Low-Carb Chicken Bone Broth Recipe
Rich chicken bone broth soup forms the base for many soup recipes, or enjoy as a rich cup all by itself.
- Prep Time: 10 min
- Cook Time: 24 Hours
- Total Time: 24 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 3 Quarts 1x
Ingredients
- 2–4 chicken carcasses, from 3-3 1/2 pound chickens, baked and picked of meat-or 1 turkey carcass, from a 12-14 pound turkey, baked and picked of meat
- 2 medium onions, quartered
- 2 carrots, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 4 celery ribs, cut into 2 pieces
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
- 2 bay leaves
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme leaves
- 10 black peppercorns
- 128 ounces water
- 3-inch piece kombu
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, unfiltered
- sea salt
Instructions
- In a large soup pot, place the carcasses of 3 chickens or 1 turkey (12-16 pounds). Carcasses can be cooked or raw. (Optional: Use a heavy knife to break the carcasses into chunks. Using cooked and picked birds makes this task easier.) Add all other ingredients to the pot. Cover with water and bring pot to a boil.
- Once the pot boils, reduce fire to low until the pot gently simmers. You don’t want a rolling boil.
- Skim and discard the foam and scum that rises to the top during the first hour of cooking. Cook stock for hours! The longer the better and the big rule is to not let it boil with gusto! Cook it at a gentle simmer, barely moving in the pot! If the liquid evaporates and gets too low, add a bit more hot liquid. The soup will reduce by about ⅓ during the cooking process and the bones and veg will melt into one conglomeration. We’ve cooked bone broth for 24 hours with stunning results. You can also do this in the slow cooker. When the stock is done, taste and add salt to your preference.
- Strain stock, discard solids and store bone broth in glass jars. For quick cooling, pour stock into a stainless steel bowl set over a larger bowl filled with ice. Or return broth to the clean soup pot. Add ice into the sink and set pot on top of ice. Stir occasionally to help heat dissipate.
- Quick cooling of stock helps reduce bacteria. It’s not a good idea to quick cool in the refrigerator.
- Store cooled stock in glass jars up to a 1 week, or freeze in freezer safe containers up to 3 months.
Notes
Bone broth is best when made from the super-cheap, cartilage cuts such as necks, feet, backs, wing tips. Save wing tips in a bag along with trimmed bits such as necks, giblets, and backs until you have enough for a pot of stock. Generally 3-4 pounds of raw bones/gallon; or 1 turkey carcass from a 12-16 pound bird, cooked and picked clean; or 2-4 chicken carcasses from 3-4 pound birds, cooked and picked clean. You can mix cooked and raw pieces too, in case you don’t have enough leftover carcasses. For the purpose of this recipe, we count the cooked carcasses as free, counting the cost of the bird into actual meat portions. The nutritional values will vary depending on the source of bones, skin included, raw, cooked, etc.)
Serving Ideas: Serve on its own as a nourishing “tea,” or use as a base for many different soup recipes.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 16
- Sugar: 0g
- Fat: 1g (29.9% calories from fat)
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: trace
- Fiber: 0g
- Protein: 3g
- Cholesterol: 0mg
