This is an easy short cut to make home made chicken broth, that actually does not require the usual roasting of a chicken. This is achieved by purchasing a tasty organic pre-cooked roast chicken from the supermarket. The roasted chicken bones impart a richer, heartier flavoured broth that is just delicious. The final colour of the bone broth will be dependent on how much/well the chicken was roasted. Darker broths are a result of roasting the chicken for a longer period and vice versa for lighter coloured bone broth.
You can eat the roast chook for dinner and save the bones for later, to use in the broth.
Ingredients.
- 1 whole chicken, (organic, pre-cooked)
- 3 carrots
- 1 onion
- 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
(Quick Method).
- Eat the roast chicken for dinner and save the bones.
- Put the bones in a large pot and cover with water, add a dash of cider vinegar, sit for half an hour.
- Boil for 5 mins.
- Reduce heat and simmer on low for 20 hours……..
- After 20 hours of simmering add some veggies.
- Continue to simmer for 4 hours.
- Take off heat and sieve the bones out keeping the broth.
- Cool, (drink some) and refrigerate.
Method.
First of all, you need to get your hands on an organic, pre-cooked chicken.
These can be conveniently found at the supermarket in the deli section. Roasting hot, tasty goodness. Then you need to pretty much eat most of the meat off the roast chicken.
Once you have dined on the tasty roast chicken and all that is left are the bones, then now is the time to start cooking the broth.
In a large pot, (something big enough to handle a load of chicken bones and some veggies), place the chicken bones into the pot and cover with water. The pot should be big enough to handle the chicken bones and some veggies and still have room at the top so that it doesn’t bubble over.
Then add two table spoons of apple cider vinegar to the pot containing the bones and the water. Apple cider vinegar is a great little heath supplement on it’s own, check this article out for some more info. The cider vinegar breaks down the bones and really allows all the nutrients to be released form the bones and the marrow. Let this sit for about 30 minutes to really work its magic.
Now I bring everything to a vigorous boil, I do this by placing the pot on a stove top to speed up this process. At the moment I use a gas oven/stove top, which is super fast to heat anything. Boil for aboutn 5 mins. I add this step to kind of steralize the mixture, beforew the long simmering takes place.
Once the broth mixture has boiled nicely , then set up for an extended (24+hrs) simmering session. As I am just using a pot and not a slow cooker, I usually use an electric hot plate. This enables me to place it anywhere in the kitchen and not take up stove top space. You can use a slow cooker but be sure to check if it contains lead, which can leach out into the broth when heated. Check out this article on lead free slow cookers for more info.
Once yo have the pot of broth set up in a nice safe place. you can simmer it on a low heat for approx 24 hours. I usually have the heat set so that only the smallest of bubbles rise slowly to the top, to indicate that the broth is actually cooking. You will most likely have to play around with the heat level to get it just right. Just make sure that the home made chicken broth does not boil over.
In the first hour, you can scoop off the froth that rises to the top, but I just usually leave this. Now you can set and forget for about 22 hours or so. ………..
Periodically check the broth, just to make sure everything is going well and not boiling over.
At about the 20 hour mark, you can add your veggies, (if you want to). The reason for adding the veggies last is to make sure that all their goodness and nutrients are not lost through over heating . you can add the veggies at the very start of the cooking process but just remember that vitamin c denatures at about 70 degrees Celsius, so you really want to make sure that yo keep the temperature of the cooking broth below that. Otherwise you will loose a lot of that good vit C. You can really add any type of vegetable to the broth. usually just add an onion for a bit of flavour and what ever else is in the bottom of my fridge that hasn’t been eaten yet. In this case it was carrots.
When you add the veggies you really don’t have to chop anything up, in fact you don’t have to even peel anything, as everything will be sieved and strained at the end. However I had just bought a new knife and I got a bit excited and chopped up everything. It makes no difference though. Either chopped or not chopped, the choice is yours.
Let the broth continue to simmer for about 4 hours more. Just enough time to cook the veggies. Making sure that the temperature is on low so that you retain all the goodness out of your veggies.
After you have gently simmered your broth with the veggies, its time to finally turn off the heat and sieve and strain the broth. 24 hours is usually enough time to fully unleash the nutrients that are locked in the bones and marrow of the chicken. In fact the bones should even be a bit soft and rubbery. An indication that the cider vinegar and low steady heat have extracted most of the bones goodness.
Take the pot off the heat and over a sink, strain the broth through a sieve lined with muslin cloth into another pot. The muslin cloth catches even the smallest pieces that might otherwise slip through just a sieve. I my case I skipped the muslin cloth and just sieved the broth with a metal sieve. Just watch out as the mix is hot.
Once the broth is sieved out, you can throw away the cooked bones and then let the broth cool down on the bench for awhile. After it has cooled for half an hour or so, you will see that the fat has risen to the top. Depending on your taste, you can either leave this or skim it off with a spoon. I believe this fat is loaded with beneficial nutrients so I leave it. But it sup to you.
Once the chicken bone broth has cooled sufficiently you can transfer into a (preferably glass) container and store it in the fridge. The bone broth will be good to eat out of the fridge for about 6 to 7 days. If you want to freeze the broth for later, you can wait until it is really cold, and put into a suitable plastic container and freeze.
Usually the broth doesn’t make it to the fridge before I have had tasty sample while its still warm. Half a cup of chicken broth goodness and a pinch of salt…..just delicious.
So there it is, a simple way to make home made chicken broth that is rich and tasty. It’s super high in nutrients and doesn’t require yo to pre-roast the chicken. Simple broth goodness.
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