Homemade Chicken Stock in the Crockpot

I've always wanted to make my own chicken stock, but I'm just too darn lazy to stand around a pot all day and watch it cook down. Sigh. But I knew there must be a way to do it in the crockpot, so the last time we had a rotisserie chicken, I saved the carcass in a freezer bag, threw it in the freezer and began searching for a recipe. (You could also, of course, do this with a whole chicken you made yourself.)

I was thrilled to find an easy recipe on a blog called 100 Days of Real Food, which is wonderful, for so many reasons, but this recipe took the blog up even more in my opinion. I changed very little in her recipe (I didn't have fresh thyme, so used dried), so I'm reprinting exactly as she has on her site. If you've had a hankering to try your own chicken stock, try this recipe out. So very easy and delicious.

Homemade Chicken Stock in the Crockpot (from 100daysofrealfood.com)
Ingredients:
Leftover chicken bones or carcass roughly equivalent to one small or medium sized chicken
1 onion, peeled and loosely chopped
1 rib of celery, roughly chopped
1 carrot, roughly chopped (no need to peel)
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh parsley
1 sprig fresh thyme (*I used 1 tsp dried thyme)
Salt, to taste

1. After removing all edible meat from the chicken put/leave the bones, skin, cooking juices, etc. in the crock pot. **I just took my frozen carcass out and put it in the crockpot.**

2. Add the onion, celery, carrot and spices on top of the bones and fill the crock pot almost to the top with tap water (leaving about 1/2” at the top).

3. Turn the slow cooker onto “low” after dinner and cook all night long or alternatively you could start it in the morning and cook on “low” for 8 – 10 hours during the day.

4. After the stock is done cooking turn off the heat and, using a soup ladle, pass the stock through a fine sieve to remove all herbs/bones/etc. Either refrigerate or freeze the stock for future use.

*I froze 4 cups of mine, and put the rest in the fridge.

Discard all the veggies - they've given their all!