Homemade Chicken Stock

This week is one of those crazy weeks so I tried to keep our dinners as easy as possible.  One of my favorite new recipes is the best whole chicken in a crockpot that I found over at 100 Days of Real Food. (If you can't tell already, I'm obsessed with that website.)  The chicken is so delicious and literally falls off the bones.  It's nice having that roasted chicken dinner without turning the oven on, especially as the weather is getting warmer.  And let me tell you this is very kid-friendly.  I think my two little ones would eat the whole chicken if I let them have it.  One of my favorite parts about cooking the chicken in the crockpot is that it makes it so easy to make some homemade chicken stock.  It makes about 4 quarts of chicken stock so it's a big money saver vs. the boxes in the store and it is so much tastier.  I'm going to use the leftover chicken to make some chicken enchiladas again because the family loved them so much last time.  The leftover stock will get used for some Turkey Chili I will be making and then I will still have some left over in the freezer.  I really feel this is a fool-proof recipe for stock and you don't have to tend to it because it can just sit all day or overnight in the crockpot.



Chicken Stock 
(amount is based on size of crockpot, mine makes about 4 qts)

Chicken Bones
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 sprig parsley
1 sprig thyme (you can use dried)
salt to taste

Place all ingredients in crockpot and fill with water.  Cook on low overnight or 8-10 hours.  Strain the stock, removing bones, veggies, and herbs, and place into freezer safe containers such as "freezer-safe" mason jars.
(I realize that the mason jars in the picture aren't freezer safe.  They just happened to be available while my freezer ones were being washed.)