Betka’s Bone Broth

Who knew when I wrote on Instagram “I’ll post up my recipe on the blog later this week.” that I’d spend the next 6 days doing pretty much only five things: working extra long days, eating at least 1 meal & taking ALL the supplements, showering, crawling into bed each night and braving the grocery store a couple of times? Not me, that’s for sure!

Working for an international online learning company, with a tiny US team, at a time when practically all of North America closes its schools is quite the adventure. I’m relieved that we survived the first full week of helping hundreds of schools set up accounts to enable their students to learn from home over the next weeks. I’ve got such a great team, and we added a couple of temporary workers that were SO life giving to our office’s staff, just when we needed it. But boy, am I grateful for this social-distancing Sabbath. I need it. 

I’m finally getting around to posting up my recipe! I sometimes use my instant pot for a quick batch, but I honestly just don’t think you can beat the taste of a slow-simmered stovetop broth. This recipe is for the stovetop.

Betka’s Bone Broth Recipe

• 1 lb cleaned chicken feet
• 1-2 chicken backs
• 1 yellow onion
• 3-5 whole organic carrots
• 3-5 stalks organic celery
• Sea salt 
• Water
• Optional 1-2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

I’ve got a super nifty stock pot that we got as a gift for our wedding and love dearly. It makes straining the broth SO easy, but you can also use a regular stock pot! I don’t make money off links from my site… (yet, haha) But here’s a link to the pot because you may want to treat yo’self! All-Clad Multi-Cooker As of right now, it’s on sale!! 

I place ONLY the chicken feet & backs in the large colander insert inside the pot, and then fill with water until the chicken parts are covered. (if using apple cider vinegar, this is when you’d add it, too.) As I bring the water to a boil, I skim off any of the gray film that rises to the surface. Then I simmer the chicken by itself for the first 4-6 hours. Yes, I said “first” and “4 to 6”. This is an all-day affair. After 4-6 hours of slow boil/high simmer, I add in the veggies and a good bit of salt. Personal preferences: I do peel the onion, do not peel the carrots, but I do rinse them in Young Living’s Thieves fruit & veggie wash which you actually *can* buy through me if ya want, because I’m a distributor! 😆link here -> Young Living Wholesale & Retail Purchasing

After adding the veggies, I simmer low for another 3-4 hours, checking every once in a while to make sure there’s still a good amount of water or add more if needed. I give it a taste and if I’m satisfied with the richness of flavor, I take it off the heat, let it cool for a few minutes, and then gently remove the colander from the pot, letting it drain well back into the pot. 

Once well drained, I set the colander aside in the sink to cool, if I’m done with it, or on a plate that can handle heat if I’m planning to simmer a second batch ( more on that later). Once the broth cools a bit, I take my fancy schmansy setup of a tiny strainer, funnel and ladle and get ready to store it in jars.

• Run the glass jars under hot water and let them sit a couple minutes with the hot water inside to temper the glass.
• Empty the jar, dry it out quickly, place the strainer inside the jar mouth and ladle the broth through the funnel into the strainer.
• Let the broth cool for a little bit more and then place the lids and store in the fridge. 

The first batch is always chock full of collagen, color and flavor! 

If I decide to simmer a second batch because the bones and feet still have plenty to give, I remove the onion, celery and carrot along with any meat that was left on the chicken backs and set it in to boil again for 4-5 hours. After 2 hours I add another onion, carrots and celery and basically just repeat the above process. It’ll be a little less collagen-y and flavorful, but great to use in place of water when cooking starches or as a part of recipes.

This is obviously an all day activity, but since there’s so much down time, you can do all kinds of productive or relaxing things in between steps, as long as someone is home to make sure it doesn’t boil over or dry!

What are your favorite bone broth/stock tips and tricks? Leave them in the comments below or comment on Vine & Sparrow Facebook or Instagram to join the conversation! I love to learn!