Homemade Chicken Broth
Make chicken broth your own.
Your own homemade chicken broth is the best you can have. You know exactly what is in the broth, and it’s guaranteed to to be healthier without a lot of additives. Plus, you’ll have a broth that is not watered down and is chock full of flavor.
There are many ways to make your own chicken stock or broth, and folks have different ingredients in their broth. I’ll share what I do and how I do it, and you can tweak it for yourself however you like.
Bone and fat = great chicken broth
You can use a whole chicken, leg quarters, breasts, wings, or thighs. I prefer dark meat and like to pick up a 10# bag of leg quarters for a good price. If you want to add more nutrition, vitamins and minerals, add carrots, celery, and onions to your pot when you cook your chicken. Add as little or as much salt and pepper as you want. If you’d rather add garlic powder and onion powder, you can, but the real McCoy is better for this.
I like to use my Instant Pot to cook my chicken, but if you don’t have an Instant Pot, don’t sweat it. All you need is a large stock pot. Rinse your chicken and clean any pieces that need it; put it into your pot. You’ll need plenty of water to cover your chicken if you’re using a regular stock pot. Add your vegetables, seasonings, and cook the meat until it is tender. I bring the water to boil, then turn the burner down and simmer with the lid on. You can stir it if it makes you feel better, but usually the chicken just bubbles along in the water as it cooks.
Use a fork to check the chicken for tenderness. If it needs more time, then give it more time. There’s not set way or set time to do this. Some leg quarters are larger so they’ll take more time. If, for example, you’re doing thigh meat, it won’t take as long. There’s no right or wrong way to do this. If the meat is tender, remove the meat from the pot and drain all the broth, making sure you have a large enough container under the colander to catch all that broth.
When the meat is cool enough to handle, remove the meat and skin from the bones. You can cook the meat longer so it will come off the bones easier, or you can speed things up by cooking the bones to get all of the meat off the bones.
Once you’ve removed the meat from the bones, put the bones and fat back into the kettle and add more water. Cook until the bones are completely clean. Drain the meat again. All of the liquid from your meat and fat becomes your broth.
Certainly, if you’re concerned about fat content, you can remove the fat before you cook the meat. It will change the flavor of your broth, because fat is what gives the meat and broth its flavor. It’s your health, and your choice.
With this 10# bag of chicken leg quarters, I got 4 quarts of chicken and 4 quarts broth. That’s $1.00 per quart plus my time. I like to separate my broth, because sometimes I just need broth to make a gravy or to add to a soup. You can combine them if you’d like. When I make chicken noodle soup, I start with the broth and then add the chicken after the noodles are cooked.
This is so simple and easy – and cost efficient. And it’s definitely better than store bought!
The recipe
Making Your Own Homemade Chicken Broth
Ingredients
- Chicken - breast legs, leg quarters, thighs, wings
- Water to cover the chicken or follow directions in an Instant Pot
- 1 Tablespoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon pepper
- 1 onion quartered
- 2 stalks celery especially the leaves
- 2 carrots washed and cut into 3-4 sections
- 2 Garlic cloves - optional
Instructions
- Rinse chicken
- Place chicken and vegetables in your pot
- Add seasoning
- Add water
- Cover and cook for one hour or until the meat is tender and comes off the bone
- Remove chicken and place in colander to drain; save broth
- When chicken is cool, remove chicken and fat from the bones
- Reserve all the broth
- Put bones and fat back into the kettle, cover with water, and cook until bones are clean
- Drain chicken as before, saving broth
- Put chicken and broth into freezer containers
- You can put them in together or separate the broth from the chicken
