Healing Chicken Bone Broth
This simple healing chicken bone broth recipe is packed with gut-healing nutrients and is a great base for soups and sauces.
Healing Chicken Bone Broth
I never thought I would one day make my own chicken bone broth. Even though it sounds very complicated it is actually quite simple. So if you are on the fence or feel like it is too hard, trust me, try it, it is so easy. All you need is:
- Bones
- Apple cider vinegar
- Filtered water
Benefits of Chicken Bone Broth
If you have never tried to make your own homemade bone broth here are a few reasons why you should try it.
- Bones are cheap, (or free if you already made a whole chicken /and or collect the bones from wings, legs, etc).
- Using the bones for their nutritional content is a lot more sustainable than wasting them.
- Bone broth is a nutrient-dense gut-healing superfood.
- It will make your sauces, soups, and more taste incredibly delicious.
How to Make it
You can get very fancy with your broth and add veggies, herbs, etc to it. I decided to not include them in this recipe to keep it simple and because I often just use the broth as a base for creamy soups. If you choose to add veggies I recommend adding carrots, celery, leeks, onion, garlic for the last hour of the cooking process. You can get creative with that and use whatever you have at home that day.
I make my broth in a slow cooker. If you don’t already have one I highly recommend getting one. It will save you so much time in the kitchen. But you can let the bone broth simmer using a big pot on your stove as well.
For my healing chicken bone broth, I collect the bones whenever I make a whole chicken or wings and legs. I like to make a lot of broth at once to save time in the kitchen. That is why I use 2 chicken carcasses for my recipe. I simply freeze the first one and wait until I make another chicken. I also buy chicken backs from my butcher to add more bones to it. My favorite broth also has chicken feet in them. It gets extra delicious and gelatinous if you add them. Always make sure to get pasture-raised organic chicken bones when making broth. You want to fill most of the slow cooker with bones and then add filtered water on top. Add 1-2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar and let it do its magic.
After letting the bones simmer for about 24 hours simply remove the biggest bones and pour the broth through a strainer into a large bowl. From there you can easily pour it into the jars you want to store it in. Once the broth is cool it will be jiggly and gelatinous. That is a good sign and means your broth is full of the good stuff.
How to Store the Broth
This recipe makes for approximately 6 mason jars of bone broth. As you can see two of them are filled to the top. I freeze the rest of the broth and divide it up into another 6 jars.
- Use glass or stainless steel instead of plastic
- Wide mouth mason jars are great for freezing. You can upcycle glass jars from for example coconut oil etc).
- Let the broth cool before putting it in the fridge. You can keep it in the fridge for about 4 days.
- When freezing liquid in glass jars you want to leave a couple of inches headspace to make sure the glass doesn’t break (see picture), especially if you are not using wide mouth jars. Also, let the jars with the broth cool down to room temperature first and then refrigerate them for a few hours or overnight before freezing them.
- Simply place a frozen jar in the fridge the night before you want to use the bone broth.
FAQ
- My broth is very thin: You probably didn’t add in enough bones and too much water. You can still use it, next time just adjust your ratio.
- I don’t have a slow cooker: You can simmer it on low in a large pot on your stove for the entire day. I wouldn’t recommend keeping anything on the stove overnight. Your broth will probably not be as gelatinous but it will still be great if it simmered for the whole day.
- Can I mix bones? Yes, you totally can use other bones such as pork, beef, etc. Just always make sure they are from a quality source, aka pasture-raised/grass-fed.
What to Use the Bone Broth for
Now that you are done making this nutritious broth, you may wonder what you should do with it. You could simply sip it as a clear broth. I like to add fresh lemon juice and sea salt. Or use it as a base for soups, sauces, and even smoothies. Below are a few of my favorite recipes.
- Healthy Butternut Squash Sweet Potato Soup (AIP)
- Creamy Asparagus Soup (AIP)
- Nightshade-free Marinara Sauce (AIP)
- Mom’s Special Gravy (AIP)
I cannot wait for you to try this healing chicken bone broth recipe and would love to get your feedback, please leave a comment below. And as always don’t forget to tag me in your food pictures on Instagram
Happy cooking
~Annika
Healing Chicken Bone Broth
Ingredients
- 2 chicken carcasses left over from roasted or slow cooked pasture raised chicken and other left-over chicken bones
- 5 chicken backs pasture raised
- 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- filtered water to cover the bones
- 4 chicken feet pasture raised (optional)
Instructions
- Place bones in the slow cooker. Try to almost fill it with bones otherwise it won't be gelatinous. Although not a requirement, adding chicken feet makes for a great broth.
- Cover the bones with filtered water.
- Add apple cider vinegar.
- Let the broth simmer for 24 hours on low.
- Discard the larger bones and pour broth through a strainer into a large bowl.
- Cool to room temperature.
- Fill it into mason jars and either store in the fridge for 4-5 days or freeze. See tips below for freezing.
