Happy Homemade Soup day! A great day for soup in Boulder since we’ll have a high of 16 degrees today.

It makes me sad if I don’t have some homemade chicken stock around. There’s so much you can do with it. Adding to sauces, a base for other sauces, chicken noodle soup.

Of course there are a million recipes for this, but you don’t really need one. Whenever you trim vegies or bone a rotisserie chicken freeze these things in a container or zip lock bag. Then when you get enough trimmings, rinse with water and put in a pot with more quartered onion, a couple cloves of garlic, a bay leave and some black peppercorns add a few cloves if you like that depth.

Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer. Skim off the foam and keep doing this for a while. The more you do this the clearer looking the stock and the cleaner tasting. If you move the pot a little off the burner, it’ll make it easier. Sometimes I forget and if you do…it’s still better than the canned!

Strain and cool. When the stock is cooled put in the fridge.

The next day, you can skim the fat off the top and use in Chicken & Sausage Bites or Risotto. For a quick and easy dinner get some store bought tortellini and simmer in your stock for Tortellini Soup!

Mary