Chicken Stock Concentrate Recipe (From Your Slow Cooker!)
This chicken stock concentrate comes straight from your slow cooker and adds wonderful flavor to just about anything you add it to!
When you cook a whole chicken in a slow cooker, it’s pretty amazing just how much you can get out of it. Not only can you get multiple meals out of the meat itself, but you can get things like broth and concentrate as well if you do it right.
Now I should tell you that chicken stock concentrate is simply a name I gave to something I didn’t have a name for. The word “concentrate” may not be the right term for this at all. But once you’ve seen how this works, I think you’ll understand why I called it that. And by all means, if you know of another name for it, let me know in a comment below!
Chicken stock concentrate is something you get out of the chicken before you ever make bone broth or stock. It’s the liquid that ends up in the bottom of your slow cooker when you’ve cooked a whole chicken. When cold, it becomes very gelatinous, and is hugely concentrated with chicken flavor. It’s fabulous for making soups as it really adds a ton of depth to the flavor of whatever you make with it, even above and beyond what a homemade stock can do. It’s the same stuff I used to make my Chicken Gravy. It’s basically the drippings off the chicken.
Now for those of you following a Paleo/Primal eating plan, you may not want to scrape the fat off the top after chilling. But I have a feeling that most of you will want to do that. So these directions will call for doing so. Simply avoid that last step if you prefer to have the fat.
This will last about 3 days in the fridge. I have yet to freeze any, so I’m not positive how this holds up in the freezer. So if you make it, do your best to use it up quickly.
HEALTHY CHICKEN RECIPES
CHICKEN STOCK CONCENTRATE RECIPE
Chicken Stock Concentrate (From Your Slow Cooker)
Equipment
- Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- Liquid drippings from a whole, slow cooker chicken.
Instructions
- After you have fully cooked a whole chicken in your slow cooker, remove the bird from the pot and strain the remaining liquid through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any particles.
- Put the contents in a bowl, and place the bowl in the fridge overnight.
- Scrape the fat layer off the top of the concentrate and discard.
- What's left is your concentrate.
Hello! I know exactly what you are talking about when you say ‘concentrate,’ I generally use the term ‘jello’. LOL. Anyway, if you cook the bones long enough, the broth it makes turns into a very similar substance. When I am done with cooking my chicken I put the bones back in the crock pot, cover with water, turn it on low, and come back 24 hours later. Once I strain out the solids and let it cool, I usually have a bowl of jello-y broth again.
Yes! I make stock that way too. But I’ve found that the drippings make for a much richer and deeper flavor. Maybe it’s just me….
I’m not sure what you have is actually ‘stock’. Why not take it to the next stage and make it stock? Fill the crock with water, celery chunks (i use the leaves that are not really edible), chopped up onion, chopped up carrot, spices and the bones from the chicken. Cook it for the day and voila…chicken stock. I make mine on the stove and cook all day. Put in 1 quart/litre bags and chuck in the freezer. Cheap to make and you control the salt content.
Oh, I make my own stock as well. But I make that with the bones.
I actually already do this. It is especially good if you roast carrots and veggies with the chicken while it’s cooking! I then made wild rice using the broth and it was out of this world! I didn’t strain mine because those little particles are just more flavor! Great tip to share..thanks for all you do!
My pleasure! That rice sounds amazing!
We make our own stock from the carcass of the pre cooked whole chicken you purchase at your favorite Grocery , Market place works very well without so much fat .
You can scrape the fat off of this. I make stock too, but I’ve found that this tends to have a much more intense flavor when added to soups. More so than just stock.
This is a great recipe! I take it even further by doing the following: once the chicken is cooked, I pull it out of the cooker and take the meat off. I then put the carcass back in with all the drippings, add some spices and veggies, then fill the cooker with water so everything in there is just covered with water. Then let it cook on low for about 24 hours. This makes even more concentrate, and it’s still very concentrated (I use about 1 cup of concentrate and add 3-4 cups of water to make broth for a recipe).
Sounds yummy!
Thank you for the clarification on how to use..
Awesome tips! I’ve frozen both this and regular homemade chicken stock, and it freezes wonderfully, especially if you put it in ice cube trays!
Yes! Ice cube trays are wonderful that way!
Put in a little apple cider vinegar into the water while you cook those bones / carcass for 24 hours and it helps pull all those minerals out of the bones (they will actually crumble if you press on them after…that’s how you know you got all the good stuff out of them!). I, too, add all my celery, carrot, and onion scraps, as well as fresh garlic when cooking. Just makes it all the more nutritious. I freeze it in ice cube trays and use it for everything from making soup to making rice and mashed potatoes and thinning out pasta sauces. It is SO SO good for you. Google the benefits of bone broth and you will see…you might want it in your diet every day, especially when you are sick, healing or fighting something off.
The best broth / concentrate is made from good quality meat. Your run of the mill grocery store cuts that were fed grains and hormones, etc, probably aren’t going to yield a superior broth (the stock is likely going to contain some of those GMO proteins, hormones, etc). But if you have a grass-fed (pastured), organic chicken carcass or beef bones (I LOVE beef bone broth!) it is like liquid gold. You can do with with duck and seafood also, though I haven’t tried either.
Also, don’t throw away the fat…use it! For beef that is valuable beef tallow. For chicken I believe that is called schmaltz! Can be used as a healthy replacement fat!
Thanks for the post…as usual!!
Schmaltz!!! Is that what they call it??!! I knew there was a name for it! 🙂
I do the same as others have suggested and cook the bones longer. Another tip to get even more the nutritious marrow…try breaking the larger bones and be sure to add all of the cartilage as well. Then strain as usual.
I love the ice cube tray idea!
D
Ya, I generally throw everything in there. Even the skin. I figure every part lends to the flavor of a good stock.
Silly question, but do you cover the chicken with water before slow cooking?
Yup! If you’re making stock in your slow cooker, you can fill it up and cook on low for 24 hours. Some say that a small splash of apple cider vinegar gets more nutrients out of the bones.
Has anybody ever had any issues with leaving their slow cooker on for such lengthy periods of time? Like the 12-24 hours to make stock/broth??
Tara – I haven’t. What problems are you having?
What do you do with the concentrate? The ice tray idea sounds good – but is there a ratio of how many to use in what? Or do you just taste test it? I have this cooling right now, but don’t quite know what to do with it! Thanks in advance! 🙂
Nicole – You can make gravy with it (either by itself or added for flavor) or add it to soups to intensify the chicken flavor a bit. It’s totally done to taste.
Check out the bone broth recipe from Dr. Axe. He will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about bone broth and leaky gut. It has a lot of nutritional benefits.
Georgia – Yes! So I’ve read!
Quick question: if I wanted to then reconstitute the stock, what would be the ratio of water to concentrate?
for example:
X grams concentrate to 1 liter Water
Leigh – It’s hard to say because you technically are not reconstituting it in the proper sense. The best approach would be to heat it to liquid state and add water until you get the flavor and consistency you want. Hope that helps!
Thanks for the reply 🙂
Leigh – Of course! My pleasure! Please let me know how it turns out. 🙂
the jello concentrate is actually collagen. I add it to my dogs food. great for her joints and skin
Bob – That’s great!! 🙂