Bone broth is everywhere these days, and people are paying $10 -15 a litre for it. But you can easily make it from bones you were going to discard!
Every time we cook chicken, we save the bones to make chicken stock. Whether it is the carcass of a chicken you have carved, or the bones left on the plate, you are going to boil them for hours, so we aren’t concerned about germs. If the chicken had a tasty marinade, so much the better: traces of that flavour remain and add a pleasant nuance to your broth.
We like to eat high quality organic meat, and we like to get everything we can from it. It is a better use of world resources, and we believe that all parts of an animal should be used. Also, organic meats are more costly than factory farmed meats, so we want to get the most for our money!
You can also purchase bones for making soup from some butchers. Chicken necks, wing tips or carcasses that have had the breasts and legs removed, all work well.
Making the stock is easy. It does take some time, so it is good to make on a day when you are at home, but it won’t take much attention! If you don’t have time right now, just pop the bones in the freezer to boil up when you can. If you only have small amounts of bone from a meal, collect a few batches in the freezer and boil them up together. As little as 6 chicken thigh bones can make stock for a couple of bowls of soup for one person, or add some flavour and goodness to a family meal. If you want enough for a soup for a family you’ll need more, of course.
Boiling the bones until the cartilage has dissolved into the stock provides a source of collagen to gently support your skin and joints, but it does take time. You might need to leave the stock overnight and boil it up for a few hours the next day. When your broth turns to jelly in the fridge, you’ll know it’s got lots of collagen in it!
If you don’t have much freezer space you can boil the stock down until it is very condensed, and add water when you warm it up later. That will make a much darker stock than the picture above.
HERE’S HOW:
All you have to do is put the bones into water, bring to the boil and simmer for at least 4 hours, but you can simmer it for 20 hours or more to make a more condensed stock.
You can always add an onion, garlic or ginger when you make the broth, if you like those flavours. If adding salt, do it to taste when the broth is finished.
Simmering with the lid on helps get more of the goodness out of the bones. Take the lid off when you want to boil off some of the water to reduce the volume. That’s the stage of cooking when you might want to put on a timer. You don’t want to boil it down to nothing and burn it after all that! Then just sieve it to remove the bones so you can freeze the liquid.
The fat comes to the surface. Freezing it with a layer of fat in place protects the stock from freezer burn. The flavour of the fat can suffer if it is frozen for a few months, but it scrapes off easily when the stock is frozen, so remove the fat layer when you get the stock out of the freezer.
Here is a rough guide of to how much water to use:
2 - 3 litres for 6 thigh bones
4 - 5 litres for 1 - 3 chicken carcasses, or a 3 lb bag of chicken necks or other chicken bones
Once you have some containers of this in your freezer you can use it:
As a soup base: put in any chopped vegetables you have in the fridge, raw or cooked and add any herbs you have around. Left as it is, it makes a chunky soup in a broth base. You can also make it into a smooth soup with a blender, or blend half the soup to make a chunky soup with a smooth background texture.
To add a bit more body to the soup use potatoes, sweet potatoes or parsnips you may have cooked in the fridge, or chop some raw root veggies into small pieces to cook fast in the stock. You can also add cooked squash, rice, quinoa or other grains. In a pinch, just crumble a few rice cakes into it: rice cakes will dissolve, giving a thicker consistency.
Use it in place of water when you are cooking grains, to add nourishment and flavour.
Use as healthier alternative to chicken stock cubes or tetrapacks.
It is always good to have some of this in the freezer in case you get sick. Heating it up and sipping it brings warmth and easily digested nourishment.
For those who tolerate dairy, here’s a surprising broth: Parmesan cheese rind stock. Boil the rind in water for 2 hours then discard it. This makes a milky-looking tasty broth that’s a good base for a minestrone soup. And it uses the rind that you would otherwise have thrown away!
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