Ladies and gentlemen, lend me your carcasses! Yup, we’re onto part two of what will now be a three part post designed to help your primal food budget go that extra fat-burning mile…
Primarily we’re going to be making chicken stock, with a little bonus snackage thrown in for good measure. Throughout, my plan is to offer nothing fancy: just totally basic fare that’s easy to throw together and makes that slightly costly organic, free-range chicken a little easier on your wallet.
I’m using a slow cooker for the next bit. You can just as easily use a large, covered saucepan over the lowest possible hob heat, though at that stage I’d reduce the cooking time (or do it in stages) and make sure somebody’s in the house to avert potential “…so then the whole place burned to the ground” awkwardness!
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- Start by carefully stripping any remaining meat from the carcass. Put the bones, skin and gristle into your pot, and season to taste – I’ve used salt, garlic, and herbs de Provence, plus a reasonable slug of apple cider vinegar.
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- Fill the pot with a generous amount of water. Initially I wasn’t intending to leave it as long as I did, so didn’t fill quite to the top.
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- Meal #3 – Completely ignore the fact you were setting the rest of the meat aside for a reason, and help yourself to a third of it for a light lunch with guacamole and cherries.
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- 24 hours later… Actually 6-8 hours is plenty for a pretty decent quality stock but, the longer you leave it, the richer it becomes.
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- Use a fine strainer to remove all the carcass. In general at this stage any promising looking flaky bits of meat are a lie! It’s either actually meat and kind of mushy or, more likely, it’s meaty gristle and a thing of sadness to bite into. Bin it!
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- The resulting stock – rich, slightly buttery tasting, chicken goodness. Very nutritious, very flavoursome, great for cooking with, and also really good mixed with drained vegetable water for a nourishing hot drink.
You can stop here if you like. I generally do! However, for a few pennies more, we can add to the nutritional content of the stock, whilst gaining a few bonus meals…
Ready for Part III?
I’ve always avoided whole chicken because it was intimidating and most recipes call for specific pieces of meat, but I’m going to start using them to save money.
Thanks for doing this walk-through, since removing grains and going for all whole-foods diet I’ve been trying to save as much as possible.
PS. I like the idea of stock with drained veggie water!
Thank you so much for the feedback, Josh – I’m really glad the walk-through is proving helpful.
The stock “tea” is absolutely delicious, and a tip I picked up from a wonderful white-haired old friend who spent six months of the year living in a caravan in the most idyllic setting in Devon, and the other six months travelling round France trading odd jobs for free bed and board. If I look and feel half so fabulous at his age, I’ll be a happy lady!