Homemade Chicken Bouillon Cubes

So whenever my wife makes crock-pot chicken, we always seem to have a ridiculous amount of chicken stock leftover. In the past, we would freeze it in large zip lock bags, but we had a eureka moment when we came across our old ice trays in the cupboard. Chicken Bouillon ICE Cubes! 

Thanks for reading!

Step 1: Cook a Chicken.

An obvious step, but if you are cooking an entire chicken just to get some free broth, I may recommend buying a carton of Swanson's chicken broth.

That being said, the slow cooker will generally leave you with a large amount of chickenny goodness.

Step 2: Strain It.

Take out the large pieces and then strain with a mesh screen. 

In my case, I couldn't find our mesh strainer, so I ended up using our flour sifter.

How much liquid you used to cook that delicious chicken, will determine how much delicious chicken broth you end up with.

We ended up with about 3 cups.

Step 3: Strain It Some More.

Really, what I mean is skim off the chicken grease. I personally don't care for a greasy bouillon cube. 

The easiest way to do this is use a spoon to slowly skim it.

After you skim it off, discard it properly.

Step 4: Make Those Cubes.

Slowly pour the broth into some ice trays (that you won't be using for regular ice again).

Carefully place them in the freezer and allow to freeze solid.

When they are frozen solid, turn the cubes out onto a paper towel and place the cubes in freezer bag or freezer safe container.

Step 5: Uses.

So, you may be asking yourself, what do I do with all my delicious homemade chicken bouillon cubes?

1. Well, if want them thawed to add to mashed potatoes, you microwave them for 40 seconds and mix them in.

2. If you want to add them to a soup recipe, you drop them right into the pot, frozen, and the cooking process melts them. 

3. If you want to sip a hot cup of chicken broth, you melt as many cubes as you want and drink them.

The choice is yours!

Once again, thanks for reading!

Comments

[john.noybn]

ah, two other small (yet large) things.. one, using a ladle is one of the harder ways to defat a broth, the EASIEST way is to simply chill the broth then just lift off the now solid shmaltz.. which brings us to the other thing... DONT TOSS THE SHMALTZ!!! (chicken fat) thats the most awesomest thing youve got going here! Use it too saute something instead ;)

[shambuda2000]

I appreciate the input. Thanks for reading!

[john.noybn]

This is a good 'ible.. for chicken BROTH cubes. On the other hand, if you do all this, (adding some carrots, onions, celery to broth would be nice...) and then REDUCE the stock on high flame until you lose at least two thirds of the volume, you will reduce the water content of the cubes, making them much more like BULLION and less like canned stock, ie they will be much more strongly flavored without adding a lot of liquid so you can enrich your food without turning everything into soup. Just a thought. I would make my own 'ible and probably should, but i dont have a camera at the moment, le sigh. One day.