How to Make Bone Broth

Creating a made-from-scratch life means that I know exactly what ingredients are in the food that we eat. Now that we know about my crazy food allergies, it looks like making food from scratch will be even more important. Food allergies or not, I love making things that I don’t have to buy when they are this easy to make. I’m going to share with you how to make bone broth simply by tossing a few items into your crockpot and walking away.

I have only recently begun making my own bone broth after reading my friend Stephanie share how easy it is to make on her blog. I have always heard about the amazing health benefits of bone broth, and Lord knows I need all the extra healthy stuff I can get. Bone broth is very rich in collagen and gelatin. It is also full of hydrating minerals like potassium, magnesium and phosphorus. This is why I prefer cooking with bone broth rather than any carton of store bought chicken broth, and knowing exactly what is in it makes all the difference in the world. Chicken broth and bone broth are not the created equal.

Cook The Chicken

I cook with bone broth almost daily! Making bone broth is something that I do at least every other week and sometimes more. I use it to cook beans, potatoes, rice or pasta instead of using water, and it makes a great base for any soup. It really adds so much flavor to your food, and all you need is what you would normally throw away after cooking a chicken. When I start running low on bone broth, I know it’s time to cook another roasted chicken like this one. Or if you happen to boil a chicken for some reason, you can use the chicken bones from that as well. If you cook my roasted chicken recipe, be sure to use the scraps that you stuff into the chicken when making your bone broth. The lime, garlic, and onion give this broth an AMAZING flavor.

How To Make Bone Broth

Throughout the week as you cook for your family, be mindful about what you would normally put in the trash or in the compost pile. If you chop any onion or garlic, toss the peel and ends into a ziplock bag. If you chop up any carrots, toss the carrot scraps into the bag as well. You can toss any veggies that you cut up like this throughout the week into the bag. I store the bag in my freezer until I’m ready to make my broth. The more onion peels and veggie scraps that you collect throughout the week the better. This is where your bone broth gets its color. The most important ingredient for bone broth is… you guessed it… BONES! So cook that chicken and then toss the bones or carcass into the ziplock bag until you are ready for it.

Get Out Your CrockPot

Now that you have your chicken bones and have collected all of your onion skins, garlic peels, carrot tops, and whatever else you held back throughout the week, it’s time to get out your crockpot. All you have to do is simply dump the contents of your ziplock bag into the crockpot, fill it full of filtered water, turn it on low, and walk away for twenty-four hours. THAT’S IT! It really is that simple. This is the crockpot I use because I love that the lid locks and I don’t have to worry about it boiling over. I have heard of people using their pressure cooker or InstantPot, but I haven’t tried that yet. After you cook your broth, simply strain it and pour the liquid only into your storage containers.

How To Store Your Bone Broth

When I first started making bone broth, I couldn’t find any large size Mason Jars to save my life. When the National Toilette Paper Shortage of 2020 hit our country, you could barely find anything on the store shelves. It definitely made putting up the vegetable garden a little more interesting this year. I will never take my Mason Jars for granted ever again.

The ideal situation for me has been to can my bone broth and store the jars in the pantry. Now that I have been able to find large 32 oz Mason Jars, I simply boil them and reuse them every time I make my bone broth recipe. I highly suggest you go this route. These jars are hard to find, and they can also be expensive. So buy your jars and reuse them. Before I was able to find jars though, I used plastic storage containers that are freezer safe like these. It worked well for storage, but it can be a little messy if you are waiting on it to thaw.

Each batch of bone broth that you make in your crockpot will yield approximately five 32 ounce jars. It will depend on how much liquid is in your crockpot. I have a six quart crock pot that I fill to about one inch from the top. Five jars of bone broth will definitely last me throughout the week because I do not cook beans, rice, potatoes, pasta or soup every single night of the week. The good news is that it is good for up to one year in your pantry if you follow safe canning practices.

ENJOY!