Homemade Chicken Broth
ByLast weekend I had a big party with some chickens in my kitchen. Three extra large chickens to be exact, purchased from a farm nearby that allows their chickens to do the chicken dance all over their yard while feasting on bugs all day long. (If you happen to be a local reader, I get my chickens from Northstar Neighbors…they deliver right to my door – love them!)
I decided that since I was going to cook one chicken, I might as well cook three. One mess, one day…all done. You can, of course make this broth using only one chicken…but the pictures below are going to be of the big chicken party.
First, thaw your chicken. Or not. I got my chickens out of the freezer and put them in the fridge overnight, but they were still pretty frozen the next morning when I was ready to start my broth. No matter. Frozen chickens thaw quickly in boiling water (imagine that).
Check it out, it’s a tower of chickens.
Put your chicken into a large pot. I used my huge stock pot since I was going to be boiling three large birds. Fill the pot three quarters full of water.
Add veggies to the pot…as many as you want and any variety you want. My favorites are: carrots, onions, leaks and celery. I pretty much throw in whichever veggies I have at the time. There is no rhyme or reason to my chicken broth making madness…you really can’t hurt your broth by putting in too many veggies. You can overflow your pot, but I’ll just assume you’ll use common sense on that one.
Shake a nice amount of sea salt into the pot.
Bring your pot of chicken, veggies, water and salt to a boil. Turn the burner down and simmer (with the lid on) for several hours. By several…I mean check it every so often in between clipping your child’s fingernails, matching up a basket of socks and chasing your naked toddler down the street to bring him back into the house for his bath. When the chicken starts to spread apart and the meat is falling off the bone…ding! He’s done.
Carefully lift the chicken(s) out of the pot and onto another dish. Allow it to cool for a little while (but not too long because de-boning a cold chicken is a lot harder than de-boning a warm one). Take all the meat off the bone once the chicken is cool enough for you to touch it without screaming.
This is the part I usually like to hand over to Matt. I’m not a big fan of de-boning a chicken, even though it isn’t hard. Matt doesn’t mind doing it because he usually sneaks bites of cooked chicken while he works. And I let him because he’s de-boning the chicken so I don’t have to.
Throw all the bones and skin back into the pot of broth, add a few cups of water (sorry I don’t measure…I just add “several cups” as the water has cooked down quite a bit).
See, about this much water…
Cover the pot and simmer for a couple more hours to really “suck the good stuff out of the bones and into the broth”.
In the meantime, you can put all your cooked chicken into containers for future meals. I happened to get TEN meals worth of meat from my three extra large chickens because I like to make my chickens stretch as much as I can. These jars went into the freezer (after they cooled completely). Yes, I put lids on them first.
After the bones and skin have cooked for a couple of hours, strain the carcass out of the broth with a colander. Lookie, a big colander of chicken carcass. I don’t really like the word carcass. And yet, I keep saying carcass. Someone stop me. (What is the plural form of carcass? Carcasses? Carci? Seriously, someone stop me.)
Mmm, look at that good, rich broth. I usually run it through my blender (if I feel like it that day) to smooth out all the veggies. They’re usually pretty mushy by then anyway. Otherwise, they are fine to just swim around in the broth.
Now, I actually have a hard time letting go of my chicken bones and skin (otherwise known as the carcass), so if I have an ounce of energy left at the end of my full day of chicken cooking and deboning and broth making, I will then put the contents of my colander into my crock pot, fill it with water and leave it on low all night to make yet another round of broth. It isn’t as rich, but it still makes a good broth.
Broth freezes very well, you’ll just want to make sure it has completely cooled before you put it into the freezer. I freeze mine in jars and in freezer bags. If you freeze it in jars, be sure to leave several inches open at the top to allow for the broth to expand. Otherwise your jar will bust and it will be sad.
And there you have it. If this isn’t a great way to stretch chickens, I don’t know what is. From three big chickens I got four meals of broth and ten meals of cooked chicken. LOVE. IT.
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I just love everything I’m learning from your site!! Now, I have a silly question..can you make turkey broth the same way as your chicken broth?
