If you’re hoping to make your own chicken broth, you’re in luck! It’s one of the easiest ways to stretch your budget and consume every bit of the animal! Homemade chicken broth allows you to customize the flavor, and know exactly what’s in your broth. Now, let’s make some chicken broth!
How to Make Your Own Chicken Broth – Easy Homemade Chicken Broth
One of a home chef’s most important pantry staples is stock and broth. A good broth can go a long way in the kitchen, providing so much flavor to recipes! Did you know that making your own homemade chicken broth is beyond easy!?
All you need to make chicken broth from scratch is a chicken carcass or parts of one, vegetable scraps (carrots, celery, onions, and garlic), herbs, peppercorn, water, and time.
Make Your Own Homemade Chicken Broth
Making your own chicken broth from scratch is incredibly easy to do! Nearly every week I find myself roasting a chicken or picking up a rotisserie chicken. Doing so feeds Greg and I for a few nights and leaves enough left-overs for lunch for me.
I typically use the breasts the first night served with rice and vegetables. The following night, I shred half of the remaining chicken for a casserole, and the night after make a soup from all of the left-over meat.
To take things further and use the entire bird, you can easily make your own chicken broth or bone broth!
Not only does this stretch your budget, but it helps you control exactly what ingredients are in your meals! This is especially helpful if you’re raising your own chicks for meat birds.
What is the difference between chicken broth and chicken bone broth?
Chicken broth, chicken stock, and bone broth are all very similar. However, bone broth contains more collagen. The collagen will cause the broth to gelatinize once refrigerated. The collagen in bone broth contains antioxidants which are the foundation of proteins. Not only is bone broth nutritious, it also has gut health benefits and can reduce inflammation.
Chicken broth can be turned to bone broth simply by adding more simmering time and a little acid to the broth at the beginning of the recipe. The acid – a little lemon juice or vinegar – will help pull the collagen from the bones. Simmer the broth for 24 hours for maximum flavor and benefit!
How long does homemade chicken broth last in the refrigerator?
Chicken broth will last for about 5 days in the fridge.
How long does homemade chicken broth last in the freezer?
Chicken broth will last a long time in the freezer, but it will have the best flavor if used within about 2 months.
How to freeze chicken broth? Tips for freezing chicken stock:
- Select a container to freeze the stock in. You can use ziplock bags, glass mason jars, muffin tins, ice cube molds, silicone bags, or plastic containers. Tip: if using a glass mason jar, be sure to select a wide mouth jar.
- Allow the broth to cool slightly before handling. Ladle the broth into your container. Tip: If using a glass mason jar: use high quality mason jars. Leave a generous 1” head space. Allow the broth to cool overnight in the fridge with the lid on loosely. When placed in the freezer, tighten the lid and lay on its side. Thaw in the fridge or under cool water in a large bowl.
- Place the container into the freezer. Label with the date and consume within 2 months for best flavor.
How to thaw chicken broth?
If you are using anything but glass, thawing is very simple. You can microwave, heat over the stove, or place out on the counter to thaw. If you are making soup, you can simply drop in a few frozen “broth cubes” or “broth muffins” and let it thaw in the soup.
However, if you are storing in mason jars, you’ll want to take a few precautions to prevent cracking or worse, shattering! Glass mason jars can shatter when rapidly cooled or heated, so it’s important to freeze or thaw gradually.
Follow the steps above for proper freezing. To thaw, either place the mason jar in the fridge the night before needed. Or, if you’re short on time, you can thaw quickly by placing the jar into a large bowl filled with cool water. Place the bowl in the sink and run a slow flow of water over the jar to circulate the water. This will thaw the broth very quickly!
Tools you’ll need to make your own homemade chicken broth:
To make broth you will need a large stock pot. One of my favorites are the le creuset pots. These all-purpose pots are fabulous and so versatile! You can cook, bake, and even run these through the dishwasher. Staub is another great brand of enamel coated cast iron cookware.
To store or freeze the broth, you will need a durable container or mold. Ice cube trays are a great option for small servings of broth. This allows you to use a little broth without having to thaw out an entire jar or bag full!
Many people use ziplock bags which is an easy way to freeze stock; however, holes can easily form! I suggest using a reusable silicone bag if you’d like to go that route.
If you use mason jars, go for a widemouth top. This will help prevent any cracking or shattering.
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The Recipe
Easy Homemade Chicken Broth
Ingredients
- 1 chicken carcass or chicken scraps with bones - this can include all or part of an entire chicken including feet neck, etc…
- 3-4 stalks celery
- 1 onion yellow or white is best, but red works
- 1 head garlic
- fresh herbs
- 3-4 carrots
- whole peppercorns
- lemon or vinegar optional
Instructions
- Begin by removing the meat from the bird. If there is meat left, it will not hurt you, there will just be some meat sediment in the broth. No biggie.
- Prepare the garlic by removing the skin and breaking into individual cloves. Cut the onion into quarters. Cut the carrots and celery into 3-4” pieces.
- Place the bird, bones, scraps into the pot. Add garlic cloves, onion, celery, carrots, peppercorn, and fresh herbs.If desired: squeeze the juice from one lemon or add 1 oz. vinegar into the pot. This will help draw out the collagen from the bones.
- Fill the pot up with water. Leave 1” of room at the top to prevent any spilling. Cover and simmer very low for up to 24 hours. The longer you simmer, the more collagen will come from the bones. Simmering for 6-8 hours will result in chicken broth, and 24 hours will result in bone broth.Note: Bone broth will become gelatinous, whereas broth will be transparent.
- Once the broth is ready. Allow it to cool slightly and carefully remove the carcass and all ingredients that you can with tongs. Then pour the liquid through a strainer set in a large bowl (you could even use cheese cloth), to remove debris and peppercorns. Toss the sediment and debris, then ladle the broth into your selected container (muffin tin, zip lock, mason jar, or other container).
- Refrigerate or freeze if desired. Follow the steps above for tips for freezing. The broth will last 2 months in the freezer or 5 days in the fridge. Enjoy!
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The homemade chicken broth is characterized by a rich taste and pleasant aroma. We just need to choose the best piece of meat for its cooking.
I just wanted to remind everyone that bone broths should be started cold with raw bones. And you are correct to add acid… 2 Tbsp of vinegar or lemon juice or whey in the stock pot to extract all the nutrients from the bones. If you start with cooked bones, the proteins seize up and can’t get through the pores of the bones. I learned this from Sally Fallon author of Nourishing Traditions Cookbook. It contains a lot of the ancient wisdom (like how to soak your grains to get rid of the phytates) and good science that a lot of us have lost from living 3-4 generations away from the farm. I’m so glad you are bringing it back! Didn’t want you to miss out on the maximum nutrition after all that hard work.
Also you had a typo in your text: “collagen in bone broth contains antioxidants which are the foundation of proteins”. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins not antioxidants. Keep up the great recipes!
Trying your recipe today a Chloe, with last night’s carcass. Using celery tops as trying to maximize all veg during this virus period. Thank you for the recipe! Kindly, Cat