What Is Bone Broth:
It's pretty simple: Bone broth is an aromatic broth simmered with beef or poultry bones and vegetables.
And, nope, it is not exactly the same thing as stock. The difference between a broth and a stock lies mainly the amount of time it's simmered. The longer the liquid cooks, the more nutrients and minerals leach from the bones. Broths are made by simmering the bones and vegetables for longer periods of time, meaning broth carries more beneficial nutrients.
Benefits of Bone Broth:
1. Heal and seal your gut. A cup of bone broth a day can help with leaky gut syndrome, but it's also good for protecting non-leaky guts. The gelatin in the bones helps seal up holes in intestines. (People who have leaky gut syndrome have a porous intestinal lining.) This "patching" can help ease chronic diarrhea, constipation, and even some food intolerances. Not to mention, it goes down easy; that's why dietitians recommend broth as one of the best hangover foods or for patients with food sensitivities.
2. Keep your collagen strong. According to Daniel Auer, a holistic medicine doctor based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the real benefit of bone broth is the low-and-slow cooking process, which breaks down the bones and connective tissues of the meat. As you sip the broth, you take in collagen (a building block of cells found everywhere from your skin and bones to your brain) and gelatin (a form of collagen that aids digestion)—both of which are incredibly healing.
4. Support a healthy immune system. Because of bone broth's high concentration of minerals I would put it in the category of "superfoods"
5. Increase bone strength. The phosphorus, magnesium, and calcium in the bones seep out into the broth, leaving you to sip all those essential nutrients for your own healthy bones.
Ingredients:
- Use chicken scraps from whole chicken
- 2 Onions
- 2-3 Full Carrots
- Salt and Pepper
- 3 - 10 Cloves of Garlic
- Water
Instructions:
1. Gather all ingredients - Go organic if possible, for the chicken bones I like to buy the pasture-raised from Whole Foods
2. Add all bones and scraps to Instapot - Minimum of one whole chicken carcass, up to three.
3. Quarter the onions and chop each carrot in four big pieces and keep garlic whole - The actual size of the cut veggies doesn't matter, this is just what I prefer.
4. Fill Instapot to fill line with water - This water will turn into the actual broth... you could use less water if you want less broth or more potent broth.
5. Set Instapot to Broth and set for 4 hours - You can do as little as two hours, but the longer the broth cooks the more potent the broth. longer = better!
6. Once finish cooking unplug the Instapot and take outside to release - After the pressure builds for upwards of 5 hours, it will take 5-10 minutes to release. That would be a lot of chicken juices in your house... Outside is best.
7. Once finished strain out all bones, scraps and mushy vegetables with metal strainer into big bowl - Make sure your strainer can withstand very high heat and your bowl is big enough to hold the liquid. Make sure to use hot pads when pouring.
8. Pour into smaller containers (only use glass IF you let cool to room temperature before freezing) - I like using these high heat plastic restaurant containers, but glass will work IF you let the broth cool to room temperature before freezing. PRO - TIP: Pour broth into ice cube trays (rubber) for quick single use broth. Great for soups.
* If you don't have an Instapot, you can use a deep pot on the stovetop. 24 - 48 hours.