Homemade broths and stocks provide some wonderful health benefits. When it is made properly it can heal your gut and strengthen your bones. They provide many health benefits that commercially made stocks don't and cost much less. The fall and winter are great times of year to make soups and stews. Stock adds great flavor to all soups and buying pre-made stock is expensive. A quart size container of organic chicken broth averages around $3.00. In a 5-quart crock pot it would cost $15.00 for commercially made (unhealthy) stock. I made a chicken stock in my 5-quart crock pot using a half organic chicken which cost $5.99. In this example it cost less than half the amount of money it would have cost to purchase commercially made stock. As you can see it is well worth the savings.
Consuming bone broth regularly may also have an added benefit by reducing or eliminating the need for some supplements. The broth contains lots of minerals plus glucosamine, chondroitin and gelatin. If you are currently taking these nutrients in pill form you may be able to reduce or eliminate the need for those supplements.
How to Make Bone Broth
Ingredients:
- Chicken, beef, fish, or any other kind of meat – including bones, meat, joints, giblets.
- apple cider vinegar
- filtered water (read about my favorite water filter here)
- salt and pepper to taste
- a strip of kombu seaweed (optional for added trace minerals)
- vegetables (optional for flavor and added nutrients)
- herbs (optional for flavor and added nutrients)
- garlic cloves (optional for flavor and added nutrients)
Directions: Place the meat into a large crock pot or stock pot. Add 1-2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to the pot. Fill the pot the rest of the way with filtered water. Optional: add any vegetables, fresh or dried herbs, cloves of garlic (you can get creative here!) to flavor the stock. If using a crock pot, turn to low and let cook for 24 hours. If using a stock pot, bring water to boil and then reduce heat and allow simmering for a minimum of 8-24 hours. The longer you let it cook, the more health benefits you will receive in your stock. That's it! This will last a few days in the fridge and 6-12 months in the freezer.
To make life easy, freeze containers of stock in small portions ready for use in recipes. It is great to have a lot of stock on hand in the freezer for when you need it to make soups, beans, rice, sauces, gravies and anything else you can create.
Yep! 🙂
All the time!
It’s so easy to do and is much healthier, so worth the effort!
I have made my own bone broths for years. I pressure can them. No room in freezer. Nutritious!
I need to learn how to pressure can things, my freezer is full too!
Grrrr! That makes me so mad! All that beautiful broth and hard work wasted. I feel your pain!
That always sucks. I have the best luck freezing soups & such in wide mouth jars rather than regular jars. As its freezing it swells & puts to much pressure on the shoulders of the jar causing it to break.
Or…glass has a shelf life. It may have been their time was up?
Good to know!! On my 2nd batch of bone broth…..but wont make xtra till these are used up:)
Kristina Koerner-Jessop yeah I was pretty upset about it…oh well live and learn.
So can you use bone broth in place of chicken broth/ vegetable broth etc. in recipes?
Yes absolutely!
What do you do with the meat/bones when done? Can I use some drumsticks that are already cooked? Thanks for any info you can provide. Jen
The meat can be used in recipes like soups or tacos / burritos, chicken salad – anything that has a broth or a sauce works. The bones should be discarded after you are done making the broth.
Thanks for responding…Going to make some now!
would it be best to wrap the ingredients in some sort of cheese cloth so they are easy to remove from the broth?
Roxanne! I am so glad I found this from your website! I was looking for a bone broth soup recipe. I cant wait to make this! 🙂
awesome! It’s so simple yet so beneficial!
Do you use raw chicken or cooked chicken as an ingredient to make the broth?
you can use either one, I use chicken carcass after we have eaten the meat off of it or chicken parts that are raw.