Homemade chicken stock. chook vs water quantities?

lambrat, Jul 30, 1:18am
well i went and got a couple of frozen tegel chooks from paknslave for $3.99 . now having consulted nana's dusty old cookbook i can't find her quantities of chook vs water to make stock for freezing :(
can anyone here help with that please!

kesley, Jul 30, 1:24am
I usually just fling them in the pot and cover them with water. Maybe, as they're whole, chop them into chunks first.

245sam, Jul 30, 1:55am
lambrat, providing there is a saucepan (or crock-pot/slowcooker) that will hold the whole chickens my preference would be to leave them whole and add sufficient water to just cover the chickens.:-))

buzzy110, Jul 30, 2:05am
there are several ways of getting stock from chickens.

1. Stuff slices of salted lemon under the skin (optional), salt inside the cavity, tie up the legs (optional) and put into an oven bag and roast till cooked. It will release juices that you can save. This method doesn't give you a whole lot of stock but it is very intense. If you like you can put the chicken on top of the dark green leaves of leeks and leaves of celery and sliced onion inside the bag to give a stronger flavour to the stock.

2. Prepare your chicken (stuffing, etc) place the same stock vegetables into the base of a pot big enough to hold the number of chicken you are cooking. Add chickens. Add water. The amount is up to you. I don't cover because once again the chicken will release juices as it cooks and I don't want gallons of stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for however long you think it takes to cook your chooks. I usually start testing after 3/4hr of simmering and then every 15mins after that.I hate over cooked chicken.

Depending on size, I find that not much more than an hour is sufficient.

vmax2, Jul 30, 2:11am
The method I have been using of late is to put a whole chicken in the crock pot, put any seasonings around - garlic, onion, salt, pepper etc.Cover with water, put in a dash of apple cider vinegar.Cook on high for a few hours and then down to low.Can cook for 6 - 24 hours.Strain off the juices and use this for soups, stocks etc.You also have the lovely meat which can be used for all sorts of things.

lambrat, Jul 30, 2:15am
thanks for those methods, i guess it makes perfect sense to go for less quantity of stock but with stronger taste, seeing i intend freezing most of it.

am trying to pre-prepare as much as possible, my son is about to have jaw surgery and won't be chewing properly for quite some time afterward.

i could score fulltime work at any moment, so certainly don't want to be coming home exhausted from that shock and be having to stand around cooking for more than 30-45mins, lol.

edit. yes i do have a smallish crockpot - as well as a big saucepan - but i didn't even think of using that, cheers!

vmax2, Jul 30, 2:19am
What good thinking for jaw surgery.You could also freeze some of the cooked meat and if you really wanted you could whizz up the cooked meat in soup so that it is all smooth and easy to get down.

lambrat, Jul 30, 2:44am
yes,soup is why i want the stock. i usually use beef but thats more expensive - these chooks were cheap - and anyway he's not really going to be in a position to complain much.
i've already frozen copious quanities of cooked & very finely chopped mince & veg.

we'll eat the meat this week, surgery is next monday.
after 3 yrs of braces drama i'm starting to feel like that dad in the tv ad whose son has just got his drivers licence, ready to . yeeha *hit eject button*