Slow Cooker Chicken or Vegetable Stock

Extra Food Chat with Kath

Welcome to another instalment of Extra Food Chat with Kath!

This time I am sharing a recipe made quite often in my kitchen, and that helps me reduce a little food waste in our household as well.

This recipe might seem a little left of field for me, as I mostly share baking recipes. However I actually make this slow cooker stock quite often, and almost always have some in the freezer ready to be used. That or I am stockpiling ingredients in the freezer that will be used for an upcoming batch of slow cooker chicken or vegetable stock.

I first heard of making stock in the slow cooker from Nigella Lawson. I had started making my own by heating it gently on the stove for 2-3 hours, but once I heard a slow cooker could be used that seemed like a much better idea to me. I’m pretty sure Nigella said she had her slow cooker stock going overnight, but I can’t stand cooking smells when I’m sleeping so I make mine during the day.

If you are making stock in an attempt to reduce some food waste in your kitchen, the prep to make your slow cooker stock will start weeks before you make it. I know that might sound daunting, but it’s all extremely low effort! Every time you have leftovers of stock worthy vegetables, herbs or chicken carcasses store them in the freezer.

This goes for limp and lank vegetables in the fridge too that look like their time is almost up. I do this each time I cut off most of the leaves from a bunch of celery, remove the stems and fronds from fennel bulbs, have half an onion languishing in the fridge, have used all the leaves from a bunch of dill or parsley but still have all the stems, found a random bunch of thyme in the crisper that I know won’t otherwise get used or found some celery or carrots that have seen better days.

For chicken carcasses, I reserve them after we’ve had a roast chicken and all the meat has been removed from the carcass. I do this for chickens that have been roasted with complementary flavours to what I would be adding to my stock (like one that has been stuffed with garlic and herbs). If any meat comes off the leg or wing bones as the chicken is being carved, I reserve those bones too and stuff them inside the (now empty) chicken cavity (only if they haven’t touched anyones plate!). I place them in a freezer bag and put them in the freezer.