Learning how to make and preserving bone broth is a skill every homesteader should have. Homemade bone broth is super easy and frugal. It can be made easily in a crockpot from any type of meat bone such as beef, chicken, ham, etc. Homemade broth also results in a more nutritious and mineral-rich end result with a deep rich flavor.
Anyone else feel late to the bone broth parade? Up until a year ago, I had no idea the awesomeness of bone broth. I simply knew it was a good way to get more money from your meat purchases and a more frugal way to make broth at home. It might be among my top favorite things to have pressure canned bone broth lining my pantry shelves.
Then I started reading up and discovered bone broth supports good gut health among other parts of our bodies.
Listen in below to the full podcast, How to Make Chicken Broth and 5 Ways to Preserve It, of the Pioneering Today Podcast, where we don’t just inspire you, but give you the clear steps to create the homegrown garden, pantry, kitchen, and life you want for your family and homestead.
What is Bone Broth?
Bone broth is pretty simple, it's a broth made out of the bones from animals, usually chicken, beef, or fish. You cover the bones with water, add in some vegetables and herbs for extra flavor and nutrients, and let it simmer on low for hours until all the goodness from the bones and vegetables is leached out into the water.
This is how many frugal homes stretched their meals. Cook a whole chicken, roast, or fish, and save the bones to make a soup or broth with the next day.
(Want the ultimate in frugalness? Check out our Great Depression Era Money Saving Tips Series.)
Why is Chicken Noodle Soup Good When You're Sick?
Chicken noodle soup when you have a cold? That's actually a good idea! Here's why:
- Collagen – Collagen is good for our joints, nails, skin, and hair.
- Gelatin – Gelatin is good for gut health.
Broth is also easy to digest. Allowing our digestive tract a break when our bodies need to focus energy on healing. When I'm not making chicken noodle soup, I love using broth to make sauces, gravies, stews, and even in place of water to cook quinoa or rice. Pretty much anywhere I'd use water in a savory recipe, I'll swap it out for broth.
Tips for Making Bone Broth
- Start out with an organic pasture-raised animal. You don't want to be pulling out hormones, antibiotics, or GMO gunk from animals that are given growth hormones and corn-based diets. We raise our own meat chickens and beef, so I know exactly what went into our meat and what's going to come out of it.
- Toss a 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar over the bones a half hour before cooking. The acid helps leach the minerals out of the bones, resulting in a healthier end product.
- Save the skins of onions and garlic. You know how we usually toss out the skins, either to the garbage or compost pile? We should be saving them to use in stock or soups. I had no idea the skins had more nutritional value than the actual onion or garlic, but NaturalKids has a great article on why we should be using the onion and garlic skins. I had no clue about using the skins until some awesome peeps on our Facebook page shared with me on when I shared a picture of making bone broth on our woodstove. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
- Save veggie scraps and ends, too. When you're peeling your carrots, save the skins and tops in a ziplock freezer bag. Chopping celery? Save the leaves and tips! You get the idea. Anytime you have a few herbs leftover, toss them in your freezer bag. When the bag is full, you're ready to make broth.
- Store it in the freezer until you have enough. I keep a few bags in the freezer to put small bits of vegetables (and now skins) until I have enough to add to a batch of stock. Same goes with the carcass and bones. It all goes into the freezer until I'm out of broth or have enough to make another batch.
- Get your broth to gel. Getting your broth to gel is considered the holy grail of broth making. I've found it easier to get beef broth to gel compared to chicken. If you're not getting a gel (think jello or really thick broth once cooled) it's probably due to the fact you need more bones. While the broth is still good for you, if it's not gelling it means it doesn't have as high of a level of gelatin. When I cook my broth in the slow cooker on low for a longer period of time I tend to get more of a gelling factor.
- If it's STILL not gelling, use chicken feet. I know this may seem strange, but the feet of the chicken contains the most gelatin than all the other bones. Adding a few chicken feet to the slow cooker results in a gelled chicken broth every single time!
How to Make Bone Broth in a Crock-Pot
Ingredients Needed to Make Chicken Broth
- Cooked bones and/or the carcass of chicken (the feet are an excellent addition) – Again, if you want to make a large batch all at once, save your bones and/or carcasses in a freezer bag until you have enough for a batch.
- Apple Cider Vinegar – This helps leach out the extra minerals in the bones and veggies. Don't skip this ingredient! This is Mistake #1 that people make – not adding apple cider vinegar. ACV helps break down the bones which aids in getting all the healthful benefits from them into the broth. Collagen, gelatin, marrow, and minerals are all fantastic for the body. To make it even more frugal I use homemade apple cider vinegar.
