Meat stock is a wonderful drink and food to include in your diet daily. There’s nothing that can replace homemade meat stock once you’ve had it. The boxed and canned versions from the store do not compare to making it yourself. So let’s do it together!
Why Meat Stock?
Meat stock is one of the main components of the GAPS diet (you can read about that diet here). That is the main reason why we make and eat meat stock daily. It helps to seal your gut lining and keep you healthy. And it’s good to have throughout the whole year, not just when you are sick or boosting immunity.
Bone broth is a popular thing to add to your diet right now as well. The difference between bone broth and meat stock is that bone broth uses only the bones and is much higher in histamines whereas meat stock uses meat and bones and is cooked for a shorter amount of time making it lower in histamines.
How to Make Chicken Meat Stock
Ingredients:
1 whole chicken (preferably organic and free-range)
10-12 peppercorns
4 tablespoons real salt
Tools:
Instant pot
strainer
cheesecloth
glass jars
Boil the Chicken
The first step to make your own meat stock is to boil the chicken whole. Unwrap your chicken and be sure to remove any plastic, rubber bands, or pads. Also check inside your chicken that there is not a plastic bag of innards that needs to be removed. Place the chicken into your instant pot and cover with water (preferably filtered). Turn the Instant Pot on “Saute” on high for 30 minutes. This should boil the chicken for 30 minutes.
Strain the Meat Stock
After the whole chicken has boiled for 30 minutes, take your strainer and strain off any foam or brown/black gunk that comes to the surface of the water. This is simply impurities in the chicken, this will happen whether the chicken is organic or not. Toss out whatever you strain off the top of the water, you don’t want that in your stock.
Cook the Meat Stock
After you’ve skimmed every gunky thing off the top of the stock, add the salt and the peppercorns into the water. Cover and set to “Slow Cooker.” You can either cook it for 3 hours on high or 6 hours on low, depending on your schedule needs. I prefer to cook it for 6 hours whenever possible. It’s that low-flame simmer that you want to create the most nourishment.
Separating the Chicken
When the meat stock is done cooking, remove the chicken from the stock. It will be falling apart at this point, but I can usually get it out with a big spoon on either side. Transfer the chicken to a large bowl and set aside to cool. Once it is cool, pull the chicken meat off the bones and store for recipes later. You can add this cooked chicken to any soup you may make during the week, mix it up for this yummy chicken salad, or saute it in cumin, paprika, and salt for chicken tacos.
Now that the chicken is out of the meat stock, pour the stock through the strainer into the glass jars. There may be some small bits that are left floating in the jars. This usually doesn’t bother me. If it does bother you, you can place two layers of cheesecloth over the strainer and pour the stock through it again to remove any remaining bits from the chicken.
Store the jarred stock in the fridge for up to two weeks. You can freeze meat stock if you’d like to, just be sure to not fill your jars all the way to the top as the meat stock will expand upon freezing and could break your jar.
When the meat stock is totally cold in the fridge, you will see the line of fat at the top that has separated. That is totally normal, and good! Just pour the fat along with the meat stock into whatever recipe you’re making as if it is part of the stock measurement.
Meat stock could be a different color every time you make it so do not be alarmed if it doesn’t look exactly like mine. The color will depend on the size of your chicken and whether or not you add salt, veggies, or peppercorns. Each batch is unique!
How to Eat Meat Stock
Meat stock can be added to many dishes throughout your week. Any recipe that has water added to it could use meat stock instead of the water. I use meat stock in soups, lentils, chili, cooking meat, cooking vegetables, and anywhere else I can fit it in. I also like the taste and often drink it by itself.
This is a very simple recipe for meat stock and would best be used in cooking. If you want to make it taste richer or more flavorful, try adding some carrots, onions, and celery when you add the peppercorns and salt to the water.
Now you never have to buy the gross boxed meat stock from the store ever again! Let me know when you give it a try in the comments.
More Recipes:
Creamy Chicken Salad
DIY Sauerkraut
DIY Chicken Bone Broth
Yogurt in Instant Pot
1 Comment