How to make bone broth

Bone broth is an incredibly nourishing substance and can be used as a base to enrich your soups with both a lovely punch of micronutrients and flavour, as a super nutritious elixir, or to add in small amounts to all of your meals.

Bone broth is highly concentrated with nutrients such as collagen, gelatin, glycosaminoglycans, glycine, proline and glutamine.  This means that it is beneficial for skin health, metabolic health, cardiovascular health, muscles, bones, joints, gut health, digestion, eye health, brain health, moods, sleep and immune function.  As you can see, bone broth has an incredible wealth of benefits for your body to feast upon!

The use of bone broth also has a rich history within the practices of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).  The ancient physicians found that it was such a potent medicinal that they claimed that it bolsters a person’s basic constitution.  They also found that it helps to strengthen a person’s digestion, brain health, bones, joints and immune function.  It is always fascinating when modern medicine echos the wisdom of ages past!

Here is my simple chicken bone broth recipe boiled down into 4 easy steps:

1. Take 2 chicken carcasses with the chicken stripped off and place in a pot. Sometimes I purchase more chicken bones from the local butcher to make a bigger batch. Cover the bones with cold water and add a generous splash of apple cider vinegar. This helps to extract the nutrients from the bone. Soak for oneish hour.

2. Simmer bones for 12-48 hours in the same water you soaked them in. After the bones have simmered for about 10ish hours, pull the bones out and cut them into small pieces to unleash the marrow. Usually I simmer the bones until the odours released are tantalizingly delicious, and use that as my gauge for when it is complete. Generally, I simmer them for 20-40 hours, although some people simmer them for up to a week, so it is really up to you!

3. Strain all of the excess material out of the broth and transfer the hot broth in the pot directly into the fridge. This helps it form into a jelly. Once it is cold it is easy to scoop the excess fat off of the top.

4. Voila!! You now have a beautiful batch of chicken bone broth to drink as a snack or to cook soups with! Enjoy!

Feel free to substitute turkey bones instead of chicken bones.  The only difference is that you will need to boil it for a little longer in order to soften the bones to crack them open.

Have you made lots of bone broth? Do you make it differently?