Chicken Stock

I bought a 4.5 pound whole chicken for $3.85 at the store. I decided I was going to cook up the meat and use the bones for chicken stock.

Partially because I am lazy and partially because I am not wild about touching raw chicken, I decided to plop the whole bird in my stock pot and boil it rather than cutting off the meat and freezing it. I figured since I use chopped/diced chicken more often than not, this would save me some time down the road. Spend time on the front, shave it off the back!

I boiled all the chicken up and then pulled it out of the water and put it in the fridge until it was cold enough to handle. I picked off all the skin and all the meat, throwing the skin away, the meat in one bowl, and the bones in another. After I got all the meat off, I cut it all up into bite sized pieces and portioned it into 1 cup servings and put it in the freezer.

The bones went back into the stock pot along with half a bag of "stew veggies" (potatoes, carrots, celery, pearl onions) and a bag of "Parisian style" veggies (mushrooms, carrots, green beans and broccoli) and let this boil for an hour.

I then strained out all the veggies and threw them away along with the chicken carcass. But there was still a lot of fat floating on the top of my broth and I was too lazy to let my broth cool in the fridge and I didn't have a mesh strainer or cheesecloth. So I improvised. I layered a few paper towels in my colander and put that over a bowl. I scooped a cup at a time and strained the broth again. It worked perfectly, the fat wasn't able to go through the paper towels and I caught any little tidbits of chicken/veggies that were left over. This acted like silt, and furthered the filtration process.

Sometimes I am just so smart. I am often amazed at myself.

Then I got out my ice cube trays and sprayed them with some no stick spray and filled them all up and put them in the freezer. When they're frozen I'll put them in baggies and then just take what I need as I need it for recipes.


I'm really enjoying this being frugal thing. Its pretty darn nifty.

In other news, I really got into my Weekly points this week. Since Thursday, I've dipped into them every night. I only have 12 left. I am so bloated and uncomfy. Too much food. But I logged every bite (and even over estimated too, just in case) so I could be accountable.

Also: I highly recommend Fiber One yoplait yogurt. 4- 4 oz cups of delicious creamy yogurt with 50 calories and 5 grams of fiber per serving! YAY I got the key lime pie flavor! Yummmmmm.... so good. Zero points per serving too. Unless you eat all four in one sitting. Like some bloggers named Christie, then its 3 pts. But not bad for 200 calories, 20 grams of fiber. Yay!