Confused about making chicken broth for the first time

[nomad2224]

I have never made chicken stock in my life and I looked high and low around my area for chicken broth that was whole30 compliant...but nothing was available that didn't have sugar (evaporated cane juice to be exact.)

 

So....I have decided to try out the recipe from the book to make my own broth. My question is, do I just use the bones from a chicken? I asked my mom what she normally does, and she told me to use a whole chicken...meat and all. I don't recall the recipe mentioning to cook a chicken in the pot...just use a leftover carcass of a chicken.

 

What's the difference? I don't really want to have a boiled chicken (I am not making chicken soup). I just want to have some chicken broth available for other dishes that require it. So, do I just buy some chicken bones from a butcher and continue on? Or do I need the meat on it?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

[Pally]

I'm hardly an experienced stock maker, but I typically use leftover bones from cooked chicken (so a roasted chicken carcass, or saving up little bits from bone-in parts). But if you don't tend to eat the chicken like that, then sure, just go to the butcher....apparently some people roast those bones before boiling, some don't. I guess raw gives a lighter, clearer stock, while cooked bones are darker and richer.

I just learned this because I was googling whether I could mix my cooked and raw bones in the same pot. I did, and it was lovely.

[Tom Denham]

I frequently cook a whole chicken in water. I remove the chicken when it is cooked and put it in the refrigerator to cool. Later, I pull all the meat off the bones and throw the bones away. A 6 pound chicken from the store might yield 3.5-4 pounds of meat. I strain the broth and then start using it for anything I want. Typically I make soup, but you can save it to use in cooking other things. The broth is good for almost a week. 

 

Alternatively, I save all bones that I get in a one gallon ziploc bag in the freezer. When I have a bag full, I dump the bones in a pot, add spices, and cook until I have broth. Some people do not like the taste of mixed bone broth, but I like it just fine. 

[nomad2224]

So broth made from the whole chicken, meat and all, is basically the same as making it with JUST the bones? Is it more flavorful?

In your case where you cook the whole chicken in the water, what do you do with the meat? I've had plain boiled chicken before, I didn't like it much unless it was part of a soup.

 

I should mention as well I plan on doing this in a slow cooker, as I do not want to stick around all day and night checking a stock pot on the stove.

[ShannonM816]

So broth made from the whole chicken, meat and all, is basically the same as making it with JUST the bones? Is it more flavorful?

In your case where you cook the whole chicken in the water, what do you do with the meat? I've had plain boiled chicken before, I didn't like it much unless it was part of a soup.

 

I should mention as well I plan on doing this in a slow cooker, as I do not want to stick around all day and night checking a stock pot on the stove.

 

If you boil the chicken, you can use it in chicken salads or in soups. Another alternative that you could do in your slow cooker is to roast the chicken in the slow cooker, and then remove the meat from the bones, take out any vegetables you cooked it with, but leave any liquid, then throw the bones (and skin if you don't want to eat it) back in to the crockpot with the liquid that's still there, add the vegetables and herbs and spices for your broth, fill the rest of the way with water and let it cook for up to 24 hours. Here's a recipe -- obviously where she calls for butter, use ghee or coconut oil or some other Whole30 compliant fat or oil instead. This takes a little longer, but if you prefer the taste of roasted chicken to boiled, it might be worth it.

[nomad2224]

Thanks, does it change the taste if the bones at the start are from raw chicken or roasted?

Could I use a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken I buy from the super market? (checking first to see that they don't use non-compliant seasonings?_

[GFChris]

Thanks, does it change the taste if the bones at the start are from raw chicken or roasted?

Could I use a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken I buy from the super market? (checking first to see that they don't use non-compliant seasonings?_

I haven't used chicken bones, just raw beef bones that I get from my butcher: they get their beef from only grass-fed and pastured animals from local farms.

You can use raw, roasted or cooked bones: guessing the flavor would be diffrent for each. I'd also guess grass fed/pastured would taste better than conventional. Experiment and see what your taste buds like best.

[Hannlib]

I save the carcasses when I roast a chicken. And also bones from deboning thighs etc. Then I dump them in my slow cooker with an onion, a carrot, a celery stick, a bay leaf and a splash of fish sauce.

You could roast a chicken for dinner tonight and make stock with the carcass.

[ladyshanny]

I've used raw chicken racks from the butcher and at other times I've used roasted bones.  The flavour (to me) doesn't seem to be too much different between the two but the one with the roasted bones tends to be a darker color.

[nomad2224]

I am finally making the chicken bone broth...first time ever! I am making it in my slow cooker..I think I'll have it simmer for around 24 hours. Is this enough? Also, when I look at the water in the slow cooker, it seems to be bubbling, like a slow simmer, but is that normal? My slow cooker is set to low.

[nomad2224]

Urgh...so frustrated! Just strained my first broth ever out of the slow cooker and....it's gross. Dark, cloudy and has a bitter taste. I think it was overcooked (after doing some research, I had no idea it could "turn" from overcooking).

Any tips before I make my next attempt? I will try setting the time to only 12 hours instead. I didn't even taste this batch while it cooked, was I supposed to?

[ShannonM816]

It sounds like your crockpot is running a little too hot. This article has some tips about testing out a crockpot, and how to adjust some if it is too hot. If your crockpot has a Warm setting in addition to High and Low, you might periodically set it to warm for a bit, or if you don't have a Warm setting, you could remove the lid just for a little while every now and then, which should help to cool it down, just remember that if you do this you may need to add more liquid as the liquid will evaporate more. (I don't know that I'd try the removing the lid thing for actually cooking meat, I don't know how it would affect the internal temperature of the meat and therefore the safety of it.)

 

I hope you figure it out. 24 hours is usually an okay length of time for chicken broth to cook, so it really shouldn't have burned. 

[missmary]

listen to Shannon. Your crock pot was running too high, and possibly too dry. Add water if the bones are no longer covered.

 

Also, I feel like I need to clarify something: the chicken broth you make by simmering a whole chicken in water until cooked is not the same as the bone broth you make by simmering bones for 24 hours. Both are fine things to use in cooking, but if you want the minerals to leach out of the bones you need to leave it in there for much longer than you would to cook the flesh of the chicken. I sometimes leave some flesh on the carcass for bone broth, but by the time the broth is done that meat is not palatable at all.

 

If you want both the cooked chicken and the bone broth, I would either:

 

1. roast the chicken, remove the bits you want to eat then stick the remains in the slow cooker for 24 hours with 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar. (this is my method)

 

or

 

2. cook the chicken in water, remove the chicken when it is done cooking, take off the bits you want to eat and put the rest back in the water to simmer much longer with 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar.

 

If you want to get really fancy, add some veggies (onions and garlic, skins and all, carrots, celery, etc.) for the last couple hours of cooking. Don't put them in at the beginning or they will add a bitter flavor.

[Stegner]

I think the carcass of a roasted organic chicken pressure-cooked for 1 hour makes the best stock.