I’ve talked about chicken broth before on here but have never detailed it so no better time, right?

There are a few different methods to make chicken broth and I will share the 2 that I use. Regardless of the method, the ingredients you’re going to want to have is a carcass of a cooked chicken, a few stalks of celery, a few carrots, and half an onion. I’ve been known to throw in a bay leaf or two in there as well. I usually buy a whole free range chicken from Trader Joe’s every week or two, salt it, oil it, and roast it for an hour and use the meat for various purposes depending on the time of year and then use the bones for this. I used to never have celery on hand but I was getting so tired of my girls coming in every evening as I was cooking dinner, begging for food, that I remembered my mom’s trick of offering celery and carrots during this bewitching hour so now I always have them within arms reach. Usually with a jar of peanut butter nearby.

For the first method, I cut up the celery and carrots into smaller pieces, throw them in a pot with the half of onion (skin and all) and chicken bones, fill with water (an inch above the chicken bones) and simmer the crap out of it, for a few hours, refilling with water as needed to keep the water above the bones.

The other method is in the crockpot. You follow all the same steps but instead of a pot on the stove, I cook it in a crockpot on low for 24 hours. Once the bones had been used, throw them out. The used veggies can get composted.

If I have the bones but for one reason or another, I don’t want to make the broth right then, I can freeze the bones until I have a few carcasses ready to go for a big batch. You can also freeze the carrots, celery, and onion if they are about to go south to save for your next batch as well. Fresh will always give you a better flavor though so maybe supplement some fresh with the frozen, if you can.

And that’s it! If I’m up for it, I pressure can the broth but if not, I freeze it and it’s ready for me next time I make chicken pot pie, rice, grains, soups, or the dreaded stomach bug hits our house.

Any other tips or tricks I’m missing? What do you use your chicken broth for?