As a nurse, I am a firm believer that there is no single "wonder-food" that will magically cure all ills. There is no one food that, if eaten, can compensate for a diet that is primarily composed of "junk food." It is both my experience and my research-based opinion that a balanced diet of mainly nutritious whole foods is the best fuel for our bodies and one of the biggest contributors to overall health and wellness. With that said, there are certain foods that have received a lot of attention recently due to their ability to provide great nutrition and possibly even help to heal preexisting health issues. Bone broth is one of these foods.
What's so special about bone broth?
There is no standardized way of measuring the nutrient profiles in bone broths since there is so much potential variability.1 However, we do know that the process of simmering bone broth slowly over time can pull minerals, proteins (such as collagen) and amino acids out of the bones themselves. These nutrients are all part of a balanced diet.
Bone broth has gotten a lot of hype in the health food sphere recently, and some claim that it is beneficial for the gut microbiome and can help decrease inflammation, but at this time, there is not a lot of scientific research out there to say for sure. However, some animal studies have shown pretty impressive benefits to the animals who consumed bone broth. A preclinical study in 2016 found evidence of improving gut microbiota in rats who consumed chicken broth.2 And a study on mice published in 2021 by the National Institute of Health suggested that bone broth actually prevented inflammatory damage to the gut lining of mice with ulcerative colitis.3 If that also applies to humans, that's huge!
Some cite heavy metal exposure as a potential risk of consuming bone broth, but an analysis of three different bone broths in 2017 suggested that risk is fairly minimal.4 My personal opinion is that if the potential benefits outweigh the risks of including a certain food in our diets (and in this case, I'm cooking chicken anyway for our family), it can't hurt to include it in our meals. So, instead of cooking our chicken and just throwing away the bones and broth, I put the bones back in my crockpot and start it simmering. 🙂
How I make bone broth (the easy way)
"Grandma's old fashioned bone broth" prepared painstakingly over a vintage stove might be the ideal, most delicious version, but for me personally, I'm so busy chasing after a rambunctious toddler, potty-training said toddler, and caring for her little sister that if I waited to do it the perfect way, I would probably never get it done. So, I figure that it's better to have sub-optimal bone broth than no bone broth at all (or to spend ridiculous sums of money on the yucky bone broth cartons at the store ... no thanks!).
I like to make bone broth in the crock pot. It cooks slowly on my countertop, doesn't interfere with whatever I need to make on the stovetop, and can just simmer in the background while I go about my day. The first step is to cook the chicken. My recipe calls for a whole chicken, and I typically get the organic ones from Aldi, which is very affordable. Buying the whole chicken is the most cost-effective (usually), and it also gives you both cooked chicken meat and leftover bones for your bone broth (which also helps you save money!).
A word of caution:
Making this from scratch will take time, so please don't start this in the morning in the hopes of having bone broth in time for supper. This is the easy way, but it is not quick! Please, please, please make sure you have something planned for the next couple lunches and dinners while this slowly cooks in the background. 🙂
Step by Step
I start by placing my whole chicken in the crockpot. I usually open the bag with the organ meats (from inside the chicken) and drop the organ meats in with my chicken. This is totally optional, though. I only do it for the health benefits. Organ meats are controversial due to possible high levels of chemicals and heavy metals as well as being high in cholesterol and saturated fat, but they are also rich in iron, vitamin A, choline, vitamin B12, alpha-lipoic acid, and niacin, along with smaller amounts of other nutrients (which include zinc, magnesium, folate, and selenium).5 Personally, I just try to get the highest quality chicken that our family can afford, and I try to limit our exposures to toxins and heavy metals in other ways, as well, so hopefully that offsets any potential exposures through organ meats. I try to focus on maintaining a "low-tox" lifestyle, but there is no way to eliminate all toxin exposure entirely.
Once the chicken is situated in the center of the crockpot, I add my seasonings, fat (oil or butter), and water. I like to vary my seasonings based on what flavors I would like to emphasize and what nutritional benefits I am looking for. Today, I added two tablespoons of salt, a tablespoon of pepper, a teaspoon of organic turmeric powder, a sprig of fresh parsley (I bought the cheap plant from Walmart for less than $3, and it has given us parsley all summer), one garlic clove (I just separated the cloves ... I didn't even cut or mince them), one chopped onion, about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, and two cups of water. That's it for this portion of the process. I shut my crockpot lid, and started it cooking on high.
Timeline
On Tuesday, I put my whole chicken in the crockpot with all the fixings listed above and started it on high at about 11 am. I then made lunch, fed my 21 month old, put her down for her nap, nursed my 5 month old, and started writing this blog post.
I went back into the kitchen around 2 pm to flip my chicken (still in the crockpot) with a fork and make sure there was still enough water in there to keep it from burning. I reset the timer on the "high" button (my particular crockpot times out after 6 hours on high and then just switches to "warm" - not what I want).
I then just let it continue cooking on high until around 6:30 pm. By that time, the chicken was tender and falling off the bone. I gave it a stir and continued cooking on low for another 2 hours (I'm one of those people who would rather be safe than sorry when it comes to cooking meat).
