I don’t like paying money for things when I can make it myself for pennies. One of the easiest things I’ve found that I can make is chicken stock. It can be made with scraps which makes it free (to me at least).
I keep two gallon sized Ziploc freezer bags in our freezer. One holds vegetable trimmings. I put all sorts of things in it: onion skins, the ends of the onions that always get chopped off, carrot skins, garlic skins, pieces of garlic cloves that are left after squishing it in the press, celery ends……you name it! As long as it isn’t rotten, it goes into the bag. It’s also the perfect place for pieces of celery that get wilted and are floppy.
The other bag holds chicken bones and skin. I’ve completely stopped buying chicken without bones since I’ve realized that (1) you pay more money for boneless, skinless anything and (2) I can make chicken stock with them!!! So, after I cook chicken, I pull it off the bones and the bones get tossed into the bag. If I’m making something that doesn’t require the skin to stay on the chicken, I pull it off and put that into the bag as well.
Earlier this week I cooked a roaster chicken in the oven. We carved what meat we wanted for dinner that night and a couple of days later I picked the remaining meat off of the carcass to use for another meal. The carcass combined with the bones that I had saved from a week or two ago was enough to make stock.
Left over chicken bones, vegetable scraps, and some nearly dead carrots for chicken stock
I dumped everything into my 7 qt. dutch oven, added some pepper corns, filled it to within an inch of the top with water, covered it with the lid, and brought it to a boil. I let it at a nice, rolling boil for about an hour and then turned the burner down so that it was just simmering. The concoction simmered for about 3 hours, then I turned the stove off and let it all cool down until I could work with it without burning myself.
Everything in the pot and ready to go
The next step is to strain everything out of the stock. I don’t have a strainer, so I use my largest metal mixing bowl and two colanders. My larger colander has holes that are on the larger side (a piece of fettuccine can fit through the holes) and my smaller colander, which I put inside of the larger one, has smaller holes (a piece of uncooked spaghetti is just big enough to not fit through it’s holes). I place the two colanders into my mixing bowl and pour the entire contents of the pot into the smaller colander. Then I pick up the larger colander (which also picks up the smaller colander) and let all of the stock drain out of it. For the most part, my two-colander system works well. I’m not overly picky about wanting a perfectly clear stock, so whatever might get through the double colander doesn’t bother me.
Next, I either can or freeze the stock. This week I decided to freeze the stock because I really didn’t feel like getting the canning things out. I poured the stock into a gallon sized Ziploc freezer bag, double bagged it, and the put it into the freezer. You’ll note that I didn’t strain off the chicken fat from the stock. I choose to keep the fat in my stock because it helps beef up the immune system (See?…giving people chicken soup when they are sick is done for a reason!!!). If you wanted to remove the fat, keep the stock in the bowl or pot and let it cool completely. The fat will rise to the top and solidify. You can easily remove it with a large spoon.
Completed chicken stock double bagged and ready for the freezer.
So, that is how I make chicken stock for free. Do you have a different way to use up food scraps? Feel free to share what you do down in the comments! 
