How long will chicken stock keep in the freezer?
Properly stored, it will maintain best quality for about 4 to 6 months, but will remain safe beyond that time. The freezer time shown is for best quality only - cooked chicken stock that has been kept constantly frozen at 0°F will keep safe indefinitely.
How to store your homemade chicken stock?
- Make your chicken stock however you prefer. The crock pot makes wonderful broth, and it couldn’t be easier.
- Line a muffin tray with reusable, silicone muffin liners.
- Fill muffin cups with chicken stock.
- Freeze until solid, then transfer broth “pucks” to a ziplock bag.
- Repeat with remaining broth.
- Freeze until needed. Each puck is roughly 1/4 of a cup.
How to make a basic homemade chicken stock?
Instructions
- Place the chicken carcasses in a 2-quart heavy duty saucepan.
- Add vegetables, herbs, and seasonings.
- Fill the pan to the top with water and make sure the bones and vegetables are submerged.
- Cover the pot and bring to a boil over high heat.
- Once the water starts to boil, reduce the heat to simmer and cook covered for 4 hours. ...
Can you make chicken stock with frozen chicken?
- To use, remove the stock from the freezer and place it in the fridge to thaw.
- It can also be thawed under running water.
- Then, use it as you would fresh stock in your favorite recipes.
Have some leftover chicken broth? Freeze it in an ice cube tray for the easiest way to use it later!
Cambria has over 10 years of experience as a director, editor, and writer. She has held senior editorial roles at Apartment Therapy, Kitchn, and Simply Recipes.
Why You Should Freeze Broth in Ice Cube Trays
There are a few reasons it's handy to freeze leftover broth or stock in an ice cube tray, instead of in a big zip-top bag or other container:
How to Freeze Leftover Broth in an Ice Cube Tray
Convinced? Great! Here's how to freeze leftover broth in an ice cube tray: Pour the stock into the ice cube tray and freeze. Once the broth has frozen solid, pop all the broth cubes out and store in a freezer-safe bag or other container. Take out one or more as needed!
How to Freeze Chicken Stock
If you use chicken stock in lots of different recipes, then you’re probably attracted to the idea of making it in batches and freezing it. This has the potential to save you lots of time in the kitchen and means you can access chicken stock as and when you need it.
4 Tips for Freezing Chicken Stock
Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 4 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing chicken stock to have the best results:
How Long Can You Freeze Chicken Stock?
You can freeze chicken stock for around three months. It’s probably safe to freeze it slightly longer than this, but we would advise using your stock within this period to ensure it’s as tasty and delicious as you would hope!
How Do You Defrost Chicken Stock?
As mentioned, you don’t need to defrost chicken stock before using it if you don’t want to. However, if you want to thaw your stock, remove it from the freezer and allow it to defrost in the fridge.
Can You Refreeze Chicken Stock?
You should only freeze chicken stock once. If you’re concerned about wastage and typically prepare more stock than you need at any given time, then you should consider reducing your stock portion sizes before freezing it.
Does Chicken Stock Freeze Well?
Chicken stock freezes extremely well. As it’s predominantly made from water, it will freeze just like any other water-based substance.
Related FAQs
If you’ve still got questions about freezing chicken stock or stock in general, then these may help:
How to Freeze Homemade Chicken Stock
After the broth has been cooled and strained, and if I don’t have an immediate use for it, I will freeze it.
Lay the Bags on a Cookie Sheet before Freezing
After I portion out the amounts, I lay the bags onto a cookie sheet so they freeze flat (that way you can stack them in your freezer and they don’t take up a lot of space). To label them I used this dry erase tape – it’s a really great way to label things.
Homemade Chicken Stock Recipe Tips
Use what you have. Stocks are very versatile. You can use both the vegetables and the vegetable scraps from carrots, celery, onions, garlic, scallions, and herbs such as parsley, sage, thyme, and rosemary.
Notes
Please note, that stocks typically are unsalted. So when you are making your soup, you will have to be sure to salt it!
Chicken Broth Cubes
To make chicken broth cubes, I measure 1 cup of broth into the ice cube molds. Each standard individual ice cube mould will hold about 2 tablespoons each. So if you need a cup of broth, you’ll use 8 frozen chicken broth cubes.
Freezer Bag Method
Using a Sharpie marker, label freezer bags with the date, content and measurement.
Thawing Frozen Broth
When it comes time to thaw the broth, place the chicken broth cubes in a pot and turn the flame on low to slowly melt the cubes.
How Long Does Chicken Broth Last
Chicken broth can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days and in the freezer for 2-3 months.
Making Chicken Broth From Scratch
Chicken . When making chicken broth, I typically use 3-4 pounds of bone-in chicken with skin (either a whole chicken, breasts, thighs or a combo of breasts and thighs).
How to Use Homemade Chicken Broth
Soups. Whenever I make this Poached Chicken, I freeze the delicious broth for a later use. Having frozen chicken cubes is great for making a small batch of simple soup, or use it for richer soups like this Immune Boosting Chicken Soup and Italian Lentil Soup
How to Freeze Chicken Broth
Here's a couple of easy tips on How to Freeze Chicken Broth. These two methods for freezing chicken broth are the best way to freeze broth so thawing is quick and easy. One way to freeze chicken broth is by making chicken broth cubes and the other is by freezing chicken broth in Ziploc freezer bags (I typically use Ziploc quart freezer bags).
Can You Freeze Chicken Broth?
One of our readers reached out to us about chicken broth, too, so here’s their message:
How to Freeze Chicken Broth?
The key to successfully freezing chicken broth is to start with the freshest broth possible.
How to Keep Chicken Broth for Longer?
If you want to make sure that your chicken broth will be good for a longer period of time, you should get a vacuum sealer. While you may be wondering how exactly you can mix the two, we can tell you that you simply need to freeze the broth first.
How to Thaw Chicken Broth?
To thaw, remove the chicken broth from the freezer and allow it to thaw for several hours or overnight in the refrigerator.