Chicken Stock - The best is homemade

This is part two of the three-part saga story of what you can do with a whole chicken. Hopefully at this point you've made your Roast Chicken per the recipe below. After eating all the meat off that tasty chicken, reserve the bones and any small pieces of fat/skin you may have not felt like eating (if any!!), and start making some stock!

Reserved bones and skin** from previously consumed, extra-tasty chicken
1 medium, white onion, skinned and quartered
2 carrots, cut into 3-inch pieces
1 celery stalk, cut into 3-inch pieces (use the frilly parts too)
3 bay leaves
2 garlic cloves, chopped

**If you have any leftover skin, make sure to add it into the stock pot to cook. It will have all that awesome garlic and rosemary flavor from the chicken and will only serve to make your chicken stock better.

Add all the above ingredients into a large soup pot. Add enough water to the pot to cover the ingredients by 2-3 inches, depending on how much stock you think you'll want. I usually go with more...you can always save it for later. Side note...(I don't add salt to the stock because I'd rather salt it when I use it for making soup later on. But if you want to salt it you can, just be careful not to add too much.)

Put the lid on the pot and cook over medium-high head until the liquid comes to a boil. At this point turn the heat down to medium or medium-low and let simmer for about an hour. Crack the lid open a bit to let the steam out while it's simmering away.

After an hour has passed, turn the heat off and let cool to room temperature. Once cooled, remove the bones from the stock and pour the rest of the contents, veggies and all, into quart jars or a tupperware container. At this point you can use this stock to make soup (recipe coming in a few days!!), or freeze the stock to be used at a later date. When I freeze it, I just make sure to only fill the quart jars about 2/3 full as the liquid will expand as it freezes. Wasn't that easy?