# Dark, Rich Chicken Stock

Start with a Costco rotisserie chicken, fill the pot, and let it barely simmer for 12 to 24 hours. Salt it at the end.

Source page: https://madebetterwithbutter.com/recipes/rich-chicken-stock/

- Category: Basics, Chicken
- Prep: 15 min
- Cook: 12–24 hr on the lowest simmer
- Serves: 1 big pot of stock

## Ingredients

### The bird
- 1 rotisserie chicken (Costco's is perfect)

### Vegetables
- 3 ribs celery, cut into 2-inch chunks, 3 or 4
- 3 carrots, cut into 1–2 inch chunks, 3 or 4
- 1 large onion, quartered, or 2 smaller ones
- 12 cloves garlic, smashed

### Seasoning
- 2 tbsp Italian seasoning, a few tablespoons
- 2 tbsp black pepper, a few tablespoons
- Aleppo pepper, a little
- cold water, to fill the pot
- salt, at the very end

## Steps
1. Put the chicken in your biggest Dutch oven. Add the celery, carrots, onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, black pepper and Aleppo pepper.
2. Fill the pot with cold water.
3. Bring it up over medium-high heat. As soon as it starts to simmer, turn it down almost to low — you want a lazy bubble now and then, never a boil.
4. Let it go for 12 to 24 hours, topping up with water if the level drops below the bones. The longer it goes, the darker and richer it gets.
5. Strain out the solids, then taste and salt it only now.

## Notes
- Salt last. Stock reduces over a long cook and gets used in recipes that add their own salt; you can always add more, but you can't take it out.
- If it does end up too salty, dilute it with water or unsalted stock.
- Slightly more effort: buy a whole raw chicken and break it down yourself. A how-to is coming.
- After Thanksgiving, use the smoked turkey carcass instead. One turkey fills two big pots.
- We use a Le Creuset Dutch oven, about 7 quarts. Any big heavy pot works.