With fall and winter on the rise and soups and stews in full swing, bone broth is back in season! Known for its immunity-boosting powers, gut-healing strength, and overall yummy, savory flavor, bone broth is the perfect elixir to keep in your fridge this fall and winter season. It is a phenomenal healer! If you would like to learn more about bone broth and it’s healing properties, I recommend checking out my other blog post, “7 Health Benefits of Bone Broth: How To Incorporate Bone Broth Into Your Diet” where I break down the actual components of bone broth and why you need it in your diet.
Nowadays, it seems nearly impossible to find a pure bone broth in the stores. It seems almost everything has preservatives and fillers including bone broth. Most bone broths and stocks have natural chicken flavor, natural flavors, and a lot of other preservatives. Therefore, I love making my own and figured I would share it with you!
Are Chicken Broth And Bone Broth The Same?
One of the key components that separates a bone broth from chicken stalk or chicken broth is its abundance of rich nutrients. Bone broth is simmered for much longer than traditional broth or stalk. Nutrients such as collagen, gelatin, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and phosphorus, just to name a few, are pulled from the bone marrow and into the broth. As a result, these nutrients help aid in building up the gut microbiome, and as a result, the overall immunity.
How Long Should I Cook Bone Broth For?
When made properly, a good bone broth will be gelatinous when chilled, rather than liquid, due to the gelatin pulled from the bones. This is done through cooking down the bones over a long period of time, typically 24 hours or more. When you have achieved this jello-like consistency, you will know that you have constructed a strong, nutrient dense bone broth.
Where To Buy Bones To Make Bone Broth:
The easiest way to get bones for bone broth is by purchasing a whole chicken, chicken thighs, chicken legs, or chicken wings from your local grocery store. I always recommend buying an organic, pasture raised chicken as this will give you an organic bone broth.
However, if you want to get a super rich bone broth that is really gelatinous I recommend buying chicken feet. The feet are very bony and also have a lot of cartilage and nails, aiding in the additional release of collagen and gelatin into the broth. The best place to find chicken feet or animal knuckles would be local farmers. Nowadays you can oftentimes purchase them online from different farms. Otherwise, you can always visit your local farmers’ market and see if the farmers have any chicken feet or bones on hand that they are willing to sell to you.
If you can’t find them online or at the farmers’ markets, I have also seen them on occasion at whole foods or local butcher shops.
How To Use Bone Broth:
Bone broth has many different uses. By adding bone broth to your foods, it automatically increases the food’s nutrient value and helps build up the gut microbiome. Some of my favorite ways to use bone broth are listed below:
- Soups
- Stews
- Rice
- Pasta
- Sauces
- Drinking
How To Make Bone Broth:
Rinse and dry your whole chicken off. I like to use the entire chicken, neck and organs included when making a bone broth as the neck has a lot of bones and cartilage in it adding to the collagen density of the bone broth. The organs are great for adding a lot of B vitamins, iron, and minerals, like iron, to the broth as well. Therefore I like to make sure that I keep the entire chicken intact when cooking.
Roughly chop up the onions, fennel, celery, and carrots and add to the slow cooker or Instant Pot
Add in the herbs and peeled whole garlic and top with apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper.
Cover chicken, veggies, and herbs with 8 cups of water.
Set your slow cooker to low and allow your bone broth to cook for 5 hours.
After 5 hours, take your chicken out of the slow cooker or instant pot and onto a cutting board, and shred the meat off of the bones.
Once all of the meat is removed from the bones, place the bones back into the stock and add an additional 2 cups of water.
Steep for an additional 19 hours on low heat. The longer you steep the bone broth, the more collagen and gelatin are extracted from the bones, and the stronger your bone broth will be.
Once the bone broth is done steeping, take your strainer and place it over a bowl. Drain your broth through your strainer into a bowl, catching all of the veggies and bones.
For a more pure strain, you can use a cheesecloth and strain the bone broth one more time, making sure that no big clumps are left in your bone broth. I like to do this, especially if you are planning on drinking the broth.
Pour the strained bone broth into ball jars and place in the refrigerator until ready to drink or use.
FAQ:
- Is drinking bone broth every day good for you? Bone broth is packed with nutrients and minerals that our body needs on the daily. I definitely recommend drinking bone broth daily to help build up the gut microbiome.
- Can I use my Instant Pot to make bone broth? Yes, you can definitely use your Instant Pot instead of the slow cooker to make bone broth. The biggest thing when it comes to bone broth is getting your broth to gel when it is cooled. If you achieve this, then you have created a strong bone broth.
- Should I skim the fat off of the bone broth? No, you do not need to skim the fat off of the broth. This adds a lot of additional flavor and nutrients into your broth.
Related Blog Posts:
- 7 Health Benefits of Bone Broth: How to Incorporate Bone Broth Into Your Diet
- Best Homemade Tomato Soup Recipe: Quick And Easy
- Easy Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe
Note: This blog post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Easy Homemade Bone Broth: Slow Cooker
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken
- 4 medium carrots
- 1 fennel bulb
- 2 celery stalks
- 1 sweet onion
- 6 garlic cloves
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 rosemary sprigs
- 4 sage leaves
- 1 small bunch lemon thyme
- 1 bunch parsley
- 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
- 2 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. black pepper
- 10 cups filtered water
Instructions
- Rinse and dry your whole chicken off. I like to use the entire chicken, neck and organs included when making a bone broth as the neck has a lot of bones and cartilage in it adding to the collagen density of the bone broth. The organs are great for adding a lot of B vitamins and minerals, like iron, to the broth as well. Therefore I like to make sure that I keep the entire chicken intact when cooking.
- Add in your herbs and peeled whole garlic and top with apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper.
- Cover chicken, veggies, and herbs with 8 cups of water.
- Set your slow cooker to low and allow your bone broth to cook for 5 hours.
- After 5 hours, take your chicken out of the slow cooker or instant pot and onto a cutting board, and shred the meat off of the bones.
- Once all of the meat is removed from the bones, place the bones back into the stock and add an additional 2 cups of water.
- Steep for an additional 19 hours on low heat. The longer you steep the bone broth, the more collagen and gelatin are extracted from the bones, and the stronger your bone broth will be.
- Once the bone broth is done steeping, take your strainer and place it over a bowl. Drain your broth through your strainer into a bowl, catching all of the veggies and bones.
- For a more pure strain, you can use a cheesecloth and strain the bone broth one more time, making sure that no big clumps are left in your bone broth. I like to do this, especially if you are planning on drinking the broth.
- Pour the strained bone broth into ball jars fitted with a funnel and place in the refrigerator until ready to drink or use.
