Thursday, October 24, 2013

Homemade Chicken Broth

Happy THURSDAY!  This is, as you know, my favorite day of the week!  My MR. is home sick today.  He started feeling puny on Tuesday, and we both just figured he had a cold, but not I'm pretty sure he has the flu!  Body aches, headache, slightly swollen glands, and fever.  Not good.  Not good at all.  Every time he gets sick.  I get sick.  Every.single.time.  So, I'm taking care of him, while avoiding his germs like the plague.    I'm hoping to not get it this time, so I'm stocking up of Vitamin B,C,D & Cellver and drinking LOTS of water!. 

Last night when he was feeling so terrible I decided to make him some chicken noodle soup.  I'll be sharing the recipe next week!  But today I want to elaborate on how good bone broth is, and how simple it is to make!

Almost every Sunday, I roast a chicken in my crockpot.  It's such an inexpensive and simple thing to prepare, and we get a dinner and several lunches out of it.  Not every time, but every now and again I decided to make chicken stock out of the bones.  It's WAY better for you that the store bought kind, I think it tastes better, and it's basically free!

What are the health benefits of homemade bone broth? source source source

----> The gelatin in bone broth is REALLY good for your digestive system! 
----> It helps fight infection
----> The collagen and gelatin are really good for producing and growing healthy hair, skin & nails!
----> Because it is very high in anti-inflammatory amino acids glycine and proline it helps fight 
        inflammation
----> The amino acid, glycine, helps get the toxins out of your body

And a bunch of other things!

So.  How do you make your own homemade chicken broth?

It's SO easy.

Roast a whole chicken.  I usually do mine in the crockpot  If I'm making chicken broth after, I store the gizzards in the fridge until I am ready to make it!

When your chicken is done, let it set for a few minutes to cool and then debone it.  I find it is MUCH easier to debone a chicken when it's hot!

Put the bones & the gizzards back into your crock pot. 

Then, add in 2-3 carrots, 2-3 stalks of celery, some garlic cloves, and a decent sized onion, quartered.  If you have them, you can add in some whole bay leaves as well.

Fill your pot up with water, and set your crock pot on low.  I'll let mine cook anywhere from 12-24 hours. 

When you decided that it's cooked long enough, pick out the carcass & large vegetable pieces, and strain the broth though a fine mesh strainer to get all the little pieces out. 

Now you are ready to make a batch of Chicken noodle soup, or freeze it in Ziploc Freezer bags for a later use!  I usually freeze mine in quart size bags.  I'll lay them flat on a cookie sheet and let them freeze so they stack nicely in my freezer!

You can also make this in a large pan on the stove, but I'm never home long enough to watch it, so I prefer to use my crock pot!

See!  It's SO easy, and basically free!

And because this so far is a picture-less post, and it's THURSDAY...I'll toss in a little Throw back Thursday for the heck of it!
June of 2012.  Running the Luvmud 5k race.  My team was the "Dirty Divas".  It was a lot of fun, and I got REALLY muddy. 

 
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My First 5K race. EVER!  July of 2011.  I think I did it in <32 minutes="" p=""> 
April of 2011.  Snuggling my sweet niece!

 
That time I cut my hair REALLY short.  And LOVED it after the first month of hating it!
 





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2 comments:

  1. That's how my mom makes her chicken broth. Angel doesn't like soup and I don't cook just for me so it's been a long time since I've made any!
    Drastic haircuts always seem to bring an emotional reaction, either good or bad, and something alternating between both! I've always really loved my hair short, but I'm letting it grow out a little bit right now...

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  2. What is your twitter url? your button isn't working ;(

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