Easy Chicken Bone Broth Recipes for Homesteaders

September 28, 2022 | Kelsey | Homesteading | No Comments

Chicken bone broth recipes are among my favorites. If you’re looking for a healthy, nutrient-dense base for your instant pot, slow cooker, or stovetop, you can’t go wrong with chicken bone broth. It simply makes everything taste so much richer.

You don’t have to use it as part of a recipe. The great thing about chicken bone broth is that you can pour it into a mug, sprinkle it with some freshly chopped parsley, and drink it hot like a cup of tea. It’s a very versatile ingredient.

If you want to learn more about all the ways you can use chicken bone broth in all your recipes, this article talks about:

What is chicken bone broth?
What are the health benefits of bone broth?
What ingredients do you need for chicken bone broth?
How do you make chicken bone broth?
What are recipes that use chicken bone broth? “>What are recipes that use chicken bone broth?

What is chicken bone broth?

Chicken bone broth, like all bone broths, is made from bones and small pieces of meat. In the case of chicken bone broth, you use chicken bones and small pieces of white or dark meat from the chicken to make the broth.

Most people take the chicken bones and small pieces of meat and simmer them in a pot with carrots, celery, and onions. You can season the broth with a bit of garlic. Its acidic medium helps draw out all the minerals inside the chicken bones.

Recipes for gravies, sauces, and soups often call for chicken bone broth as one of their ingredients. In recent years it’s gained popularity as a health drink.

Chicken bone broth weight loss — It can be easy to overeat when you’re making a lot of tasty homemade meals. Chicken bone broth is filling without filling out your waistline.

What are the health benefits of bone broth?

Chicken bone broth recipes are good for the heart and soul. They provide an excellent source of comfort food when you’re under the weather or during cold and rainy seasons. Bone broth brings out the natural flavors in just about any dish that calls for it.

There are other reasons to include chicken bone broth in your go-to homestead recipes. Plenty of evidence exists to support the notion that drinking chicken bone broth regularly is good for your health and wellness.

Anti-aging properties

Chicken bone broth is chock full of anti-aging minerals like calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous. It’s also rich in collagen, the building block responsible for healthy bones, connective tissue, skin, and tendons in our bodies.

Getting more natural sources of collagen into your diet can help with your body’s decline in collagen production once you hit age 40. A lack of collagen is what makes our skin look wrinkly and dry. Consuming collagen is one of the best ways to fast-track it to all areas of your body.

Digestive and gut health aid

Gut health is important. Countless studies have revealed that your overall health and wellness depends heavily on the state of your digestive system. Chicken bone broth is believed to support digestive and gut health because of the gelatin it naturally contains.

When ingested, gelatin from bone broth attracts and retains liquids, helping foods move more quickly through your digestive tract. If you suffer from a “leaky gut,” you’ll definitely want to give chicken bone broth a try.

Immune-boosting powers

There’s a reason chicken soup is recommended when you’re sick. It’s packed with anti-inflammatory ingredients like calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, silicon, and sulfur. While those things may not sound very tasty, research has shown they help with everything from allergies and asthma to the common cold by building up a strong immune system.

Joint support

Remember when I mentioned collagen earlier as being helpful for anti-aging? It pulls double-duty by also supporting joint health. Since collagen is the main protein found in your bones, ligaments, and tendons, consuming foods rich in collagen can help keep creaky and painful joints at bay.

Chicken bone broth also contains:

Glycine and proline the body uses to build connective tissue.
Glucosamine and chondroitin that the body needs for strong cartilage.

Weight loss support

Bone broth, like raw A2 milk from Jersey milk cows, is low in calories but can satisfy your hunger. It also is high in protein, which supports appetite control while building lean muscle mass that burns calories, even when your body is at rest.

Eating soups made with chicken bone broth can increase feelings of fullness. You’ll resist the temptation to overeat if you consume it as part of a healthy diet.

chicken bone broth recipe prep — Chicken bone broth recipes use very few ingredients, making them easy to prepare.

What ingredients do you need for chicken bone broth?

Homesteaders raising livestock can rely on their chickens, Jersey cattle, and other animals to provide an excellent source of bone broth ingredients. You can use the bones and meat from virtually any animal to make bone broth. For the purposes of this blog, we’re focusing on chicken bone broth recipes.

If you don’t raise livestock, you can visit your local butcher or farmers’ market to ask for their leftover bones and meat bits. Some may give them to you for free, while others may charge a small fee.

Locally-sourced bones and meat are less likely to contain harmful toxins than commercially-produced products. Do your best to find free-range chickens because they provide the healthiest bones for making broth.

Besides the bones and small pieces of meat, you can toss into the pot some carrots, celery, garlic, and onions to give the chicken bone broth a richer flavor.

It’s best to avoid putting salt in your bone broth if you plan to use it to make soups, stews, or sauces. Adding salt to your chicken bone broth recipes can result in a high sodium concentration, which won’t taste very good (not to mention it’s not good for your health). Instead, season to taste when serving the dish to your guests.

How do you make chicken bone broth?

Making chicken bone broth is so easy anyone can do it. The first thing you’ll need to do is gather up all your supplies. Here’s what you need:

One 3–5-gallon stockpot with a lid.
One gallon of water per chicken.
Vegetables (carrots, celery).
Canning jars or other spill-proof storage containers.

Once you have all your ingredients ready, toss them into the stockpot. You’ll want to finely chop the vegetables, so they blend better during simmering.

Bring your mixture to a boil. You might start to see some “scum” rising to the top while it’s boiling. Just skim it off and dispose of it. After your broth has come to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover it with the lid, and allow it to simmer for about 24 hours.

If you want your chicken bone broth done faster, you can use a slow cooker to reduce simmering time to 15 hours on low heat. You also can put it in an instant pot for 2 hours.

Cooking tip: The longer you let the broth simmer, the more immune-boosting properties it contains.

You can store your chicken bone broth in the refrigerator for up to a week. If you want to store it for use later, pour it into canning jars or freezer bags.

chicken bone broth recipe soup — Chicken noodle soup is one of the best recipes for using chicken bone broth.

What are recipes that use chicken bone broth?

There are countless recipes that can use chicken bone broth. You can even substitute it for water in most recipes.

One of the easiest ways to use it is to make a homemade chicken soup with it. Here’s a great recipe for chicken noodle soup.

Ingredients you’ll need:

Egg noodles (homemade or organic).
Chicken bone broth.
Chicken meat (white or dark).
Vegetables.

How to prepare it:

I like to sauté the vegetables on medium-high heat for about 3 minutes. It helps to soften them up for the soup. Next, pour your homemade chicken bone broth into a stockpot and add the vegetables. Bring the mixture to a boil.

Once the mixture boils, add in your noodles and pieces of chicken meat. Continue to boil, stirring frequently, until the noodles are al dente.

Do you have some favorite chicken bone broth recipes you’d like to share with us? We’d love to hear about them in the comments.

Can I Use Chicken Bone Broth for Canning?

Yes, you can safely can raw chicken bone broth. Using a pressure canner is crucial to ensuring food safety when canning low-acid foods like meat and broth. Be sure to follow proper canning guidelines to prevent the risk of foodborne illness.