Bone Broth Made Easy
I'm going to let you in on a little secret that my grandmother taught me through the lens of a thrifty kitchen Goddess.
"Make it with love & make it yourself"
Nani was always trying to stretch our food dollar and made creative and delicious dishes with just a few simple ingredients. She never let anything go to waste. My grandmother wasn't selling a fad or gimmick; this was sound advice for the ages.
Good food doesn't have to be gourmet to be healthy; it has to be made with love and intention. She always said that if you were happy while you were cooking, the meal would be delicious for the body and soul. Nani definitely had that mindfulness stuff in the bag!
The health benefits toted by the "fad" of drinking bone broth from a box and sprinkling collagen supplements in smoothies is a subtle sign letting us know that we may be missing something from our meals. Harkening back to a bygone day when we made most of our own food, the mantra was "Waste not, want not". This means saving all the veggie clippings and all the bones, and making something from what looks like nothing.
So, let's make bone broth from our dinner. Stop back for the next tip where I will show you how to use it to make another meal.
Making bone broth from your whole leftover chicken carcass is a great way to stretch your budget and support healthy eating by controlling the amount of salt and fat that went into making your meals.
After you have eaten the “whole bird” from baked chicken or finished a rotissiere chicken you purchased at the store, remove all the meat to use for the next meal, and save that carcass to make bone broth.
What to do:
Put bones in a crock pot or instant pot, cover bones with about 10 cups of water to cover everything
Add to it: 2-4 cups vegetables of your choice like onion, garlic cloves, carrots, celery bits, etc.
2 bay leaves, teaspoon of salt, 1/4 tsp of pepper
1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (with the Mother) per cup of water
Cover and simmer overnight or for at least 8-12 hours
Or if using an instant pot and pressure cook for 3-4 hours. Release naturally
The idea here is to stew the bones long enough to release the marrow from deep inside and liquefy the connective tissues of the joints where collagen is located
Strain all liquid through a sieve to catch any bones, skins, or stewed vegetables and discard those.
Transfer strained bone broth liquid to a container in the refrigerator for soup or stew you intend to make within a couple days like the greek lemon chicken soup (recipe coming soon) or freeze for another day