- Vegetables – Mistake #2 that people made is not using the odds & ends and peelings from their vegetables. Think ends of carrots, celery leaves, onion scraps and skins, etc. Garlic is also another great addition. You don’t have to peel the garlic but I recommend that you smash the cloves with the flat side of your knife to help release the oils. Vegetables and scraps don’t need to be chopped fine. They can be used as large chunks.
- Herbs – Herbs aren't necessary, but they add an incredible depth of flavor, plus they give added nutrients to the broth. Dried herbs work, but fresh herbs are a terrific addition. I’ll add whole sprigs of herbs such as rosemary or thyme. Using scraps and homegrown herbs is also frugal. Do you see a theme here? It’s not taking much to make homemade broth.
- Large pot or slow cooker – You can make broth by simmering in a large pot on the stovetop, or by simmering in your crockpot. The choice is up to you (although many people are more comfortable leaving a crockpot on low than their stovetop).
Making Homemade Chicken Broth
- Place the carcass and all veggies/scraps in the pot or slow cooker.
- Cover the carcass with water and add 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar over the bones and let it sit for a half-hour or so.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer. (In the crockpot, turn to high heat until boiling, then reduce heat to low.)
- Simmer for 12-24 hours (in the winter, I like to cook the broth in a large pot on top of our woodstove. Here are my 6 tips for cooking on a wood stove if you want to try that route as well.)
- Strain your broth through a colander. Once you've strained it, it's ready for use in soups, stews, gravies and more.
Here's a great post from Wardee at Traditional Cooking School on making continual broth or stock.
If you plan on canning to preserve bone broth then you need to place it in the fridge to let the fat layer firm up because it needs to be removed before canning. Broth MUST BE pressure canned and never ever, ever water bath canned.
Frugal Tip: The carcass (not the vegetables) can be used up to two times. If you didn’t get much gel the first time then it won’t be as good for a second use as there won’t be any nutritional benefits. Note that even if you did get a good gel the first time around, the second time you use a carcass for broth you won’t get as much gel.
6 Ways to Preserve Bone Broth and Stock
- Refrigerator – In the fridge for up to six months by Diana at My Humble Kitchen I love this method because it doesn't require any canning or freezing. But you have to make sure your broth has enough of a certain thing to make this safe and to work.
- Dehydrating – It's a liquid, so this seems a little weird, but you can totally dehydrate it at home for a bone broth powder.
- Homemade Bouillon – Yes, this is a kind of genius and I don't know why I didn't think of it on my own. You cook down your stock to make bouillon and you can also freeze it in cubes, making it much quicker to thaw. Here's how to make your own homemade bouillon cubes.
- Freezing – You can freeze your broth, but I'm not always the best at planning ahead and sometimes forget I need to thaw it out until the moment I need it. That's really inconvenient so I prefer the fridge or pressure canning, but if you're a bit better at planning than me, the freezer works as well. Just remember, it's a liquid and though Mason jars are fine to freeze, the stock will expand and sometimes jars crack when thawing.
- Pressure Canning – Canning broth and stock is something you must do in a pressure canner to be safe. You also need to make sure you skim off the fat before canning. The fat is thick and the heat can't penetrate through it as well to make sure it's heated high enough to be safe. Check out my video tutorial and blog post on how to can bone broth in a pressure canner and what pressure canning does to bone broth.
- Freeze Drying – Continue cooking down your broth (simmer it with the lid off) until it concentrates. Pour the broth into your trays and freeze-dry it. Right now Harvest Right is offering an incredible deal through November of $500 OFF!
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Most of us make chicken and beef broth, but you can also make fish stock. Here's a link on how to make fish stock.
Does Making Homemade Chicken Broth Save Money?
Stock extends the use of what we already have (or what many might just toss in the garbage).
As you can see in the photo above, I'm using the leaves off of a bunch of celery, carrot peels, onion and garlic skins, and a chicken carcass. These are all scraps from the food I used for other meals so this broth is costing me virtually $0.00.
The only cost will be that of the sea salt and the chicken feet (if you're not raising your own. I have seen deals for chicken feet for $.99/lb).
When I was doing the math to see if raising our meat chickens was worth it, I factored in that I can get 8 to 10 cups of stock per chicken carcass (organic stock in the store is about $4 a quart, so this equates to at least $8 saved per chicken).
