I just made my first homemade bone broth. We had pork ribs last night: I marinated them in sugar free BBQ sauce for a few hours and then cooked them on the grill.
Although I was happy to eat every scrap of meat off my two ribs, the rest of the family wasn’t so eager. There was a lot of meat left on those ribs. It seemed like a waste.
I took the seven rib bones, threw them in a saucepan, covered them in water, and then let it simmer for about 12 hours. Even on the lowest flame, I had to add some water to keep the bones covered.
About halfway through, I added some salt and about a tablespoon of chopped onion. The remaining meat came right off the bone.
I poured the broth through a colander to strain out the bones and meat. The result: a rich and tasty broth.
I picked the bones out of the colander and added the meat back into the broth. It was so good! Very satisfying, and full of nutrients.
When you eat meat off the bone, you can ingest collagen, cartilage and connective tissue. These are very important nutrients, and for a variety of reasons, they don’t appear in our diet very often.
That’s one of the reasons bone broth is so valuable: it’s full of the kind of nutrients you don’t always get in your normal diet. The benefits of collagen are quite impressive, so much so that some people eat it as a supplement.
Why not eat it as a tasty soup instead, or drink it like a tea? Making a bone broth is super inexpensive, and the broth is easy to store in the fridge. I’m going to do it again.
We get rotisserie chicken pretty regularly. I just saved the carcass for two and kept them in the freezer. Today, inspired by my success with the pork broth, I started a chicken broth.
Here’s the recipe:
Chicken Bone Broth
- 2 rotisserie chicken carcasses (it’s OK if there’s still meat on the bones)
- 2 small onions, peeled and cut in half
- 2 cloves of smushed garlic
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar
- Salt
- Water
Cooking instructions
- Add the chicken carcasses to a large pot.
- Cover the carcasses in water.
- Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, vinegar and salt (to taste).
- Cover, and bring to a boil on the stovetop.
- Lower the heat to simmer for 15 – 24 hours.
- When you can easily snap a bone in half, it’s done.
- Pour the stew through a colander to strain it out.
- Serve hot, or store it in the refrigerator or freezer to reheat later.
Variations
- Cook in a slow cooker instead of a pot on the stove, on the lowest setting.
- Add celery and carrots.
That’s all there is to it: simple, inexpensive ingredients, easy to prepare.