How To Make Homemade Smoked Chicken Stock

Beautiful chicken stock with a nice touch of smokiness. The smoke flavor is subtle and complimentary.

Ingredients:

Stock ingredients:

Bones from 2 whole smoked chickens

16 oz onions

8 oz carrots

8 oz celery

3 sprigs fresh herb stems (sage, rosemary)

3 cloves garlic

Handful peppercorns

5-6 qts water

Tools needed:

Smoker

Sharp boning knife

Cutting board

8 qt stock pot

Ladle

Butcher twine

How to make it:

This recipe will require you to be able to smoke the chicken. There are 2 approaches for making a smoked chicken stock. I will go over both.

There are also 2 types of mirepoix. One is traditional that uses 2 parts onion, 1 part onion, 1 part celery. I like this one for chicken soup, tomato soup/sauces, and darker sauces. The other type is white mirepoix where leeks, parsnip, and mushroom stems replace the carrots. The color of the stock will be a more neutral color for when I make cream sauces, potato soup and cream soups. I use the white mirepoix when recipes require a more white, paler color. The flavors are both nice and have their places for use.

First, I will go over the a stock that has more of a subtle smoke flavor. I clean, remove innards, truss and season the bird. Warm up your smoker to 225-250. I have a small offset smoker that I use to smoke the chicken with. A pellet smoker may give this stock an even more subtle flavor of smoke. I have lump charcoal for the heat source and oak wood for smoke flavor. Place the chicken on the smoker for about 3 to 3-1/2 hours. The thickest part of the chicken thigh will need to temp to 165 when the bird is done. Let the chicken rest for minimum 45 minutes before carving. I also have let the chicken rest in the refrigerator overnight. Carve the chicken, saving all bones for the stock. I recommend removing the salty skin to avoid having a stock that is too salty. Plus, too much fat will cause the stock to be cloudy if that is an issue to you. I sometimes make soup with the meat that is absolutely tasty and will post the recipe here when ready.

Clean the carrots and celery. Rough chop the onions, carrots, celery and clean the paper from the garlic cloves. I leave out the root ends from the produce. The papers from the onion and garlic from the stock will also get removed. All vegetable/fruit scraps get placed in my compost bin. The stock will only taste as good as the ingredients put into it. That said, I find that root ends make the stock tasty like dirt.

For the stock, toss in the chopped mirepoix, herb stems, pepper corns and garlic along with the bones. Fill the stock pot covering the ingredients by at least 2 inches water. Bring slowly to heat, just below the point of it simmering. Once up to temp, offset the pot on the burner slightly. This will motivate fat and impurities to one side of the liquid surface in the pot making it easier to skim said fat and impurities. Be careful not to boil the stock, keep just below simmer on low heat for about 3-4 hours. If you choose, strain the stock after the cook time and put it back in a pot. Simmer it for an additional hour on low heat for about 1 hour. This will reduce the stock slightly while concentrating the flavor of the stock more. Cool to 40 degrees within 2 hours and place in mason jars or other containers. Store in the refrigerator and use within 1 week. If you’re not going to use in immediately,. place the stock in a freezer safe container and keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. I like to ladle a little stock into ice cube trays, freeze the stock and place frozen stock cubes in a ziptob bag. When you want to add a dash of stock to a pan sauce or gravy, add a cube of frozen stock for next level flavor!

For the second method, the main and only difference in making the stock is to remove the bones from the chicken WHILE it is still raw. Place the bones on the smoker for 3 hours or until nice and browned. The longer you smoke, the darker the stock will turn out. I use this method if I want a more pronounced smoke flavor. This is great for when making sauces for chicken or pork, bbq sauces and some soups. I use this stock when I really want a nice, rich depth of flavor on the stock, which will bolden the flavor in what you use it in. Keep in mind, this has a stronger smoke flavor than the first method.

Once the bones come off the smoker, make the stock the same as the first method.

Check out my brined, smoked chicken recipe here, it is amazing. I also made a chicken soup with the first method and it is by far the best chicken soup I have ever had!

Enjoy!

Logan