Chicken Bone Broth

The boned carcasses of 2 organic chickens (I collect them when I roast a whole chicken and store in the freezer in a freezer bag)

Any raw leftover chicken scraps (wing tips, necks, gizzards, etc.) left over from trimming and cutting up chicken

2 or 3 ribs of celery

2 large or 3 smaller carrots

1 large onion (yellow or white)

2 cloves of garlic

2 TBSP apple cider vinegar, like Bragg’s

Enough cold, filtered water to cover all of the ingredients, apprx. 4 quarts

Additional ingredients if you have them in your fridge:

1 leek, light parts only cut in large chunks

Turnip, cut in quarters

1 or 2 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 or 2 sprigs of parsley

You will need a slow cooker big enough (6-7 quarts) to hold all of the ingredients.

This stock is practically FREE to make! After you bake a whole chicken, save the carcass in a freezer bag and keep in the freezer until you are ready to make stock. Also add to freezer bag any leftover onion, garlic, celery, carrot, etc. scraps you may have. When you have two carcasses saved you are ready to make stock. (Always save the necks, gizzards, wing tips, and add these too your freezer bags. Do not save skin and fat.)

Dump the fresh and/or frozen chicken parts into your slow cooker. Add the remainder of the ingredients. Use enough cold filtered water to just cover the contents of the slow cooker. Let the contents sit in the slower cooker for an hour or two so that the frozen ingredients to defrost and to allow the vinegar to help leach the ‘goodness’ out of the bones.

Using the low setting on your slow cooker, cook your stock for anywhere from 10-18 hours. The longer the better! Let the stock cool, strain through unbleached cheese cloth or a fine sieve, and store in glass storage containers with plastic snap on lids. If you are not going to use the stock for soup or other recipe right away, store containers in freezer. I store mine is various sized container for various purposes.

*It is always recommended that you use as many organic ingredients as you can.