Overnight Chicken Stock
There’s a specific kind of wealthy I feel when the freezer’s full of homemade chicken stock. Not money wealthy; prepared wealthy. Soup on a Tuesday without a store run. Gravy at Thanksgiving that tastes like I planned ahead, because I did. Every fall I start building the freezer back up for the season, and this stock is the cornerstone of the whole operation.
Slow and easy don’t usually show up to the same party, but here they are. This stock takes the better part of a day and a night, and almost none of that time is yours. There’s no skimming, no babysitting a burner, no adjusting the flame every twenty minutes. Everything goes into a big pot, the pot goes into a low oven, and the oven does the work while you eat dinner, watch something, and go to bed.
About that big pot. When this post first ran in 2022, I was making stock in a Dutch oven. These days it’s a 14-quart nonstick stockpot I picked up at Super H Mart for less than fifty dollars. The brand is Hello. That’s it, that’s the whole brand name; it’s a very friendly pot. (It’s not on H Mart’s website, but it’s been on the shelf in the store.) It holds a whole chicken plus whatever bone scraps and chicken backs I’ve been squirreling away in the freezer, and one batch gives me eight to ten quarts of stock. That’s not a typo. One pot, one night, and I’ve got enough stock to carry me through the entire holiday season.
You don’t need fourteen quarts to make this work, though. A smaller pot does the same job with just chicken backs or a small roaster chicken; you’ll just get less stock at the end. Whatever big, oven-safe pot you’ve already got is the right pot. (That old Lodge Dutch oven and the rest of my everyday gear are on The Everyday Kitchen page.) But if you’re someone who makes a lot of soup in the winter, the big-pot version is the method for you.
And let me put in a word for chicken backs. When the store parts out chickens, the backs are what’s left over, and they’re loaded with the connective tissue that makes stock rich and silky. If your grocery store does its butchering on site, ask them to save you a couple of pounds. They’re cheap, and they’re exactly what you want in this pot.
Here’s why the oven, and why I’ve always liked this better than stock on the stovetop. The heat is even and it surrounds the pot. On a burner, you get a hot bottom and a cooler top, and you spend the whole afternoon managing the difference. In the oven there’s no difference to manage. Nothing ever boils, not at the bottom and not at the top, so all that sediment that clouds up a stovetop stock never gets stirred up in the first place. And the longer it goes, the more it pulls out of the bones. By morning, the bones crumble in your fingers when you pull them out, and once the stock’s chilled it gels beautifully. That jiggle is the whole point.
The rhythm is the recipe. In the evening, while I’m already in the kitchen making dinner, everything goes into the pot and the pot goes into a 210°F oven. You can roast the chicken first if you’ve got the time and the energy; it gives the stock a deeper, browner flavor. It’s also completely unnecessary for good stock. Roast it if you want to, throw it in raw if you don’t. You’ll see from the pictures that I’ve done it both ways.
After dinner, I pull the whole chicken and pick off the meat. Two hours in, it’s cooked through but still flavorful. How much you get depends on the bird, but it’s always enough for enchiladas (or the roasted poblano ones; Zach calls them all “those chile enchilada things”), chicken salad, or whatever else the week needs. The bones and skin go back in the pot, the pot goes back in the oven, and everybody goes to bed. In the morning, you strain it and chill it. And if the morning isn’t cooperating? Reset the oven and walk away. As long as it stays hot, it’s above the danger zone, and a few more hours only means more out of those bones. Strain it when you can get to it.
Then comes storage, and this is where the other half of my kitchen comes in. I portion the stock and vacuum-seal it in bags with my FoodSaver. A tall cup holds the bag upright while you fill it, which saves you a countertop full of stock. The sealed bags go into the freezer flat and stack like files, which is a lot more stock than a shelf of quart jars ever held.
Two more things. First, save your vegetable trimmings. Carrot ends, celery tops, and onion skins collect in a bag in my freezer all week and go into the pot instead of the compost. The onion skins even give the stock that deep amber color. Second, and I mean this: stock from a box is never shamed here. Neither are pre-chopped onions or jarred garlic. Buy the best quality you can afford, get dinner on the table, and don’t let anybody (including the voice in your own head) tell you it counts less. Homemade stock is a gift you give your future self when you have the time, not a tax you owe.
Come November, when the gravy needs a quart and the dressing needs another and the beans want the rest, you’ll open that freezer and feel it too: prepared wealthy.
Overnight Chicken Stock
Equipment
- 1 14-quart stockpot oven safe; a smaller pot works with backs only or a small roaster chicken
- Vacuum sealer and bags optional, for storage
Ingredients
- 3 lb whole chicken
- 2 lb chicken backs, bones, or saved scraps about
- 1 large yellow onion skin on
- 3 stalks celery hearts or ends
- 2 whole carrots skin on, scrubbed
- 20 each whole peppercorns
- 3 each bay leaves
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 10 quarts water or to about 2 inches below the rim
Instructions
- Remove any giblet packet from the chicken. (Optional: roast the chicken, backs, and bones first for a deeper, browner stock.) Put the chicken, backs, and bones in the pot.
- Add the vegetables, seasonings, and water.
- Cook in a 210°F oven for about 2 hours.
- Pull out the whole chicken and pick off the meat for other dishes. Return the bones and skin to the pot and cook another 10 to 12 hours.
- Strain through a fine-mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth. Discard the bones, vegetables, and skin.
- Chill, then skim the fat. Portion into vacuum-seal bags, seal, and freeze flat so they stack. Fridge 3 to 5 days, freezer up to 6 months.
Notes
P.S. This post first ran in February 2022. It’s been rewritten, rephotographed, and upsized, pot and all.
P.P.S. Don’t throw out the fat you skim off the chilled stock. That’s schmaltz. Roast potatoes in it exactly once and you’ll never throw it out again.
P.P.P.S. Yes, the oven stays on all night, and yes, that’s fine. At 210 degrees it’s less “cooking” and more “warm nap for a pot.”