Homemade Chicken Broth

Chicken broth is incredibly easy to make. It's almost mindless when you have a slow cooker. The best part about using a whole chicken is that I also use the meat to make other meals like chicken pot pie or enchiladas. Homemade broth is vastly different from the store bought stuff which is little more than chicken flavored salt water. You know it's good for you when you put it in the fridge for a day or two and it gets jiggly like jello. All the gelatin concentrated in the broth is vital for your joint/tendon, skin, and hair health. It also soothes digestion and gets things moving. It also stimulates the immune system, regulates hormones, and is a natural anti-inflammatory. Got some aches and pains? Heat up some of this and drink it instead of your morning coffee and start your day off feeling well. If I have broth on hand, I drink about 4 oz. with each meal to promote digestion.

Here's the recipe (from Nourishing Traditions):

• 1 whole organic pastured chicken or 2-3 pounds chicken bones with or without bits of meat, including feet and organs if you have them (I go to my farmers market and find "broth packs" that include necks and feet which make the broth very gelatinous)
• 4 quarts filtered water
• 2 T vinegar
• 1 large onion, coarsely chopped (I omit if I don't have one)
• 2 carrots coarsely chopped  (I omit if I don't have any)
• 3 celery sticks, coarsely chopped (I omit if I don't have any)

Slow cooker directions:

Place everything in slow cooker and let sit for half an hour.  Cook on high for 6 to 12 hours (Depending on how much time I have or when I need the broth/meat). The longer it cooks, the more nutrient-dense the broth will be. See step 2 and 3 in stovetop directions for final instructions.

After it's done, I fish out the chicken with a slotted spoon, take the meat off and reserve it for other meals. Sometimes I also reserve the veggies for dishes like pot pie.

Stovetop Directions:

1. Put chicken and/or chicken parts in a pot, add the water, vinegar and vegetables. Let sit for a half hour, then bring to a boil and remove the scum/foam that rises to the top with a spoon. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 6 to 12 hours. 
2. Remove chicken with a slotted spoon and reserve meat for other meals.
3. Strain the stock into a large bowl. Pour into mason jars (fill below the part of the jar that starts to get narrow or else it may crack in freezer) or paper cups. Let the glass jars sit until they are pretty cool, then cover and freeze or refrigerate.  

A note on getting your broth to "gel" in your slow cooker:
There were times when my chicken broth wouldn't gel. I assumed it was because it was boiling too hard/long in my slow cooker. But then when it also didn't gel with the stovetop method, I knew something was up. Upon further investigation, I found that it had to do with the age and quality of the chicken or chicken parts. See below.


Tips for choosing the right chicken:

1. Buy a large bird that appears to have been alive for a good, long time. Avoid "young hens" because they won't have as much gelatin and fat needed to gel the broth.
2. Buy "pastured" birds or other equivalent labeling. This means the bird was outside a large portion of its' life and foraged for things like bugs and seeds which is the intended diet for chickens. If you can't find "pastured," look for "free range."Chances are you're going to have to buy from a local farm or go to a farmers market to find what you need.
3. Buy organic. Organic doesn't mean that a chicken spent its' life outdoors, foraging for food. It does mean you know that the chickens' diet was primarily made up of non-GMO soy and cornmeal.
4. If you must buy a plain, ol' chicken, make sure to research the acceptable living conditions. These birds spend most of their lives in a barn with no access to the outdoors, no opportunity to forage for their food and with thousands of unhealthy and/or dead dead chickens packed in around them. Watch the video below for some enlightenment on the issue.

This clip about chickens' living conditions is from the documentary, Food Inc.