The savings are even more since I also use homemade ACV, there is virtually zero cost other than the sea salt added for flavor. We're all looking for ways to stretch our dollar and to get more nutrition into our diets, bone broth is right up at the top for best value.
Homemade Chicken Broth
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker or Crock Pot
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken bones only (plus optional chicken feet)
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 4 cups vegetable scraps or a combination of carrots, celery, onions, parsley and/or other herbs
- 16 cups filtered water
Instructions
In a Crock Pot
- Place the carcass and all veggies/scraps in the slow cooker.
- Cover the carcass with 16 cups (1 gallon) water, or as much as your crock pot will hold.
- Add 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar over the bones and let it sit for a half-hour or so.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer. (In the crockpot, turn to high heat until boiling, then reduce heat to low.)
- Simmer for 12-24 hours (in the winter, I like to cook the broth in a large pot on top of our woodstove. Here are my 6 tips for cooking on a wood stove if you want to try that route as well.)
- Strain your broth through a colander.
- Once you’ve strained it, it’s ready for use in soups, stews, gravies and more.
In an Instant Pot
- Place the carcass and all veggies/scraps in the pot of your instant pot (or other pressure cooker).
- Cover the carcass with 16 cups (1 gallon) water.
- Add 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar over the bones and let it sit for a half-hour or so. (Alternatively, if your Instant Pot has the "delay" button, you can set that for 30 minutes then follow the next step.)
- Seal the vent on the top of your Instant Pot, then set the pressure to high and set the timer for 1 hour.
- Allow pressure to release naturally, then carefully strain your broth through a colander.
- Once you’ve strained it, it’s ready for use in soups, stews, gravies and more.
On the Stovetop
- Place the carcass and all veggies/scraps in a large stockpot on the stove.
- Cover the carcass with 16 cups (1 gallon) water.
- Add 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar over the bones and let it sit for a half-hour or so.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer.
- Simmer on low heat for 12-24 hours.
- Strain your broth through a colander.
- Once you’ve strained it, it’s ready for use in soups, stews, gravies and more.
Video
Notes
- Here are my 6 tips for cooking on a wood stove if you want to try that route as well.
- Add additional chicken feet to the pot for extra gelling power.
- If you'd like to preserve the broth, see my post on how to can broth at home.
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What veggies and herbs are you using? I posted once before and am not sure you got it, it had to do with Loretta Lynn, have never been able to find a reply hoping to hear from you! Thanks for your posts
I love Francine Rivers, too. When we lived in MO, my church had a wonderful library and would work on some Wed evenings. I got to see all the new arrivals and would get my name on the reserve list right away. Everything came to a halt when a new book came in; I would read until it was done.
Barbara,
I have to be careful when I start a new Francine Rivers book that I don’t have anything I have to get done. lol
Was hoping my library had it, darn it!!!! Hopefully they’ll order it soon. Thanks for the book idea.
Melissa,
How do you store your bouillion for long term?
Just made my first batch.
I’m thinking either dehydrate and vac seal or freeze then vac seal.
Have a blessed day!
Leslie
Melissa,
I still need advice on long term storage for my gel boullion. HELP!
Leslie
Leslie,
I swear I replied and the website ate it… Sorry! Okay, I personally would freeze the boullion if it’s in cubes or thick chunks.
Hi Melissa,
What do you use to strain your broth?
– Ron
Ron,
I use a fine wire mesh screen, but cheesecloth would work just fine, too. Or a combination of both.
Hi Melissa, I really enjoyed listening to you talk on bone broth. Just something a little different that we do here at our place. When my husband goes fishing and brings home the fish for our freezer, he fillets most of our fish but saves the backbone and the the heads and he boils that up for our chickens who absolutely love them. I am always amazed at how the clean the bones and there is never even a tiny scap of meat left. I actually believe their egg production increases when they have fish added to their diet and they look healthier. Now I think I might have to fight the chickens for the bones so I can make stock! ( not really, as we get plenty of fish from the lake near where we live) loving your podcasts and I enjoyed that book as well.
Blessings From Gail in Australia.
Gial,
Thanks so much for sharing. What a great idea! I never thought of using it for the chickens….
Hi Melissa,
I thought I confirmed but somehow I missed the webinar and I was looking for a link. Is there any info still available?
Thanks for all you do!
Katjo
Katjo,
Sending you an email!
