' My post yesterday about doing some food prep in advance got me thinking about what I do to save money and, in genera, try to provide healthier meals for my family. One of the things I do is make chicken broth from scratch, then divide it up into 2 cup servings and put it in the freezer. That amount works well for us, as most of the recipes I make call for chicken broth in multiples of 2 cups.
I decided I’d share with you my favorite way of making chicken broth – and in doing so, my favorite no fail way to roast a chicken. 
Roasted Chicken Broth
The first thing you need to do is roast a chicken.
one 5-6 lb chicken
your favorite seasoning (we use Montreal Chicken seasoning or seasoned salt and pepper)
2 carrots, cut in half and then cut lengthwise (so they have a flat edge)
2 stalks celery, cut in half
2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
olive oil (optional)
non-stick cooking spray
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
Spray a 9×13 baking pan with the non-stick cooking spray. Put the carrots, celery and onions in it, and lightly drizzle with olive oil if you choose. Season your chicken (don’t forget to season the cavity too) and put the chicken on top of the vegetables.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 45 minutes, plus 8 minutes for each pound over 4 lbs (so a 5.5 lb chicken would take 57 minutes to an hour). I honestly don’t remember what temperature you’re supposed to cook chicken to, but if any of it is raw or questionable, I just leave the meat on the carcass and it goes into the soup. When the chicken is cooked, taken it out of the oven and let it rest for at lest ten minutes.
If you’re not going to eat the chicken meat right away, wait for it to be cool enough to handle, then remove most of the meat from the bones. Don’t pick it completely clean, as you’re going to want some meat to go into the soup pot. Oh, and if anyone’s mouth touches a bone, the bone goes into the trash, not the soup pot.
Tip: when removing the meat, keep the chicken in the baking pan. That way if any juices run, they’ll end up in the pan, and not lost.
Once you’ve removed the meat from the bones, put the bones, the roasted veggies and any drippings, fat or whatever is in the baking pan into the pot you’re going to make soup in. Ideally, the pot should be just big enough to fit the intact carcass without having to break it up. Add the following to the pot:
garlic (I use anywhere from a heaping soup spoon to 1/3rd cup of minced garlic)
1 large bay leaf (or two or more smaller ones)
5 to 8 black pepper corns
1 tablespoon white vinegar
enough water to cover everything in the pot, plus 1″ above that
Put the pot on a back burner of your stove, turn the heat to medium low, cover it, and let is simmer for at least an hour or two. Your chicken broth is done when you stir it with a wooden spoon and the carcass falls completely apart into its individual bones.
Remove the pot from the heat and let cool for 1 hour. Strain the broth into another pot through a colander or sieve to remove all the bones and mushy vegetables. Cover the pot and put it in the fridge to chill overnight. The next day, use a spoon to skim all the fat off the soup, then package the soup up for freezing (or use it to make something delicious immediately!).
Why do I cook the broth so long? Doing so extracts everything out of the cartilage and connective tissue and creates (I think) a better tasting soup. I also find the best soups are the ones that, when they’ve chilled completely, have the consistency of jello.
Why the vinegar? You won’t taste that small amount of it in the broth, but it helps draw out all the yummy goodness (especially the calcium) from the bones and makes for a better soup.
You may have noticed I didn’t list salt as an ingredient. I find there’s enough salt left over from the innitial seasoning of the chicken, so I don’t need to add any. Feel free to add salt if you wish. The point of this is to get chicken broth you love the taste of.
If you make chicken broth and you find it tastes rather bland, try adding a bit of salt. If that doesn’t work, bring the broth to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer and let it reduce for a while, checking every 15 minutes until you like the taste.
