Easy Chicken Bone Broth

I have read lots of bone broth recipes and although the concept is simple, I ended up overwhelming myself with all the information. I didn't know where or how to start. Finally (thankfully) I decided to just give it a go and see how it turns out.

I may add to or change my methods later. For example, I may venture into chicken feet for the coveted gelatin. And I may learn the "perpetual bone broth" method. But I'm not there yet. I wanted a simple way to get started, and here it is.

1) As you make meals with whole chickens or bone-in chicken meat, freeze the left over bones after the meat is used.

I have a large zip lock bag in my freezer and I add to it when I have bones.

2) Once you have enough bones, dump the bag into your crock pot.

I have enough to fill the crock pot 3/4 full.


3) Add enough water to cover the bones.

I used 8 cups of water.


4) Add 2 tbs of vinegar to help get the most minerals out of the bones.

Apple cider vinegar is said to add the best flavour, so that's what I went with.


5) Add some veggies. This can be cut up whole veggies or kitchen scraps.

The classic broth veggies, and the ones I've added are: onion, carrot, celery.

6) Turn the crock pot on LOW and let it simmer for 24 hours. If you need to, leave the lid half off to keep it from boiling.

7) Strain your broth and drink a small cup of it with dinner. (Or use it as a soup base, or as the liquid to cook things such as rice... the uses are endless.)

If you have more than you want to use, go ahead and freeze it in mason jars and thaw when needed.

Be sure to toss the bones you strained right back into the crock pot and get a couple more batches out of it. How many? I'm not sure yet, but from what I've read 3 or 4 more batches can be expected but the flavour won't be as strong as the first batch.