Bone Broth...and Chicken Soup... page

[Dynamo]

Good morning!

I have read about everything I can on this topic and still have some questions...

I am only working on making chicken broth right now...my end result is that I want to make chicken "soup" so I am not just looking to make the broth.

So far, I have been making the chicken soup this way:

1. Roast a chicken in the oven.
2. Remove the white meat BUT leave the dark meat.
3. Place the remaining chicken in my crock pot.
4. Cover with cold water, add some spices/onion/celery and vinegar.
5. Bring to a boil then let simmer for several hours.
6. Strain the broth and discard the chicken.
7. Put broth in the fridge overnight.
8. Remove the fat that collected and reheat the broth to a boil.
9. Add some spices, sauteed onions, celery, and carrots and boil for another 6 minutes.
10. Add the saved shredded chicken breast from the original roast.

This is really delicious, however, I am wondering if I am gaining the same benefits as if I had removed ALL (most) of the chicken prior to the boiling/simmer process? (No one here eats dark meat chicken although I suppose I could add that back into the chicken soup as I am ok with dark meat in a soup.)

Sorry for the long story. I just didn't want to miss a step I was taking.

I guess the bottom line question is this: if I am not "exposing" the "bones" during the entire broth preparation process are the "bone benefits" still available? Are the bone nutrients still "leaking out" although covered with meat? (The meat is basically off the bones by the time it is done - I am not sure when in the cooking process it actually falls off).

If it is true that I really need to remove most of the meat, am I better off just cooking wings and adding other chicken breast later?

I would really appreciate some insight!

Thank you in advance and happy groking!

Diane

[noodletoy]

i buy backs, heads and feet for chicken broth. the meat you're leaving on the bones isn't adding much nutrition to the batch. if it's all cooked, take that off the bones and have it later in your soup.

i don't like celery in broth -- it makes it too bitter. i use onions, carrots, garlic and ginger. black peppercorns and dried thyme.

"simmering for several hours" in a crockpot isn't leaching enough good stuff out of the bones. i don't have a slow-cooker, so do mine on the stove and i cook it until the bones are soft. this usually means at a pretty hard simmer overnight -- even 12 hours.

i strain out all the solids and discard them. then i boil the broth to reduce it for easier storage. (i make LARGE batches, so i only have to do this a few times per year. like 15 pounds of bones at a time.) i do not skim the fat. animal fat is good for you and damn tasty. my broths are reduced to a very solid gelatin, that i need to break with a spoon for a serving of it.

[valmason01]

i strain out all the solids and discard them. then i boil the broth to reduce it for easier storage. (i make LARGE batches, so i only have to do this a few times per year. like 15 pounds of bones at a time.) i do not skim the fat. animal fat is good for you and damn tasty. my broths are reduced to a very solid gelatin, that i need to break with a spoon for a serving of it.

I remember reading somewhere that chicken fat is bad? I don't remember where now but it was a paleo/primal friendly site. It has made me a bit leery of it. Also, I am not a cook. What do you mean by the broth being reduced to a solid gelatin? Do you melt it to eat/drink?

[KeihBarro]

i strain out all the solids and discard them.

[yodiewan]

I remember reading somewhere that chicken fat is bad? I don't remember where now but it was a paleo/primal friendly site. It has made me a bit leery of it.

It was probably right here: Cooking with Bones | Mark's Daily Apple

•Speaking of fat, I’d toss poultry fat. It’s a relatively high-PUFA animal fat, and a day of simmering has probably damaged it beyond repair. If you’re stewing bones with more saturated animal fat, though, you should absolutely save the fat layer.

There wasn't a link to study or anything to verify the truth of this statement, but it makse sense. Chicken fat is pretty high in PUFA.

Also, if you do skim and save the fat from beef stock, be sure to finish rendering it seperately if you plan on keeping it for more than a week or so. It won't have gotten hot enough to drive out all the water. It needs to get up to about 250F. Rendering will greatly extend the shelf life.

[valmason01]

Thanks yodiedawn! That is exactly what I read. I just made a pot last night and put it in the fridge. I will skim the fat off before I do anything else with it.

[noodletoy]

I remember reading somewhere that chicken fat is bad? I don't remember where now but it was a paleo/primal friendly site. It has made me a bit leery of it. Also, I am not a cook. What do you mean by the broth being reduced to a solid gelatin? Do you melt it to eat/drink?

since i am using mostly heads and feet, i suspect much of what congeals on the top of my broth is actually gelatin anyway, so yes, i keep it. i also store my portioned-out broth in the freezer.

when the bones are soft, i remove all the solids from the pot, then turn the heat up and boil the liquid down, to about 1/2 the volume. this boils out the water. cool and portion and freeze. when i need it, i take a bag out, chunk off a piece with a spoon and add enough water for a serving. i simmer this with some butter, hot sauce and seaweed. sometimes i will add an egg or two.

at this point i eat far more beef bone broth anyway.

[valmason01]

oh my that sounds very very good. Thanks for sharing your methods!

[camel]

I put a whole chicken in my crockpot, let cook for 24 hrs, cool, shred chicken meat for eating and some for the soup. The broth gels up nicely, though it was a whole chicken that was boiled, so I'm guessing it's not necessary to strip to bones before boiling to get the goodness out of the bones.

[Dynamo]

Thanks everyone for your replies! Again, trying to keep this pretty simple. Camel, thanks for letting me know that you do "ok" with just boiling/simmering the entire chicken. I think I am going to try this method and skip the roasting part. I was wondering how the chicken tasted after being boiled/simmered for so long? Does it lose it's integrity at all? Again, thank so much!