At about 8:30 pm, we were getting our little ones ready to go to bed, so I actually didn't take the time to pull the chicken meat out from the broth right then (what I would usually have done). I turned it off, let it cool for about 20 minutes with the lid off and then put the whole crockpot in the fridge until the next day, when I finally took the chicken meat out of the pot and prepared the bones to simmer for bone broth.
On Wednesday, I removed the chicken meat from my crockpot (see video above). This part is probably the most hands-on, time-consuming part of the process, but it goes faster if you do it while the crockpot is warm enough that the fat is liquified but still cool enough that you can use your fingers if needed to pick out the meat from the bones. In this video, the pot was still a little too hot for me to use my fingers (thus, I used a fork, but it still only took a few minutes to pull out the meat).
I saved the chicken meat in a separate container to be used for chicken salad, chicken casseroles, and toppings for pizzas etc. I left the bones in the crockpot and added water, some more salt and pepper, distilled vinegar (to help extract minerals from the bones), fresh thyme, and some carrots and celery for flavor. Then I turned the crockpot on low and left it simmering for 12 hours. At the end of 12 hours, I poured the bone broth through a colander (to catch the bones) and put some of the broth in the fridge while the rest was frozen into small cubes for later use in recipes.
Homemade bone broth doesn't have to be hard...
Crockpot Chicken Bone Broth
Rich, flavorful bone broth made easy!
⏲️ Prep Time: 15 minutes
⏳ Cook Time: 20-32 hours
🍴Serves: 2 quarts broth plus several lbs cooked, shredded chicken meat
Ingredients
- One whole chicken (preferably organic, pasture-raised chicken for health benefits, but this is personal preference)
- 2 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp pepper
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 sprig fresh parsley (optional)
- 1 divided clove of garlic
- 1 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or butter or other cooking oil of your choice)
- 2 cups filtered water
- 1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
- 1 sprig fresh thyme
- Additional salt and pepper for seasoning broth (according to preference)
- 2-4 large carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 2-4 sticks celery, coarsely chopped
- Approximately 8-10 cups filtered water
Directions
Place chicken in crockpot. Remove packet of organ meats from within chicken cavity and, if desired, place organ meats in crockpot with chicken. Otherwise, discard organ meats. Add salt, pepper, ground turmeric, fresh parsley, garlic, onion, and olive oil, as well as the initial 2 cups of filtered water. Cook on high for 4-8 hours while checking on crockpot every so often, flipping chicken at least every 2-3 hours or as needed to prevent burning. Turn down crockpot heat and cook an additional 2-3 hours on low or until internal temperature of chicken meat reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit and chicken is falling easily off the bones.
Remove meat from bones and replace bones in crockpot before adding vinegar, thyme, additional salt and pepper to taste, carrots, celery, and additional water to fill the crockpot. Set crockpot to low and simmer broth for 12-24 hours, stirring every so often and replacing water as needed to prevent burning. After broth has simmered the preferred time, strain broth through a colander to remove the bones and place broth in the fridge or freezer. Store in fridge up to 5 days or in freezer up to 3 months. Can be used in recipes or sipped by itself.
Like This Recipe?
How do I use bone broth once I've made it?
One of my favorite quick and easy recipes for lunches and no-fuss dinners is chicken salad sandwiches. I use the bone broth in the recipe, as well as some of the shredded chicken that was also prepared during this process. We spread our chicken salad on homemade sourdough bread or make tortilla wraps with it. The options are endless! I will include our family's favorite chicken salad recipe below.
I also use the bone broth whenever a recipe calls for chicken broth or vegetable broth. It is so flavorful and adds depth to any recipe I've used it. You can sip on warm bone broth when you're feeling unwell (it's one of my favorite things to have on hand for that early postpartum phase when you're still healing and feeling exhausted).
Bekah's Homemade Chicken Salad
- 6 ounces shredded, cooked chicken
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 stick diced celery
- 2 tablespoons bone broth
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1/3 cup chopped pecans and/or walnuts
- 1/4 cup diced pear
Mix all ingredients together and serve on sandwiches, crackers or wraps. Enjoy!
- Hsu, D., Lee, C., Tsai, W., Chien, Y. (2017). "Essential and toxic metals in animal bone broths." Food and nutrition research. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080%2F16546628.2017.1347478 ↩︎
- "Inclusion of Chicken Broth AAC1 as a dietary supplement modulates the gut microbiome: results of next generation DNA sequencing." Federation of American Sciences for Experimental Biology. doi: https://doi.org/10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.854.3 ↩︎
- "Analysis of the Anti-inflammatory Capacity of Bone Broth in a Murine Model of Ulcerative Colitis." Medicina (Kaunas). (2021). Link to article ↩︎
- Hsu, D., Lee, C., Tsai, W., & Chien, Y. (2017). "Essential and toxic metals in animal bone broths." Food and nutrition research. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080%2F16546628.2017.1347478 ↩︎
- "The Pros and Cons of Eating Organ Meat." Diet, Food & Fitness (August 4, 2022). https://health.clevelandclinic.org/organ-meat-benefits ↩︎
