Ingredients
- 1 whole free-range chicken or 2 to 3 pounds of bony chicken parts, such as necks, backs, breastbones, and wings Gizzards from one chicken (optional)
- 2-4 chicken feet (optional)
- 4 quarts cold filtered water
- 2 tablespoons Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 3 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
- 1 bunch parsley
- Salt and pepper to taste
Cooking Directions
If you’re starting out with a whole chicken, you’ll, of course, have plenty of meat as well, which can be added back into the broth later with extra herbs and spices to make a chicken soup. I also use it on my salad.
1. Fill up a large stockpot (or large crock pot) with pure, filtered water. (A crock pot is recommended for safety reasons, if you have to leave home while it’s cooking.)
2. Add vinegar and all vegetables except parsley to the water.
3. Place the whole chicken or chicken carcass into the pot.
4. Bring to a boil and remove any scum that rises to the top.
5. Reduce the heat to the lowest setting and let simmer.
6. If cooking a whole chicken, the meat should start separating from the bone after about 2 hours. Simply remove the chicken from the pot and separate the meat from the bones. Place the carcass back into the pot and continue simmering the bones for another 12-24 hours and follow with step 8 and 9.
7. If cooking bones only, simply let them simmer for about 24 hours.
8. Fallon suggests adding the fresh parsley about 10 minutes before finishing the stock, as this will add healthy mineral ions to your broth.
9. Remove remaining bones from the broth with a slotted spoon and strain the rest through a strainer to remove any bone fragments.
Tips
- Simmering bones over low heat for an entire day will create one of the most nutritious and healing foods there is. You can use this broth for soups, stews, or drink it straight. The broth can also be frozen for future use. Keep in mind that the “skin” that forms on the top is the best part. It contains valuable nutrients such as sulfur, along with healthful fats, so just stir it back into the broth.
- Bone broth used to be a dietary staple, as were fermented foods, and the elimination of these foods from our modern diet is largely to blame for our increasingly poor health and the need for dietary supplements.
- Both, broth and fermented foods, are simple and inexpensive to make at home and both also allow you to make use of a wide variety of leftovers. When you add all the benefits together, it’s hard to imagine a food that will give you more bang for your buck.