I use leftovers from a rotisserie chicken, day two I boil the carcas and add some carrots onion garlic and one big potato. boil all together until the veggies are tender. remove the meat from the bones and blend everything into a thick soup. herbs and bouillon cubes are added to taste.
thank you for the podcast…and for teaching me how to boil bones for bone broth, my mom is 83 years old and has lived through “the old days” of making lard, storing potatoes, home made root cellars, “surviving the winters” and seems to always remind me “she’s a survivor” and tells me she has done all this stuff I talk to her about, but to me it’s all brand new. When I finally ask her about boiling bones I know what she’s going to say, “yeah we did that to”. I just wish now I took the time to help her when she was canning and preserving. thanks to you and my friends, I’m learning to do just that. I appreciate your blogs and podcast.
God Bless
Can you use deer bones to make bone broth?
I haven’t personally, but I don’t see why not. Many people use whatever bones they have available.
This is probably old hat to you. Besides everything you mentioned, I use bone broth in homemade bread and buns.
Carol,
Thanks for sharing, I bet it tastes great in rolls.
If your chicken broth does not gel then your chicken was not old enough. Older birds have more cartilage. Nearly all supermarket-bought chickens in the US are young now, so we have to make up for it by adding more bones — a potful of wings will do it. Sad but true.
Jeremy,
Thanks for the tip. We raise our own birds and at about 12 weeks we butchered and those produced a nice gel broth, but they were raised on pasture and organic feed, maybe that helped, too.
Hi Melissa,
I’m still reading , came across a post about Greg Laurie, my husband & I go to Raul Ries’s Calvary chapel. Gr8 bible teachers .
Dear Melissa, I have a question!
I am making bone broth but want to make larger batches and keep it for over 6 months without being refrigerated (since I do not have space). If I use the pressure canner to sterilize the cans at 121 Celsius I need to know if I will be getting rid of the collagen as proteins. In that case, I need to find a way to keep it stable at room temperature for over 6 months.
Can you help me with my question?
Thank you very much!
Manfred
The only way to keep it shelf stable is to pressure can it. If you’re not using many vegetables, you must pressure can it at 10 pounds of pressure for 20 minutes and with the addition of vegetables for 30 minutes for pints. I’m not sure how it affects the collagen as proteins, but it is the only way to keep it safely shelf stable.
My favorite combination bone broth uses a ham hock, chicken carcass, and beef marrow bones. The flavor is amazing. Sometimes I will add a teaspoon or two of Great Lakes brand unflavored gelatin.
I bet it’s delicious!
[…] onion, and carrots go into the freezer as well as bones from our roasted poultry to make into the bone broth. I wait to eat lunch until my kids have finished and eat what they don’t. When I made a bit too […]
Hi! I’m a mother of 7 and grandmother of 13 (so far)…married 40 wonderful years. Keep up the good work! Thank you for using the Lord’s good Word! He is so good and will give you the wisdom needed to help many dear women!!xxoo
I have several (5-6) chicken carcasses in the freezer waiting for bone broth. I make it regularly in my crockpot, but only 1 at a time & I usually freeze the broth in mason jars. We also raise our own livestock, so I’m going to be needing freezer space soon & would like to can our broth. Do you ever make a huge batch all at once, or do I need to make them individually? And if individually, do I store the broth in fridge until all broth is ready & then can all at once? (I’m very new to canning!) Or do I just can in batches? Thanks for any advice!
Btw, my husband is a long time listener & I am just recently listening to your podcast. LOVE it!! Thanks for sharing. So excited to get better organized in our pioneering adventures. 🙂
Hi Kelly,
Nice to meet you! And I love you guys enjoy the podcast. For canning broth, you can do several batches and leave them in the fridge until you’re ready to can, but when I’m canning, the max number of days I’d leave in the fridge is 5. You need to bring it all back up to a boil before putting in your jars and processing via the pressure canner. The size of the batch depends on how much space and the appliances I have. I use the Instant Pot for fast broth making (just 2 hours and gels so nice) and with my 6 quart instant pot I get 6 pints of finished broth. If you haven’t checked it out, you might want to see about joining the Pioneering Today Academy, we have a full course on canning (including broth) and broth making series. It’s only open for enrollment through October 3rd right now https://melissaknorris.com/pioneeringtodayacademy/
Do you have a printable version of your Bone Broth recipe?
Melissa,
I have many jars of frozen homemade bone broth. Can I thaw them out, warm them, change the lids and pressure can?
thank you.
As long as you skim the fat and bring back to a BOIL before canning.
