Strengthen your immune system this cold and flu season with bone broth
Bone broth! It’s the best.
What’s so great about it?
- We get nutrients from animals’ bone marrow and cartilage that we don’t always make or get in our diets (Vitamin K2, Vitamin D3)
- Soup broth created from simmering chicken bones actually has been shown to prevent specific immune cells from creating inflammation (the veggies and chicken act on different immune cells)
- Helps manage upper respiratory infections (sinuses etc)
- Provides protein to rebuild immune systems that are actively inflamed
- Is great for skin and hair
- Promotes a healthy gut
The easiest recipe for bone broth ever
- For three weeks, collect in your freezer all of the scraps of chicken bones, carrot peelings, knobs of celery feet, onion ends and skins, herbs (stems and all).
- Once you have a decent amount of chicken carcasses and bits veggies, put them all in a very large stock pot (10–15 L is ideal).
Ingredients
- 3 weeks worth of frozen chicken, turkey, or duck scraps (3 or more cooked and/or raw carcasses and bones)
- 3 weeks worth of frozen veggie scraps (carrot peels, celery leaves and heels, onion skins and ends)
- 3 weeks worth of frozen scraps of herbs (stems, ugly leaves, was it about to go bad? Great, freeze it)
- 4–5 L water
- 2–3 teaspoons of sea salt (to taste)
- 2–3 teaspoons of oregano, thyme, basil
- 3–4 bay leaves
Instructions
Bring all of the above to a boil. Once boiling, bring down to a simmer for 4–6 hours. If you leave it for longer, that’s fine—you can’t overcook a bone broth.
Storage
Once cooled, strain into sterilized mason jars (carefully) and store in the fridge.
How to use
Anywhere need stock: soup, gravy, rice/quinoa/lentils… just add and enjoy. Your immune system will have a major party!
Was there a lot of good meat left when you strained the stock?
Great! Shred, add stock and some rice or noodles. Instant soup!
Thick broth
You will notice that the product here looks quite thick and gelatinous for a “broth”, especially after it cools. Typically broth is thinner and stock is thicker. However, recently what we call bone broth is really a stock, with the focus being bones rather than meat.
This gelatinousness is from the collagen-rich gelatin (go figure) which comes from cartilage breaking down during the long slow cooking time. The collagen is what we’re going for here.
Win-win-win
Reduce waste. Reduce costs. Boost your immune system.
Make it this weekend!