In my kitchen cont....

07/08/2010

In my kitchen cont....

Homemade bone broths have become a staple in our home. We have a local source for organic, free-range pasture-fed chickens. If you are interested in doing the same try localharvest.org. They are much higher in available nutrients and are worth the extra price. We use one whole chicken per week in our home...which we try to stretch for 2-3 meals. One way to make our chicken s-t-r-e-t-c-h a little further is to use some of it, along with the broth in homemade soup. Chicken stock/broth has a concentrated level of minerals that helps make your entire meal more digestible.

The how-to's for homemade chicken broth:

First, I highly recommend making broth in a crock pot. There will be less broth overall, but will be very rich, flavorful and nutrient dense. After I started making it this way, I have never gone back to my stockpot.
Place whole chicken in crock pot. Fill almost to brim with water. (The water level will rise when you add in other ingredients.)
One onion--chopped roughly
One garlic (optional)--chopped roughly
Approx. 3 stalks of celery--leaves can stay on!
Approx. 2-3 large carrots--chopped roughly
1 Tablespoon -raw apple cider vinegar (the kind with the 'mother' in it)
Throw it all in the crock pot and leave on high for about 10 hours. After this time I turn it to the low setting, and using a pair of tongs, remove the meat. The meat is so tender, as you grab it a lot of it will fall off the bone, and the bone will stay in the pot. I make sure to get all of my meat out, and leave quite a few of the bones in and all the veggies, and let it sit on low for another 10 or so hours. This makes for a wonderful broth.
I usually do this no longer than 24 hours total....than you can strain out the solids, and the remaining is your broth. Use right away, store in fridge a few days, or freeze for longer!

As you can see, no need to dice up things small at this point...I just chop roughly and throw it in!

Here is our soup I made from this broth. I rummaged through my fridge and threw in whatever veggies/pasta/grain I was in the mood to. Today I used zucchini, onion, carrots, basmati rice, and red pepper. Add sea salt and pepper and you have wonderfully tasting, very frugal and healthy homemade meal. This goes very well with homemade bread or muffins!

Someday there will be scratch-n-sniff on these screens....it's needed right now! It is an easy mineral rich meal that I can throw any veggie into, so at the end of a busy day it is something I fall back on. Also, no one refuses it, and in a family with 4 going on 5 kids, that is precious I tell you. Precious.

Here is to healthy, frugal meals,

Joy

{This post is a part of pennywise platter...come join up!}

Posted at 10:06 AM in Raw and nourishing foods | Permalink

Tags: Homemade chicken broth; homemade chicken soup; homemade broth