GAPS Chicken Meat Stock for Intro Stage 1 and Full GAPS

This plain chicken meat stock starts with raw, meaty necks and backs, with optional feet for more body. A slow simmer softens the connective tissue and leaves a stock you can drink warm or measure into another recipe. Keep the skin, fat and meat on the parts when you buy them; a picked roast-chicken carcass is a different starting ingredient.

In our house, a pot of stock starts first thing in the morning so there is stock or soup available through the day. That routine helped make GAPS doable for us. Give this batch a morning when you can stay nearby, skim the pot and cool the finished stock properly.

The measured base and cooking method come from Rachael Mamane’s Basic Chicken Stock in Mastering Stocks and Broths. This is an animal-only GAPS adaptation: it leaves out the vegetables, herbs and peppercorns from her aromatic version and keeps the chicken fat.

Jump to the Recipe

What You Need for the Stock

• 6 pounds raw, meaty chicken necks and backs: Choose pieces with skin, joints, connective tissue and some meat still attached. Weigh the thawed parts. They are the measured chicken base for this batch.
• 1 pound chicken feet, optional: Feet add connective tissue and body. The batch can be made without them if you cannot get them.
• 4 US quarts cold filtered water: This is the water that stays in the stock. Water used for rinsing or an optional preliminary blanch is separate.
• 2 US quarts ice cubes: Mamane gives about 1.3 kilograms for this volume of cubes. Measure ice cubes, rather than substituting two quarts of liquid water. Make the cubes with filtered water.
• Natural sea salt or rock salt, to taste: Season the strained stock at the end, following Mamane’s method.

There are no vegetables, herbs, peppercorns, vinegar or powdered gelatin in this plain batch. Keeping it plain gives you a neutral stock to portion first and use in different meals. It does not mean that every GAPS stock recipe must exclude vegetables or herbs.

Set Out the Pot and Cooling Equipment

Use a large, heavy-bottomed stainless-steel stockpot with enough room for the chicken, water and measured ice. A ten-quart pot is a useful size for this batch. Check the actual fit of your parts and leave working space above the liquid so you can skim safely, rather than filling the pot to its rim.

Have a skimmer, ladle, colander, fine-mesh sieve, cheesecloth and suitable heat-safe containers ready. You will also need a clean place to cool the strained stock in an external ice-water bath. Keep that bath water outside the stock containers.

Plan on roughly five to six hours overall, including preparation, gradual heating, about three and a half hours of simmering, resting and initial cooling. The card uses the upper six-hour planning estimate. It does not mean six hours of simmering or six hours of hands-on work.

How to Make Plain Chicken Meat Stock

1. Prepare the raw parts. Weigh the necks and backs and the optional feet. Following Mamane’s preparation, rinse them with cold water until the water is clear, removing visible blood and attached organs. Keep the skin and meat on the necks and backs. Keep raw-poultry water and utensils away from ready-to-eat food, then clean the preparation area. Reserve any organs separately in the refrigerator for another preparation.
2. Blanch only if needed. If rinsing does not clear the water, put the necks and backs, without the feet, in the pot. Add separate cold water to cover by a few inches. Heat slowly and skim. When the water ripples, before it boils, drain the parts, rinse them and clean the pot. This preliminary water is discarded; it does not replace the measured stock water.
3. Start the measured stock. Put the prepared necks and backs and optional feet in the clean pot. Add the measured cold filtered water. Heat gradually with the pot uncovered. Skim the gray or tan protein foam as it appears, rinsing the skimmer between passes.
4. Add the measured ice. As the liquid reaches a gentle simmer, reduce the heat and add the measured ice cubes to the pot. Let them melt, then bring the stock back to a very gentle simmer. Keep the fat rather than deliberately skimming it off; remove the protein foam.
5. Simmer gently. Maintain a surface that barely moves, with occasional small bubbles, rather than a rolling boil. Mamane’s gentle stock temperature is about 180°F (82°C). Continue for about three and a half hours in total once simmering, checking and skimming as needed. The meat and connective tissues should become soft. The bones stay in the pot throughout; this plain version has no aromatic vegetables to add after the initial two hours.
6. Rest and strain. Turn off the heat and leave the pot undisturbed for about ten minutes. Support a cheesecloth-lined fine-mesh sieve over a suitable heat-safe container. Ladle the stock through without pressing the solids. Leave the muddy sediment at the bottom of the pot behind. If fine particles remain, strain again through fresh cheesecloth. Taste the strained stock and add natural salt.
7. Save the edible soft tissues. Separate the tender meat, skin and other edible soft tissues from the bones. Check carefully for small bones and keep the edible parts for serving with stock or adding to a separate soup. Keep the fat with the food.
8. Cool promptly. Put the strained stock containers in an external ice-water bath and stir the stock often. Keep the bath water below the container rims. Mamane’s cooling method brings the stock to about 70°F (21°C) in under an hour, then finishes cooling in the refrigerator. Use a food thermometer to check; do not judge cooling only by whether steam is visible. Cool the saved edible tissues promptly too.
9. Refrigerate or freeze portions. Refrigerate the stock for up to two days, or freeze smaller portions for longer storage. Transfer only cooled stock to suitable freezer-safe glass, leaving expansion space and following the container’s directions. Reheat the portion you need on the stove and serve warm.

