERE.  I dumped all of this (what I would normally just toss into the trash) into a dutch oven.  And then added all the veggie peelings, skins, tops, leaves, etc.  

Cover it all with 9 cups of cold water.  Bring all of this to boil, and then turn down the heat and allow the mixture to simmer covered for 4-5 hours.  Just walk away.  You do not need to come back and stir it.  Just let all the yummy goodness from the chicken bones, cartilage, the onions, celery, garlic, parsley, all of that simmer and marry.

After 4-5 hours, this ^^^ is what you will be left with.  (Well, this and an awesome smelling house! ;) )

Place a large bowl under a colander and drain the whole pot.  All the chicken broth goodness will go into the large bowl.  All the veggie peelings and chicken parts will stay in the colander.  Now you can toss all of that in the trash.

Using a fine mesh strainer or a piece of cheesecloth, pour the broth through again.  (Make sure you have a bowl underneath!)  This will catch any of the little pieces of bone and grit the large colander may have missed the first time.

And there you go!  Your very own homemade chicken broth! :)

You can refrigerate your broth and use it within a couple of days, or do like I did and freeze the broth to use later.  I allowed the broth to cool a bit and then poured the broth into 2 quart sized freezer bags, 2 cups in each bag.  Then I just put them in the freezer.  

If you happen to roast a whole chicken, you can hop on over to the Budget Bytes blog HERE and use her recipe for a larger batch (12 cups) of homemade chicken broth.  
I am already saving my veggie scraps and freezing them now for my next batch of chicken broth.

Be looking for recipes later this week and next that you can use your new homemade golden yummy chicken broth in... ;)