Rich and Flavorful Costa Rican Style Homemade Chicken Stock

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This Costa Rican-style homemade chicken stock is rich, flavorful and can be prepared in the instant pot in under a half hour! Yielding a large batch, you’ll have plenty left over for all your favorite Costa Rican soups.

About This Costa Rican Homemade Chicken Stock Recipe

This is one of my best and most requested recipes. Since chicken broth is a staple of Costa Rican cuisine, I have worked for years to perfect this recipe. 

Culturally, you can’t just buy stock in Costa Rican grocery stores. It literally doesn’t exist. One of my friends came to visit us from Costa Rica and when she saw cans of chicken stock from the grocery store she wanted to load her suitcase up with them! 

Many people will use bullion cubes as a shortcut for making broth, but the best cooks always make their own broth or stock for each meal.

I generally use a lot more broth than meat, so I’ll cook a whole chicken, debone and shred the meat (for a traditional Costa Rican shredded chicken) and then make another round of chicken broth using the carcass. I then store the broth in Ball jars or freeze it in large plastic bags for when I am making soup. 

This recipe will yield some fat on the broth, so you can always cool it in the refrigerator and then skim the fat off the top before reheating. 

 Plus, making your own broth saves so much money. a box of broth is usually about $2.50- with this recipe, I can easily get 48 ounces of stock and 2-3 lbs of shredded chicken for about $8. 

Finally- soy sauce is my own secret ingredient addition. I use it liberally to give the broth a nice dark color and to add some extra flavor. It’s totally optional, but so delicious.

Recipes to make with homemade chicken stock:

• Costa Rican Arroz Arreglado Recipe (arroz a la jardinera)
• Sopa Azteca- Costa Rican Tortilla Soup
• Garbanzo Bean Soup Recipe
• Fast Costa Rican Arroz con Pollo Recipe
• Costa Rican Chicken Tamales

Costa Rican Homemade Chicken Stock Recipe

Ingredients: 

• The bones of a whole chicken
• 1-2 tablespoons salt (see notes)
• 1-2 tablespoons chicken stock cubes
• 1 -2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/2 red bell pepper, roughly chopped
• 1/2 white onion, roughly chopped
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, with stems, roughly chopped
• 2 garlic cloves (or garlic powder)
• 6-8 cups water (see notes)

Instructions:

Place all the ingredients into the pressure cooker.

(Make sure that your chicken bones still have a bit of meat clinging to them before tossing them in the pot.) Cook everything on high pressure for 25 minutes.

You can use either the quick or the natural release functions on the pressure cooker– I’ve found that it doesn’t make a noticeable difference. 

Once finished cooking, pour the contents of the pressure cooker through a fine-mesh strainer and store the resulting chicken stock in mason jars for later use. (At this point, you can add salt and pepper if desired.)

If you would like to condense the chicken stock, simmer it in a saucepan over low heat until it reduces to the desired consistency.

Substitutions 

Sea salt can be used in place of regular table salt.

You can use the skin and bones of a rotisserie chicken for this recipe too.

Finally, if you only have chicken breasts, you can make this as well. It’s not going to have the depth of flavor, but it will have less fat. Just add 2-3 tablespoons of chicken bouillon (like Better than Boullion or Maggi) to the chicken breasts when you cook them.

Variations

Some people put Salsa Lizano in their stock. I do not, but you can.

We sometimes just make the broth and add some white rice to it and eat it as a snack while it’s hot. 

You can put all the ingredients in a slow cooker and leave for 12 hours on low. You’ll get the same effect, it just takes longer.

Same with for a stovetop recipe. Just bring everything to a boil and then turn the heat down to low. Simmer for 4-6 hours.

Serving Suggestions

One of my favorite ways to serve this homemade chicken stock is with shredded chicken and rice for a traditional Costa Rican sustanica de pollo— perfect for the coming cold nights!

Otherwise, this broth is a fantastic base for all sorts of meat-and-vegetable soups– feel free to get creative!

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