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My new Instant Pot® arrived this week. It was my Valentine’s Day gift to myself. Why did I buy myself my own Valentine’s Day gift? Why not? I am awesome, and I know what I like. Plus, I’m too smart to feel sorry for myself that I am single on Valentine’s Day.
For several days I’ve been battling some cold crud that has been floating around work. I’ve consumed two quarts, yes, two quarts, of chicken stock from my freezer stash in the last 24 hours. I’m now out, and I need more fast if I am going to get over this nastiness happening in my head.
Luckily, I save all my chicken bones, both raw and cooked, and freeze them. When a recipe calls for boneless chicken thighs, I remove the bone with kitchen shears and set the bone aside for broth. I grabbed my stash and got started playing with my new kitchen toy.
I had one quart-sized freezer bag full of bones and one about ¼ to ½ full. I used them all. A whole chicken carcass would work or about two pounds of chicken backs or turkey necks. If you are using a carcass, you might need to break it down a bit to fit it into the pot. If you are using a larger slow cooker, you could use more bones and vegetables. Adjust the amount of bones and veggies to fit your pot. Swap out the chicken bones for beef, if you prefer.
I also stash veggie bits in a bag in my freezer. My daughter likes to take whole carrots and use a julienne peeler to create carrot strings for her fried rice. We stash the carrot butts for use in broth. I do the same with bits of onion or celery leftover from meal prep. I farm from this bag before cutting up fresh veggies to make broth. This saves me time and money.
Now some recipes for bone broth are very simple and have few ingredients. I, on the other hand, like my broth to have flavor so I punch up the flavor with veggies and seasonings. The best part about making broth is that it is a very flexible recipe. Add or omit seasonings to your personal preference.
Bone Broth Recipe
Ingredients (to fit my Instant Pot):
2 lbs chicken bones, give or take
2 small carrots or 1 large, roughly chopped*
2 small stalks of celery or 1 large, roughly chopped
2 small onions or 1 large onion, peeled and quartered
1 small head of garlic, broken into individual cloves (I usually cut mine in half to allow more garlicky goodness into the broth)
2 small bay leaves or 1 large bay leaf
2 tsp Bragg’s organic apple cider vinegar**
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
½ tsp dried crushed rosemary
Add all of the ingredients to the pot and cover with water. If using a pressure cooker or Instant Pot, read your user manual to be sure that you do not overfill the pot.
If cooking on the stove, bring the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat and allow the pot to simmer for 8-24 hours, keeping an eye on the pot and adding water as needed to avoid it boiling dry.
If using a pressure cooker, follow the directions for your device. My Instant Pot said to press the soup button and then adjust the time. The maximum time I can cook the soup is 120 minutes so that is the time I used.
When I use a slow cooker, I like to throw everything in the pot when I get home from work on a Friday and let it cook overnight. I check it before going to bed adding a little water if necessary. I taste it in the morning when I get up and adjust any seasonings as needed or add additional water. I like to cook my stock in the slow cooker for at least 12 hours, if possible.
After the broth has cooled a bit, strain out the veggies and bones using a fine mesh sieve. If the broth needs further straining, use a reusable coffee filter, designated for this purpose, to strain out additional impurities.
Place your broth in containers and allow to the broth cool on the counter before placing in the fridge to cool overnight. If desired, you may skim the hardened fat off the top of the broth. If you are lazy like me, you may skip this step. Once the broth has cooled, you can freeze it for use later.
When using glass jars in the freezer, make sure to add ample space for expansion or the jars could shatter. This happened to a friend of mine so be careful. If I am using a quart canning jar that tapers at the neck, I do not fill it past the curve where it begins to taper. This leaves 1.5 to 2 inches of extra space for the broth to expand. I also loosen the rims on my jars after setting them in the freezer. That way if the broth does expand it can press on the disk and not the glass. I check them the next day and tighten the rims.
Now that's yumtastic chicken broth!
*A rough chop is not a pretty chop. The veggies will be discarded after the broth is cooked so who cares how they look when they go into the pot, right?
**Bragg’s Organic Apple Cider Vinegar is best here. It has this cloudy stuff at the bottom of the jar, called the “mother,” that I used to think was gross until I found out how good it is for you. It helps pull all the vitamins and minerals out of the bones into your broth, which are very healing. In fact, the bones may be very soft or crumble when the broth is cooked. You don’t taste the vinegar after the broth is cooked so give the jar a little shake to mix it up and add a couple teaspoons to your pot.
