Do you make your own homemade chicken broth?
Making your own homemade chicken broth is very inexpensive and has more health benefits than buying chicken broth at the store. Plus you get so much more flavor when you can add your own herbs and spices.
Obviously, the better quality your ingredients -the better quality your broth will be. A pasture raised chicken and organically grown veggies and herbs will have higher nutrient levels as well as fewer toxins from pesticides or herbicides.
I do a method where I make broth in my 5QT crockpot and make an endless-cup-of-chicken-broth. Basically, at the end of 3 days, after I've expended all of the food items in the crockpot, I am left with 20 to 25 cups of chicken broth. All from one chicken carcass and whatever vegetable matter I put in there.
Obviously, the better quality your ingredients -the better quality your broth will be. A pasture raised chicken and organically grown veggies and herbs will have higher nutrient levels as well as fewer toxins from pesticides or herbicides.
I do a method where I make broth in my 5QT crockpot and make an endless-cup-of-chicken-broth. Basically, at the end of 3 days, after I've expended all of the food items in the crockpot, I am left with 20 to 25 cups of chicken broth. All from one chicken carcass and whatever vegetable matter I put in there.
Here are the steps I follow:Prep:
I start with a whole chicken and roast it because roasted bones will have a better flavor once the chicken has finished cooking.
I let it cool for a short period of time, until I can touch it. Then I pick all of the chicken meat off of the bones.
Roasting and removing meat will be the bulk of your time.
The rest of this prep will be about 5-20 minutes depending of if you are rough chopping veggies or already have pieces ready to add.
I put everything except for the meat into the crockpot- including juice and anything else that was in the broiler pan with the chicken in the oven.
I add a chicken liver. Some whole chickens will come with the giblets inside, you can also get a container of just chicken livers at many co-ops.
I usually keep on a lot of my cut off vegetable ends for making broth. If I am chopping up a head of broccoli, I will throw the broccoli stems in a bag in the freezer. I will keep the green tops to leeks if I'm not using them in a recipe. Pretty much any vegetable item that will have nutrients in it, I will save for broth and can be added into the crock pot. An onion and 4-5 garlic cloves give it good flavor.
Then I will add some spices. Usually I don't really measure it... but I throw in approximately
• 1- 2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves,
• 1 teaspoon or so of dried thyme,
• 1 Bay leaf
• 3-4 sprigs fresh parsley or 1 teaspoon of dried
• a handful of fresh basil leaves or 1 tablespoon of dried basil leaves
• 1- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (I use the ‘real salt’ or the pink Himalayan salt so it still has all the minerals in it and it's less salty in flavor.)
• 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper.
Once I have all of that in the crockpot I will add
about 1-2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar. Which helps pull minerals like calcium and magnesium out of the bones of the chicken and into your broth.
Then I fill the rest of the crockpot up to its limit, usually within an inch of the top, with filtered water and set it on low.
Process:
Every 12 hours I will strain out -with a mesh strainer- about 4 cups of broth and put it in a stainless steel or glass bowl in the refrigerator. All food items in the strainer get added back into the crockpot. Then I add back enough filtered water to fill up the crock pot again- to that 1" below the top level- and let it cook for another 12 hours. This straining step takes about 10-15 mins each time.
At the end of about 3 days -so roughly 72 hours- the foodstuff has been exhausted, so I strain the rest of everything that's in the crockpot and discard all the remaining vegetable and meat matter in the garbage.
Once all of the broth has cooled in the refrigerator I will divide it up between freezer containers. I usually freeze it in multiple sizes so I will vary between 4 cups, 2 cup, 1 cup containers. I label each container with the date that I made it because it's good for a year in the freezer. This step is usually 20-30 minutes.
Any time I want to make homemade soup I have broth right there ready to go.
Every 12 hours I will strain out -with a mesh strainer- about 4 cups of broth and put it in a stainless steel or glass bowl in the refrigerator. All food items in the strainer get added back into the crockpot. Then I add back enough filtered water to fill up the crock pot again- to that 1" below the top level- and let it cook for another 12 hours. This straining step takes about 10-15 mins each time.
At the end of about 3 days -so roughly 72 hours- the foodstuff has been exhausted, so I strain the rest of everything that's in the crockpot and discard all the remaining vegetable and meat matter in the garbage.
Once all of the broth has cooled in the refrigerator I will divide it up between freezer containers. I usually freeze it in multiple sizes so I will vary between 4 cups, 2 cup, 1 cup containers. I label each container with the date that I made it because it's good for a year in the freezer. This step is usually 20-30 minutes.
Any time I want to make homemade soup I have broth right there ready to go.
A ½ to 1 cup can be substituted for some of the water when cooking rice to boost your rice flavor too.
You can also follow this process with turkey bones after Thanksgiving.
What vegetables will/ do you add to your broth? Share in the comments with us.
If you liked this post and made your broth (wink wink) you might like this post to make “Tomato bisque made with fresh tomatoes”.
You can also follow this process with turkey bones after Thanksgiving.
What vegetables will/ do you add to your broth? Share in the comments with us.
If you liked this post and made your broth (wink wink) you might like this post to make “Tomato bisque made with fresh tomatoes”.
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