Chicken Broth
I can be slightly “ingredient crazy”. What I mean by that is I hate seeing strange ingredients where they do not belong. They hide under names such as “rosemary extract”, “citric acid”, “ascorbic acid”, “yeast extract”. While I’m sure they’re harmless, I don’t like to see them in the food I put in my body. I find that these odd ingredients and preservatives lurk everywhere in processed foods, especially in broths and salad dressings. When I had my soup company, I made all my own veggie broth from scratch -literally hundreds of quarts per week! Just about all of our soups were vegetarian, but every once in a blue moon, I would offer something chicken-broth based, and it was always stressful. For some reason, chicken broth eluded me. I never quite knew how much chicken I should use, how long it should simmer for, what veggies to add, etc. It also always felt like such a waste of chicken since many recipes call for whole chickens. None of it worked for me, and when I had my company, I usually just avoided it. After I closed my business, I would just buy high-quality, expensive bone broth. Until one day, I decided it was time to conquer my fear, and my life has never been the same! (Stay with me here, and I’m sure you’ll agree that such an accomplishment in these times of lockdown CAN be life altering⚡️😜)!!
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Chicken Broth
Ingredients
- 3 pounds/1.5 kilos chicken backs, necks, wings (ideally all 3 pieces), feet or a combo of any of these
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 10 black peppercorns
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- 2 carrots, (unpeeled is fine), ends cut off, and roughly chopped
- 2 stalks celery, roughly chopped
- 14 cups (3.5 quarts) of water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 430F/220C.
- Place the bones in a single layer on a roasting pan and roast for 30-35 minutes, until they’re lightly browned.
- Place the bones and any accumulated juices into an 8-quart pot. Add the vinegar, bay leaves, peppercorns, salt, veggies*, and water. Place on a burner and turn the heat to high just until it comes to a boil. As soon as it comes to a boil, immediately turn the heat down to a slow simmer and cover. Simmer for 12-16 hours. I place the pot on my smallest burner on the lowest heat and let it cook overnight. If you’re not comfortable doing this, just start early in the morning and it’ll be done before you go to bed.
- Strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer and discard the solids**. Pour into glass containers and refrigerate until completely cooled. There will probably be a layer of fat at the top of your containers. Remove with a spoon and cover. Use within 5 days or freeze^ for up to 6 months.
*Some of the recipes I looked at suggested adding the veggies only for the last 2 hours of the cooking. My personal opinion is that it made very little difference in the final product. For ease of use/process, I’ve called for adding them at the beginning. That way you just put everything in and then don’t have to do anything else until it’s finished.
**I save some of the chicken and carrots for my dog. If you do this, just be very careful to not accidentally mix in any bone pieces. When I had my soup company, I used to save and freeze my veggies. I found a pig farmer in the area who was willing to take them from me to feed to her pigs. Unfortunately, this proved to not be as easy as it should have been. So I ultimately threw out many pounds of lightly boiled veggies each week. Such painful waste!!
^If you’re freezing the broth, just make sure you leave some room at the top of your container as it will expand when it freezes.