Savory Chicken Bone Broth

A simple ancient recipe used in our a modern world that in recent years soared to high heights in popularity. Well, it’s true that grandmother knows best when she offers you a piping hot bowl of her magic stovetop elixir commonly called broth. Modern science validates the benefits of grandma’s broth. We now know it soothes the ailing body and subdues illness. Most likely grandma’s recipe follows the wise culinary tradition of making it from scratch.

Flashbacks of my great-grandmother hoisting the leftover chicken carcass from Sunday’s family dinner into her massive stockpot floods my memory. Throughout my childhood, I watched our kitchen matriarch prep celery, onions, and carrots for her stock with the precision of a surgeon.

Leaving her side long enough to watch a rerun of the Andy Griffith show, I would return in time to inhale the savory fragrance. She ladled the translucent liquid into mason jars then lined them like soldiers in her harvest gold Maytag.

Bone Broth: a nourishing gourmet’s answer to a quick meal

I can’t afford to shell out $9.00 for a high-quality chicken bone broth so I make my own. Over a decade ago, still a fledgling real foodie, I discovered a recipe for bone broth. As a former vegetarian, at first glance, the chicken bone broth ingredients paralyzed my culinary enthusiasm. I stared at the word “carcass” for the longest time trying to muster the courage to embrace the recipe.

Once I tied my apron on and breathed in some cooking moxie, I quickly added the recipe to one of my list of favorites.

Bone broth is the nourishing gourmet’s version of fast food. You can make a batch to freeze. Defrost on those busy days when you haven’t thought about “what’s for dinner” since your morning coffee time. It beats the frantic 5 o’clock sprint into your supermarket to scour the frozen food section for a healthy last-minute meal.

Bone Broth: a nourishing gourmet’s elixer to subdue illness

Bone broth offers anti-inflammatory properties which aid in controlling chronic illnesses like Lyme Disease. Sally Fallon-Morrel, founder/president of the Weston A Price Foundation and cookbook author explains that bone broth contains:

Bone broth contains minerals in a form the body can absorb easily—not just calcium but also magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals. It contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons–stuff like chondroitin sulphates and glucosamine, now sold as expensive supplements for arthritis and joint pain.

As grandmom used to say, a batch of housemade bone broth “can help what ails ya.”

Chicken Bone Broth Recipe (makes up to 4 quarts or double the recipe for a large batch)

Chicken Bone Broth Cooking 101

Ingredients

1 carcass of a roasted free-range chicken, preferably a chicken fed a non-GMO diet and here’s why!

3 yellow onions, peeled and quartered

3 large organic carrots, unpeeled

4 stalks of celery with leaves, cut into thirds

2-3 whole garlic cloves, smashed

2 tsp seas salt (you will add more salt when you add to recipes or reheat)

1 tsp freshly ground pepper

3 sprigs of fresh thyme

3 sprigs of fresh flat-leaf parsley

1⁄4 cup of white wine or apple cider vinegar (which helps to extract vital nutrients like calcium from the bones)

2-3 whole peppercorns

Instructions

Place the chicken, onions, carrots, celery, thyme, parsley, garlic, salt, and pepper in a stockpot. Add 4- 6 quarts of pure cold water (if your tap water is highly chlorinated use filtered water). Cold water mixed with a slow heat enhances the flavors. Make sure the vegetables are immersed in water. Stir. Add the wine or vinegar. Stir again. Cook on low for 12-14 hours. If you need to add additional water, do so.

Occasionally, skim off the accumulated foam from the surface, if you don’t it will emit a strange flavor throughout the broth. Dispose of the foam.

Allow to cool. Once the broth is cool, strain the broth by pouring it through a fine strainer or colander. Pour strained broth into mason jars with lids up to one week freeze in freezer containers if you plan to freeze your broth. Discard the solids. Expect gelatin to form on the surface of your broth.