My favorite homemade chicken stock recipe will knock the socks off of anything you buy at the store. You can use chicken bones or chicken parts for this easy recipe.

Not only does this chicken stock taste better than the box, but it is also easy to make and lasts in the freezer for up to 3 months. I especially love making chicken stock after making our roasted chicken.

I use this chicken stock to make many of the soup recipes on Inspired Taste, including our highly-rated chicken noodle soup! For a more delicately flavored broth, see my easy chicken broth, or for richer flavor, try our homemade bone broth.

Key Ingredients

• Chicken parts: Make this recipe using chicken parts or leftover bones (say from roasted chicken or a rotisserie chicken). My favorite way to make chicken stock is using chicken wings. They are inexpensive and have lots of cartilage and connective tissue, which are rich in collagen. As they simmer in the stock, the collagen breaks down into gelatin, giving our chicken stock a rich flavor and silky texture.
• Aromatics: For classic chicken stock, use onion, carrots, celery, and garlic.
• Herbs: Using a variety of herbs makes the best stock, tasting better than store-bought. I love bay leaves, thyme, parsley, dill, and peppercorns.
• Salt: I season my homemade chicken stock with salt early on, adding more to taste as it simmers.

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

Tips for Making the Best Chicken Stock

Tip 1: Use any part of the chicken. I love chicken wings, but whole chickens, leftover bones, and legs are all excellent options. Add more or less chicken, depending on how rich and flavorful you want the stock. Our recipe calls for 12 cups of water. Use 4 pounds of chicken parts for a light but flavorful chicken stock. For a rich ultra-flavorful broth, use 8 pounds of chicken.

Tip 2: Add plenty of aromatics. Add chopped onion, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, and fresh herbs for the most flavorful stock. Other vegetables like fennel and leek are also excellent.

Tip 3: Skim the foamy layer. Making chicken stock is super simple! Add everything to a large pot, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. As it heats up, you’ll notice some foam, sometimes called scum, rise to the surface. I scrape that away and discard it. Removing the foam keeps the chicken stock clear with more of a clean flavor.

Tip 4: Simmer on low. Keep the stock at a gentle simmer. Staying at a low simmer helps keep the stock as clear as possible. Reduce the heat so that the water is gently simmering, and then cook for about 4 hours before straining and storing in the fridge or freezer.

My Favorite Ways to Use Chicken Stock

You can use homemade chicken stock in so many delicious recipes. I love it for creamy chicken noodle soup and my favorite vegetable soup. It’s great for homemade chicken and dumplings, and I also use it as a base for sauces and gravy, like in this gravy recipe.

You can also use it as a cooking liquid for rice and grains. It makes this cilantro lime rice and Mexican rice extra flavorful, and I love it for this mushroom risotto.

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This flavorful homemade beef stock recipe guarantees rich, beefy broth in just over 4 hours and is way better than store-bought.

Store-bought beef stock often disappoints us. It lacks flavor and is usually too salty. That’s why I love making my own in the Instant Pot! Traditional stovetop stock takes at least 6 hours, and for a rich beef broth, you’re looking at 8+ hours.

A pressure cooker dramatically speeds things up, and you get a delicious beef bone broth packed with collagen and minerals. If you’re short on time, try our stovetop chicken stock or this quick 1-hour chicken broth. Or, if you prefer the pressure cooker, check out our bone broth recipe made with chicken bones.

Key Ingredients

• Beef Bones: You need good-quality, meaty beef bones for the best homemade stock. I go to my local butcher shop and use whatever they have that day. Beef knuckles, oxtail, neck bones, shanks, and ribs are all great options, especially if they have a bit of meat left on them. Bones with bits of connective tissue help with gelatin production (or the texture of the broth), and bones with meat help with flavor.
• Tomato Paste: We are all about that rich, beefy flavor. Thanks to the umami in tomatoes, tomato paste helps us achieve it. We roast our beef bones, rubbed in tomato paste, for 30 minutes before making the stock.
• Onion, Garlic, and Olive Oil: Since we want our broth rich and beefy, we don’t use carrots or celery in this recipe. This keeps our ingredient list down. The olive oil roasts the onions and garlic, sweetening them before making our stock.
• Thyme, Bay Leaves, Peppercorns, and Salt: We keep our seasonings classic for this homemade stock.
• Pickapepper or Worcestershire sauce: We use Pickapepper in our homemade BBQ sauce and love it. The two sauces bump up the umami-rich flavor of our stock, so use what you have. Pickapepper is a little thinner and a bit sweeter than the more savory Worcestershire, but in this recipe, they are interchangeable.
• Water: Since we use a pressure cooker, you do not want to fill past the “Fill Line.” For a 6-quart pressure cooker, you need about 8 cups of water. Since there is less evaporation in a pressure cooker than when simmering on the stove, you will have about 8 cups of stock when it’s done.

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

How to Make the Best Beef Stock

Tip 1: Roast your bones. Roasting makes our bone broth richer and more flavorful. Tumble the bones into a baking dish, then roast for 10 minutes. Remove the bones from the oven, and when they are cool enough to handle, rub them down with tomato paste, adding even more of a rich flavor. Toss in onions and garlic, and drizzle with olive oil. Roast everything for another 30 minutes.

Tip 2: Build flavors in pressure cooker. Now transfer everything from the roasting pan to your pressure cooker (ours is an Instant Pot). Pour a little of your measured water into the roasting pan and deglaze it by scraping all the stuck bits from the bottom and sides. Pour this liquid into the pressure cooker along with the remaining measured water. Finally, add thyme, peppercorns, bay leaves, salt, and Pickapepper sauce (or use Worcestershire).

Tip 3: Cook on high. Seal the lid and cook on high pressure (or the stock setting) for 4 hours. Allow the pressure cooker to naturally release the pressure, and then strain.

Ways to Use Your Beef Stock

Once you have homemade stock, you can use it or save it for another day (storing tips are in the recipe below). It’s delicious enough to sip on, or you can use it in your favorite recipes. Here are some of my favorite recipes:

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