RECIPE

Nourishing Herby Bone Broth

Is there a more heartwarming dish than homemade broth? Yes—homemade bone broth! A bone broth is any broth or soup stock made with leftover bones. By simmering these bones for a few hours along with your favorite veggies, herbs, and spices, you allow the liquid to draw out all the restorative minerals, collagen, and gelatin bound up inside.

    Herby Chicken Bone Broth Recipe

    We love a recipe that is both flexible and makes use of ingredients you would otherwise throw out. Just be sure to only use bones from pasture-raised, free-range animals that are pesticide and hormone-free. If opting for beef bones, be prepared for an oiler broth and make sure you only use bones from grass-fed beef.

    For the veggie scraps, make sure they are organic since we will be using some of the peels. Don’t be afraid to get creative with the herbs and spices you add! For example, adding Nettle and Violet to our broth brings complimentary flavors to the forefront of this broth, and they are very mineral-rich.

    Ingredients

    • bones from 1 whole free-range chicken, including prepared feet if possible! (~3 lbs bones)
    • 4 quarts filtered water (or just enough to cover the bones)
    • 2-4 cups-worth of organic cabbage cores, carrot butts, onion skins, garlic cloves, celery sticks, and/or parsley stems
    • 7 sprigs each of fresh Thyme, Rosemary, and Oregano 
    • 1 handful fresh Stinging Nettle 
    • 1 handful fresh Violet leaves
    • 3 hefty pinches salt
    • 2 pinches freshly ground Black Pepper
    • 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (essential for pulling out the minerals!)

    Instructions

    1. Add all the ingredients to a Dutch oven or high quality, enamel-coated steel or cast-iron pot*.
    2. Heat over medium heat until the liquid just begins to boil or "roll". Immediately turn the heat back down to low, partially cover with a lid leaving about 1-2 inch open to breathe, and simmer for 3-4 hours.
    3. Let cool and strain out the liquid using a colander. Discard the solid contents in your compost.
    4. Allow to cool fully before pouring your finished broth into freezer-safe, wide mouth quart-size mason jars before storing in the fridge or freezer.
    5. Fill the jars only three quarters of the way full if freezing (otherwise you may break the glass) or store in the fridge and use within 1-2 weeks.

     

    Pro Tip:

    When chilled, the finished product should have the consistency of Jello—this is a sign you extracted the collagen!

    *If using stainless steel, you may get a metallic taste to your broth. 

     

    Extra Tid-Bit!

    It's estimated that consuming broth dates to the Stone Age. Our ancestors made "stone soups" using hot stones to heat mixtures of meat, bones, herbs, and wild grains in the abdominal pouches of butchered animals and the shells of turtles and crustaceans as bowls. Later, it was commonplace for a household to continuously have a simmering cauldron over the fire for regularly adding meat scraps, bones, greens, and grains to. These slow cooked soups provided a quick, thrifty, and nourishing meal that has sustained generations. We owe a lot to soup!