Chicken Bone Broth

One of the first aspects of Real Food eating is getting accustomed to making bone broths. Of course you can buy a can of chicken broth from the store, but it will never be the life-giving food you can make yourself right in your own kitchen, quite often from the scraps of a meal you prepared beforehand. I'm going to explain Chicken (poultry) broth separate from Beef because there are some different considerations with both. For all the aspects of why bone broths are so important for good health please see other sources such as Weston A. Price, or sites such as Healthy Home Economist or Nourishing Kitchen, among many others. This blog is meant only for some how-to's that a few people have asked me about. With that said, please feel free to write me with any specific questions you have and I will be happy to answer them as best I can.

Chicken Bone Broth

In a large pot you will place an assortment of whatever chicken parts you have on hand. You can start with a whole uncooked chicken, roast it for a meal, and then use all the bones, juices and leftover parts. Or you can start a broth pot by putting the uncooked whole chicken right into the pot. If you have roasted a chicken and don't have enough material or time to do broth just pop all that leftover stuff in a zip-lock bag and pop it in the freezer. You can even freeze up several chicken carcasses before you go ahead and start a pot of broth.

If you have any source for chicken organs (hearts, livers, kidneys etc.), chicken necks or chicken feet, be sure to add some of those into your pot. (I know, it sounds gross, but believe me the broth does not come out tasting like feet! And the feet of animals are a wonderfully strong source of that wonderful gel that is so desired in good broth. Amazingly healthful to the body.) 

Fill your pot with water just until the bones, etc. are covered and bring to a simmer (low bubbly boil). Skim off any grayish foam from the top at the beginning of making your broth. This is where the impurities are and you want to get rid of that. Don't go crazy though and be throwing out broth. Just scoop up the majority of that grayish material. Sprinkle a bit of salt into the pot.

If you had a whole chicken in the pot you can scoop out the meat when it is cooked and set it aside. I usually cut it right up and pop it in the freezer for later use. 

When you have just the bones and various parts in the pot (your good meat has been removed and taken care of) now it's time to really get your bone broth started. Dash in a few tablespoons of vinegar (maybe a quarter cup to a large pot). The acidity will help to leach all the good minerals out of the bones and into your broth. Let this simmer a long time! Like 24 hours. At this point I put mine in a crock pot and leave it on low overnight. You want to give it plenty of time to pull out all that goodness into the liquid.

This next step may seem tedious and overkill to some but for me I take it very seriously. I want all the good life-sustaining marrow out of those bones that I can get. Using tongs I lift out the larger bones onto a plate. By the time I'm done getting them all out they can usually be handled. After simmering all night the bones should be soft and easy to break open. I use a simple nutcracker, or seafood cracker. Crack open all the larger bones so that the marrow can escape into the broth, then just dump the whole lot back into the pot.

At this point I add the other things that make for a great chicken stock. Several broken up carrots, a few stalks of celery, a couple of medium quartered onions, a small handful (tablespoon or so) of peppercorns, a bit more salt, and several bay leaves. You can even save on the veggies by popping all your carrot peels, leftover onion bits, and leaves and such from celery into a bag and using them when you make broth. 

Now just let it simmer for a few more hours, or whenever you get back to it, and then you can proceed to strain the broth and get rid of the solids. Put the pot of broth into the frig with the lid cracked to let it cool properly and then the next day you can remove as much of the fat from the top as you wish to. Good properly prepared broth should be almost solid like a jello mold. Scoop it into whatever you want to freeze it in and there you go! Containers of beautiful broth ready to use. I generally put up quart containers, but also pint containers for cooking rice in or whatever.

I know it sounds like a long process but that's why I save up the ingredients and do large batches at a time. I make chicken broth probably once every two weeks, beef less often than that.

There you have it. Life-giving, money-saving bone broth.