Chicken Broth, Homemade


Chicken Broth, Homemade
Print RecipeIngredients
- 4 lbs chicken breasts bone in, skin removed
- 4 quarts water
- 3 medium onions quartered
- 3 ribs celery roughly chopped
- 4 cloves garlic smashed
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 5-6 fresh parsley stems
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 Tbsp salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Rinse the chicken well under cool running water and remove skin if present.
- Place all ingredients in a large stockpot or Dutch oven.
- Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to a simmer. Cook for 1 hour; at that point, the chicken should easily pull away from the bones.
- Using tongs, remove the chicken from the stock and set aside until cool enough to handle.
- Strain the cooking liquid through a fine-mesh strainer, discarding the vegetables.
- Pull the chicken meat off the bones, discarding the bones, and any fat.
- Shred and reserve the meat, and refrigerate until needed.
- Cool the stock, then store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or in the freezer for 6 months.
Notes
Chef Tip: You can add a variety of vegetables. I like to keep a freezer bag in my refrigerator for the discarded ends, leaves and peels of the vegetables I use throughout the week and add them to my stock. In addition to onion, celery and herbs, I also sometimes use mushrooms (or mushroom stems), eggplant, asparagus (or discarded ends), fennel (stalks and trimmed ends), bell peppers, chard (stems and leaves), etc. I keep a separate bag in my freezer for chicken and beef bones and add them to my broth to create nutrient rich bone broth. For best results, I simmer my bone broth up to 24 hours.