4 kg of chicken carcasses - what do I do!

[ethelb]

I have just got my order from Farmers Choice and it looks lovely. Except, or thought I rodered two chicken carcasses (free) to make stock with, but they have arrived and are 2x 2kg bags. Frozen.

They are HUGE, think of a sack of dead chicken bits, and frozen, and I can't fit them in my fridge or freezer.

Help!

Many, many saucepans of stock?

Make a whole shed load of stock or find someone who raw feeds their dog.

I have a 5 litre slow cooker which will go on tomorrow morning when the stuff has defrosted. I think that will take one of them. But then, where do I put the stock?

The bags are literally longer and wider than the shelves in my fridge and freezer.

slow cooker for stock obv.

Phone round friend, out on free cycle. You can't use it all

Wow, that's a lot of chicken carcass. Put it in the slow cooker and put the lid on slightly ajar so it concentrates down so it takes up less room. If you have good freezer bags that you know don't leak, you can fill them up and freeze them flat, which I find often takes up less room to store.

I find stock cubes take up even less room.

Yes but those of us who are proper stock makers can tell the difference Caer

It had better be good stock.

Or I'm back on the oxo

My dogs love a chicken carcass. I will take them off your hands if you are near me !

Im in putney.

Shame nowhere near me.
If you have friends with dogs they may want them though. I pay 80p for a bag of about 4 for the dogs.

If you do the stock in the slow cooker, leave the lid off for a couple of hours (with it on high) after the stock has done, and reduce the liquid to a quarter of what it was. The more you reduce it, the more concentrated it is, and also takes up a lot less space.

This leaving the lid off thing at the end of cooking is also particularly helpful if there is too much liquid in your slow cooker at the end of cooking.

Also, if you have a good sharp pair of kitchen scissors, cut the carcasses up small before you cook them, that way you'll need less liquid to begin with.

Penis try farmers choice. They do them free! I wonder if that's what they were intended for.

Can you order just free stuff or do you have to actually buy something ?

you have to buy stuff. Though I don't think there is a minimum order if you set up a monthly direct debit with them. We have one for £25 a month but I think it can be as low as £10.

I thought you weren't meant to give chicken bones to dogs?

axe them?

Raw chicken bones are great for dogs.

It is cooked bones that splinter and are no good for dogs.

Only cooked chicken bones, raw is fine Afterall big animals eat smaller animals in the wild.

Ask on dog threads, loads of them use the raw food diet

The dogs make a lovely crunch crunch crunchy noise whilst eating their raw bones. It keeps them occupied for ages. Nice firm poo too so it is a win win all round.

thanks for all the help. I managed to use them all up except one and strained the last batch of stock this morning.

I used one batch of stock up in a chinese chicken noodle soup thing last night.