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Laura Reply:
November 11th, 2011 at 6:34 pm
Yes, sort of. Here is how I cook a turkey: http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/holiday-help-the-easiest-way-in-my-opinion-to-cook-a-turkey. This produces wonderful broth. Then, after deboning the turkey, put the bones in the crock-pot and make more broth as directed in this post!
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I let mt husband (also a Matt) de-bone our chicken, too. Chicken bones give me the creeps so I’m glad he doesn’t mind. Thanks for the how to :)
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I’m not sure where I picked this idea up, but I started a bag of chicken scraps for my freezer. We eat a lot of chicken. Whenever I clean the breasts I throw the scraps in my freezer bag. Whenever we have a roasted chicken I also throw the scraps in the bag. When the bag is full I throw it all in a pot with lots of h2o & veggies for some homeade broth. Nothing wasted!
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FYI: If you have a pressure canner, you can can your own broth and have it sitting on your shelf ready to go anytime! It’s a WONDERFUL thing to have on hand.
Freezing it allows the retention of more nutrition, but there are definitely some benefits to the convenience of having it on hand.
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Crystal Reply:
November 13th, 2011 at 11:22 pm
I want a pressure canner for this very reason. :) And to be able to can the meat itslef.
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Thanks so much for this post! I had 2 birds and now have 6 meals and several jars of broth! I love your site!
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I’m just making this for the second time. Wow, do I love this or what! Although I am quite disgusted by the bird… ;)
the last time I made it took forever to take the meat off!! did I overcook it or something? It’s just hard to fish out all the bones…
also. can you keep/eat the meat that looks a little darker/brown? All the chicken in your jars look so perfectly white…
When I pureed the broth, it turned orange! The whole thing! Like orange paint! I have a vitamix, so could it be that the carrots just over took the color? Should I just mash it up this time?
Thanks, Laura, for all your amazing recipes. Thanks to you my husband is finally really liking me cook healthy food and we have soo much food in the freezer!
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
December 19th, 2011 at 2:07 pm
You should be able to use all the meat. Laura’s also turns orange from
the carrots. :)
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Just an additional tip, you can throw a splash of raw apple cider vinegar in the slow cooker broth to leach out more good stuff from the bones…then you have a very nutritious calcium rich bone broth!
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Never EVER thought of boiling the bones a second time! In the process of doing this right now, thank you Laura!!
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Thank you Thank you!!!! I’ve recently become a stay at home Mother again and I vowed to become more cost conscious!!! Your website has helped me tons!!! This recipe is not only delish but totally worth the time and little effort.
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I just boiled 6 boneless chicken breasts in water with salt, pepper, and butter. There is a lot of liquid and I usually have thrown it down the sink, however, I am learning. What do I do from this point to come up with a good broth to freeze?
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
April 10th, 2012 at 9:55 am
Usually if you have scraps that have fat on them with some of the chicken or bones left you can put them in the liquid to boil until it reduces down. You can add any seasonings you want. You also could try sticking some celery and carrots in there to get the flavor and just strain them out when you are done!
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Can u cook the chicken and make the broth in the crockpot? And about how many hours would it take a 5 lbs chicken to cook?
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Laura Reply:
June 14th, 2012 at 3:14 pm
Yes, that would work fine. It would probably take 8 hours on low – just a guess.
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Just now started boiling the chicken. Can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed your page so far.! Haven’t had much time to really get in to your site yet. It’s late so I’ll just cook it, de-bone it and do some chicken and dumplings tomorrow. Just wanted to say thanks.
Cheri
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Laura Reply:
August 20th, 2012 at 6:52 pm
:)
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Laura, how would you go about making some beef broth? Would you just use bones from a steak or roast?
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
August 28th, 2012 at 9:56 am
That should work out fine! Give it a try! :)
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Rach Stewart Reply:
October 24th, 2012 at 1:52 pm
I’ve been given some beef soup bones. Can I do anything with them other than make broth?
For beef broth, do you use the same veggies, etc. as for chicken broth?
Thanks!
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Since you are cooking with the skin, do you strin out the fat?
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Laura Reply:
September 10th, 2012 at 5:13 am
No, I leave it in since it adds extra nutrition. :)
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Do you put the giblets in?
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LindseyforLaura@HHM Reply:
October 18th, 2012 at 9:59 am
Yes!
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