"set it and forget it" bone broth

Bone Broth is one of the most nourishing, healthy foods you can eat. It's great for overall gut health, improves your immunity, reduces inflammation and damage from food sensitivities and so much more. Making it has always been a tedious and time consuming process. But that changed when I learned this much simpler method that doesn't leave me babysitting my stove for hours on end.

This is a blog post I shared last year in early November. I wanted to share it again since it seems that cold and flu season is here a bit early, and it's important that we are nourishing our immune system with supportive food choices.

Sipping on a cup of bone broth each day is an excellent step to help keep yourself healthy all winter long.

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. It was a special time that I got to share with my Grandmother. Each year I would have a day that I would go over to her house to spend with her helping to get things ready for the Big Day. When I was very young, I would polish the silverware for her and make sure the crystal didn’t have spots. As I got older, I would do some of the shopping for her. And then eventually, I took over hosting for her.

The irony of all of this is – I have never liked turkey!! On Thanksgiving Day, I would fill my plate – with sides. Rarely would a slice of turkey make its way onto my plate. But there has always been one thing about turkey that I love – SOUP!

Each year, the day after Thanksgiving I would make a huge batch of Turkey Soup. We would eat that, along with our leftovers, for days, and I’d still have plenty to freeze.

And then, a few years ago, I learned about Bone Broth and turned my Turkey Soup into a pot of nutrient-dense gold!

Bone Broth is made by cooking the bones of turkey, chicken, or any protein at a low heat for a very long time, allowing the collagen and other healing compounds to transfer from the bones to the broth. Many of these nutrients are ones that are missing from most of our diets, such as gelatin, proline, glycine, chondroitin and, of course, collagen. This makes Bone Broth an excellent addition to your diet.

Bone broth is also filled with magnesium – a mineral many Americans are lacking in their diet – as well as calcium, phosphorus, and sulfur.

These nutrients and minerals make Bone Broth a great choice for Gut Health! The gelatin heals the gut by repairing the intestinal lining and reducing inflammation caused by gut-related disease and food sensitivities. For me personally, I love knowing that I can help my body heal from the damage I’ve done on Thanksgiving Day by indulging in the many foods I know cause my body an immune response, such as gluten and dairy.

By improving our gut health, we are also improving our immune system! Having some bone broth in the freezer is a great way to ward off a cold or flu. As soon as I start to feel “funny” I’ll pull out some bone broth to sip on.

Bone broth is also considered very detoxifying because it contains glycine, which is considered the body’s master antioxidant. Glycine plays a key role in protecting the liver.

There are many other health benefits to consuming bone broth, such as healthier, younger skin (the collagen), less joint pain, improved tissue regeneration, a healthier brain, and improved heart health.

With all these benefits – don’t throw away the turkey bones this year!!!

I recently learned of a super easy way to make bone broth. Previously, bone broth was a long, tedious process. It took commitment to make – no Black Friday shopping because I needed to be in the house, watching a pot simmer, for days. But no more! Now I’ve found this “set it and forget it” method that will have you sipping on Bone Broth AND taking advantage of all the great Black Friday deals!

To make Bone Broth, you will need:

Turkey Bones (or chicken – I usually freeze my bones as I use them and make bone broth when I have 2 or more sets of chicken)

1 Red Onion, cut in half – skin on!

1/4 - 1/2 cup Raw Apple Cider Vinegar (can be any type of vinegar – ACV is my preference)

3-4 bay leaves

2-3 sprigs of fresh parsley

2 T peppercorns

Filtered Water – don’t use your tap water if it contains fluoride and chlorine. You don’t want those nasty chemicals ruining your nutrient-dense bone broth!

Chicken Feet – this is a great addition if you can pick them up in advance from the market – you may have to ask the butcher for them. Make your bone broth even if you don’t have them but pick them up and freeze for the next time you make Chicken Bone Broth – they are full of collagen!!

1 Slow Cooker

To make your bone broth, begin by putting the bones into the slow cooker. It’s ok if they are frozen! Add the red onion, sliced in half (leave the skin on – it gives the broth a beautiful color!), the parsley, bay leaves, peppercorns, and Vinegar.

Now, top it with the water. THIS IS KEY!  Only put in enough water to cover the bones. If your bones only fill the slow cooker halfway, only add enough water to top the bones. Too much water will ruin the very important ratio of bones to water. Put the lid on your slow cooker, set it to Low, and head out to do some shopping! The goal is to have the pot simmer, but not boil.

After a few hours, check the broth, and skim off any of the scum on the top. Have you ever wondered what this scum is? It’s all the toxins being released from the bones!!! The higher the quality of chicken (as in pasture raised) the less scum you’ll see. Most chickens are fed chicken feed that contains arsenic. This arsenic accumulates in their bones. And that’s just one of the toxins…

You want your broth to simmer for about twelve hours. I like to do this overnight (the beauty of using a slow cooker!). And twelve hours is just a rough estimate – some people will say they leave it on for 2-3 days.

Once it’s done, turn off the cooker and let it cool for a few hours. Then strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer (I cover my strainer with cheese cloth and pour through that). Then go ahead and put it in the fridge! Any fat will rise to the top. You can remove this or leave it as is for increased nutrients! Once the broth is chilled, this is when you will see the difference between chicken stock and bone broth – the bone broth will be thick and gelatinous. The thicker, the more collagen in there!

But!! Here’s my favorite part of this method I discovered! Once you have strained out all the bones, you can start the process over again to get a beautiful stock! This second batch won’t have the medicinal gelatin in it, but it will be delicious and a perfect addition to other soups or anytime you need chicken stock. Simply repeat all the steps – you can even reuse the onion, parsley, etc. or add fresh ones.

Fun Fact: once you’ve done this a second time, you will have taken so much of the good stuff from the bones, they become rubbery, and you will be able to bend them in half!

My preferred way of storing the bone broth and the stock is in 100% food grade silicone, BPA-free gallon size bags. Once you’ve gone through all these steps to make this extremely nutritious food, you don’t want to put it in your typical plastic freezer bag to have it contaminated by all of the chemicals leeching into your broth. Another plus to storing in bags versus containers – you can freeze them flat, so they don’t take up as much space in your freezer. Don’t forget to label them! You want to know which is the bone broth and which is the stock! I use masking tape on the bags to label.

And that’s it! From one turkey you will be able to fill your freezer with many additional meals. What a great way to get more bang for your buck.

I hope you’ll give this bone broth a try! I’d love to see your pictures and hear your stories once you do.