— Brian Kanter

So, um, you know, this is, uh, a question, uh, the, the answer to which has evolved, you know, over the years, and depending on where you are and, um, uh, you know, you, you will have an easier or a more difficult time sourcing them at stores. But let's talk through this. Okay? So do start at grocery stores or, um, you know, let me say butchers, uh, lemme start there. Because mainstream grocery stores oftentimes don't fabricate poultry in-house. They're gonna get cases of pre-wrapped products, um, that comes in, or they're gonna get fabricated product, and then, then they might wrap it themselves and put a, you know, weigh it and put a price on it. But, uh, if you can find a smaller shop, um, or specifically, specifically a place that, that, that does fabricate poultry, then there's going to be carcasses remaining from that process. So, have a conversation with the butcher, see if they will sell you directly, uh, carcasses, and, um, see where that, where that takes you. Another choice is to look for a restaurant supply store, you know, a, a, uh, a cash and carry sort of a place. One brand name that we have around here in the, in the Portland, Oregon metro area is Chef's Store. And it is a giant grocery store. The public can shop there as well. They are, uh, items, uh, branded and in pack sizes that are suitable for restaurants. And many of these places will sell cases of chicken bones, and it'll certainly get you a long distance when it comes to making some stock, you know, more than just one bash unless you've got a big cauldron to work with. But that would be a good place to start as well. Now, if you wanted to take some time and accumulate bones at home, then I would suggest buying whole chickens, fabricating them at home, you know, preparing the, the meat however you want to, and then just save the carcasses in the freezer until you have accumulated, in this case, four carcasses to make whatever size, uh, batch of stock that you wanna make. And then, when I mentioned this, I also wanna say, if you happen to buy, uh, already roasted chickens from the grocery store to save the bones, because those can be used for stock production, okay? Um, chicken or any, any bones that have been subjected to dry heat cooking can then be used in a moist heat environment, IE simmering in this case, to draw out flavor, to make stock. So in the case of bones that come from a roasted bird, there's probably gonna be some browning attached to that from that earlier cooking process, which will impart some color to the stock that you make, uh, as well as some deeper flavor. So it's, there's nothing wrong with that, uh, unless for some reason you want, uh, a very white stock. Um, but just keep that difference in mind, okay? And hopefully, you know, somewhere in those suggestions, you'll find an answer to your, uh, question.