Chicken Bone Broth
I love a good bone broth, but I tend to get a bit addicted and go overboard drinking it over winter, to the point where I can’t stand the sight of another cup until the next winter. But maybe I will try and tone it down a bit this year and do a cup a day instead of one with every meal.
Beef broth is not my jam, I know all the hype is around the beef broth and the goodness that is in the marrow, but I am a chicken broth girl, the taste is much more to my liking, plus I can’t stand the smell of beef broth so the next best thing is good enough for me. But If you are on the Fad train and would prefer to do the beef broth, all you need to do is substitute the chicken bones for beef bones, as the recipe and method are still the same.
I like a really well-developed flavour, and I want as much goodness to be leached from the bones as possible so I cook my broth for at least 16 hours; this gives you a fabulously gelatinous, really rich flavoured broth. For me, the easiest way to do this is overnight, so I start in the afternoon at about 4 pm and turn the pot off after I get up, have brekky then strain it off.
EQUIPMENT
There are a couple of essential kitchen items you will need for this recipe.
- A large pot, for this recipe I am using a 20L
- A sieve
- A ladle.
- Freezer bags or containers
What You’ll Need
6kg Chicken Bone Carcasses
3 brown onions
1 leek
3 carrots
1/2 garlic bulb (or a handful of old garlic cloves)
The head of a celery
Herb Scraps such as parsley, oregano, rosemary or thyme
Prep
Preheat oven to 1eighty
Spread the chicken bones out evenly between two oven trays, then place in the oven to brown. Approx 30 minutes, (keep in mind, the browner the bones, the more fuller the final flavours will be).
Roughly chop all your veg, leaving the skins on (the skins are packed with goodness, and they also provide more flavour).
Put your cooked chicken bones in the pot along with your chopped veg and cover completely with water so that nothing is sticking out above the water line.
Bring up to the boil.
Once your pot has boiled, take your ladle and skim off the foam that has formed on top, and discard this froth. This is the only time that I skim as I like the fat, but if you want a clear broth then skim the fat/oil off the top every few hours.
Turn your pot down to a gentle simmer and simmer for 12-16 hours. (a gentle simmer is when you just have a few bubbles breaking the surface every couple of seconds)
After about 16 hours your pot should have reduced by about 1/6.
Turn the pot off and leave to cool slightly so that it isn’t boiling hot, then use a large bowl with a colander inside to strain off the stock (I like to sit my bowl with the colander in the sink because I’m short so it gives me a bit more control of the liquid going in).
Then I strain again but through a sieve, this way it catches all the small sediment.
To store I use a multitude of different vessels, we have glass bottles for the fridge, but I also have a domestic vacuum packer, so I package half of the mix down into freezer portions to pull out when the fridge supply runs dry.
Then drink a cup of hot broth a day……delicious!!!!!
Oh yeah I like to add salt, but that is of course optional.
Enjoy!