I’ve been thinking for a while that making chicken stock with chicken wings makes a lot of sense from an ease point of view. Turns out that making stock with wings makes sense from a culinary point of view too!
This morning, I just happened to channel surf to Sara Moulton’s PBS show where she made chicken stock from wings. She says she likes making stock with wings because:
they have equal parts of chicken (flavor), bones (gelatin), and fat in the form of skin (more flavor), more of all three put together than any other part of the chicken.
I love the looks of her recipe. Ten minutes of prep followed by a few hours of simmering … what’s not to love?
Sara Moulton’s Chicken Stock
5 pounds chicken wings
2 medium onions, quartered
2 small carrots, halved
2 celery stalks, halved
4 rinsed and dried fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs
2 rinsed and dried fresh thyme sprigs
1 Turkish bay leaf
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
Rinse the chicken wings. Put them in a stockpot and add enough cold water to cover by 2 inches. Bring the mixture just to a boil over high heat, skimming and discarding the surface skim with a slotted spoon. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, skimming frequently, for 20 minutes.
Add the onions, carrots, celery, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, and peppercorns; simmer for 2 1/2 hours. Strain the stock and skim off all the fat that rises to the surface. (Alternately, cool the stock and refrigerate it overnight. The fat will harden on top of the stock and is much easier to remove.)
Return the stock to the pot and simmer until reduced by one third, about 30 minutes. Divide the stock among several resealable plastic bags [or containers or ice cube trays -ed.] and freeze it.
Rachael Ray may like the convenience of broth in a box, but the health benefits of real stock or broth make it well worth the effort.
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our Western diet -- especially sugar, refined grains, and industrial oils. Beth writes about nutrition, ancestral health, & food policy. And cats! 
What do you think? (Comments from Weight Maven first-timers are moderated.)