You've seen the ads on TV: "Add flavor without adding fat! Use Bossy-O chicken stock!" But when you get to the store, Bossy-O costs an arm and a leg, and when you get right down to it, the taste is kind of metallic and thin, isn't it?
Why not make your own? It's not hard. In fact, if you can boil water, you can make stock, because that's all stock is: water boiled with some good stuff in it. And when you make your own stock, you know EXACTLY what's in it. There aren't any chicken lips or cow toes in the stock unless you put them there. And that's all I'm going to say about that.
There are two ways to make stock.
Fancy and time consuming way: buy bony meat parts and some carrots/onion/celery. Brown the bones and the vegetables seperately, load up the stock pot with the browned stuff, some appropriate herbs, add water to cover, and then simmer, skim the foam, simmer, skim, simmer, skim, until you barely remember why you're doing this in the first place. Along the way, check the seasoning, add salt and pepper, de-fat, clarify, and skim, skim, skim. It's going to look, smell and taste wonderful when you get done, and if time was unlimited, I would always have this kind of stock on hand.
Unfancy and easy way, like I usually do: every time you roast a chicken (or anything else, like duck, beef, pork, lamb, fish....), you have browned meat parts. When you're done with dinner, save the good leftover meat for sandwiches and throw the trimmings (bone, fat, gristle, skin, tendons, etc) in a stock pot and scrape what's at the bottom of the roasting pan in there, too. If you have carrots/onions/celery, add some to the pot, roughly chopped. Add enough water to cover everything and bring to a gentle boil, then simmer for about two hours, or overnight if you live somewhere cold and trust your stove on low while you're sleeping. Strain the resulting liquid through a fairly fine sieve into a storage container and cool for a day in the fridge, or until the fat sets up on top. Pull off the little disk of fat and save it seperately (that's another post). You're done. Use now or freeze for later.
OK, I admit the unfancy way doesn't always have the onions/carrots/celery (unless you always keep some around), the deep flavor that comes from browning vegetables (they still add a lot), the perfectly corrected seasonings (do that when you use the stock), the foam skimmed off (mostly gets strained out anyway), and stock made the unfancy way is usually cloudy, not clear. But, the end result TASTES surprisingly good, and is much much better than the tinny canned stuff from the store. If you're making scratch onion soup for company, you'll probably want to start with beef bones and do all the fancy stuff...and that is its own kind of fun. But for everyday use like enriching sauces and gravies, unfancy stock is the way to go.
Now, about those little disks of fat...especially the duck fat....