Where This Plain Stock Fits on GAPS

The GAPS distinction begins with the animal parts. Meat stock starts with raw meaty bones, joints, skin, fat and connective tissue. It is not a pot of bare bones left from an earlier meal. This plain preparation fits Intro Stage 1 and Full GAPS; follow your food-introduction guidance when starting chicken or any other food.

Gut and Physiology Syndrome emphasizes keeping the stock fat and eating the soft tissues from the animal parts. That is why this adaptation retains the fat rather than following Mamane’s fat-removal step. The batch also omits plant aromatics, while keeping Mamane’s measured chicken, water and ice base and gentle extraction method.

Use the GAPS Intro Stage 1 guide for the rest of that stage’s foods and their introduction.

Portioning, Serving and Storage

The card counts one pot as one batch, not one person’s serving. Measure the finished strained stock when you portion it. The amount depends on your pot, heat, evaporation and the chicken parts.

Use warm stock with the saved meat, skin and other soft tissues. You can also measure it into a separate recipe, such as two-ingredient onion gravy. Follow that recipe’s own amounts rather than adding unmeasured ingredients to this stockpot.

Keep refrigerated stock for up to two days. Freeze portions you will not use in that time. A cooled batch may set into a soft gel; how firmly it sets varies with the connective tissue and finished concentration. The gel melts when you warm it. Keep and use the fat layer rather than treating it as waste.

My planned course, The Stock Pot Course, focuses on this kitchen skill. Check the WFLI shop for its release as you build your stock-making routine.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the ice go into the stock or around it?

Both uses appear in the method, but they are separate. The measured two quarts of ice cubes go into the pot near the start of cooking. Later, a separate ice-water bath cools the outside of the strained-stock containers. That cooling water stays out of the recipe.

Can I leave out the chicken feet?

Yes. The pound of feet is optional. Keep the six pounds of raw meaty necks and backs and both measured liquid inputs unchanged.

Why is there no whole-chicken count?

This batch is measured by the weight of necks and backs. An unspecified whole bird does not tell you that weight or the same mix of parts. Use the listed cuts and weigh them for this version.

Why not use a cooked carcass or simmer it overnight?

This method starts with raw meaty parts and follows the shorter stock extraction. GAPS reserves long-cooked bone broth for much later, generally at least a year into the protocol. Do not turn this recipe into a bare-bone, acid-added broth by changing the starting cuts or extending its cooking.

How do I make a double batch?

At 2×, use twelve pounds of meaty necks and backs, two pounds of optional feet, eight quarts of water and four quarts of ice cubes. Use enough pot capacity to keep working space above the liquid, or cook separate batches. The simmering time does not automatically double.