I have also learned to make bone broth with rotisserie chicken…but we don’t seem to eat enough of those for the amount of broth I use! Maybe it’s because I’m in a small town, but I asked the deli department at our local grocery what they do with the rotisserie chicken bones after taking the meat off for their deli salads…they toss it! I’ve made arrangements with them that if I call ahead, they will set aside the carcass and skin and “toss it” my direction for free!
I make my stock in the crockpot with several carcasses and my bag of carrot, celery and onion peels that have been collecting in the freezer. I strain the stock through a wire mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth. Then, I chill the stock overnight and remove the layer of fat from the top. (This has always resulted in thick jell-o like broth). I re-heat it to boiling the next day and strain it once more before putting it in the jars to process.
But I still get a layer of “sediment” on the bottom of the jars. Any suggestions?
Love the tip on getting those carcasses Laura! I will get small sediment type on the bottom of my jars too, even with straining like you’ve outlined so I don’t let it bother me. The only other option would be to double up on your cheese cloth and see if that helps, but it’s really not an issue other than “cosmetic”.
Okay….what is your technique to clean the chicken feet to prepare them for broth making?
I see the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of acv but down in the instructions it calls for 1/4 cup.
Which do I use?
Thanks-
I would also like to know if the vinegar amount in this broth recipe is 1/2 or 1/4 cup!
Either is fine but it’s technically 1/4 cup, we’ll get that fixed
Hi Melissa, I wanted to let you know that you have become a trusted resource for me. Anytime I’m looking up how to cook or make a vintage or classic recipe, I find myself going to your website. I have grown a comfort level over the years with what you publish, knowing I can trust what you write. Plus, your articles are so approachable and enjoyable to read. I’m saying this, as I hadn’t made bone broth in a while and found myself with 2 chicken carcasses. After reading other websites and feeling frustrated over the conflicting information, I suddenly remembered your podcast on bone broth and came right here. I’m so glad I did! I have a beautiful broth simmering in my slow cooker right now and it looks perfect. I also made your spiced cranberry sauce this Thanksgiving. It was delicious and had the classic flavor we were looking for during this difficult time. Thanks for the amazing wealth of information you work so hard to publish all of the time. It is truly appreciated. 😊
Oh, I’m so happy you find it helpful and enjoy the recipes and website. Yay for that gorgeous broth simmering and love ot hear the cranberry sauce was a hit. Blessings to you!
Hi Melissa,
I recently found you on Instagram and YouTube & am LOVING the info you share! I just attempted the broth recipe in the instant pot using a rotisserie chicken carcass but it came out very bitter… what did I do wrong and is there a way to fix it?
Thanks!
– Jessica
I’ve never had it be bitter, what herbs/veggies did you use?
I used dried parsley and some minced garlic (from a jar – I didn’t have whole cloves on hand). Could that have been the problem?
I used dried parsley and minced garlic (from a jar – I didn’t have whole cloves on hand). Could that have done it? For the veggies, I used a whole onion, a few whole carrots, and a few celery stalks.
Thanks for the reply!
I used dried parsley and minced garlic (from a jar – I didn’t have whole cloves on hand). Could that have done it? For the veggies, I used a whole onion, a few whole carrots, and a few celery stalks.
You mentioned sometimes the jar would break in the freezer.. I have a tip to pass on that I discovered the hard way. To prevent damage to the jar from bumping something else in the freezer– slip the Mason jar into an old mismatched sock—the heavier the sock- the better the protection. Slip the jar in and you can fold the top of the sock back down over the jar for another layer of protection. Personally, I dont fold the top down because I use the top of the sock to carry them from the freezer. (no freezer burned fingers) You can use marker on a white sock to write contents- or fold top of sock and write on lid. BONUS: If by some wild chance the jar does break anyway… you won’t have shards of glass all over the freezer… you pick up the whole thing– by the top of the sock & place in the trash with no need of clean up or band-aids.
I’ve been learning to make broth for about a year now. Some say to cook in the instant pot for 120-130 mins but noticed your recipe calls for half the time. Is it because you run the bones again for a second batch of broth? Bones are very brittle after 2 hrs.
I love my freeze dryer, but it doesn’t freeze-dry fats unless they are well-blended into a recipe in very small quantities. (I tried Veganaise once, LOL! What a mess…) Do you also skim the fat off before you freeze dry your broth? If so, how do you preserve the fat (or what else do you use it for?) I have my Thanksgiving turkey carcass simmering right now but didn’t see your suggestion to use ACV before I started it. Is it too late to add it after it’s been simmering for 24 hours? It still has 24 hours to go. Thanks!