One of the best things about cooking a whole chicken is using the leftover bones to make chicken broth.
Homemade chicken broth is so much better than store bought, in my opinion.
Store-bought chicken broth is typically full of sodium, even the “less-sodium” kind. We’re talking 570mg per cup here {about 25% of how much you should have in one day}. And that’s before you add any other ingredients with sodium or use salt.
I used to think it was a pain to make chicken broth and honestly didn’t do it very often, but the slow-cooker comes to the rescue and makes it easy.
Since I posted how to cook your chicken in a Crock-Pot yesterday, I thought I’d post how to make chicken broth in a Crock-Pot today.
You can make homemade chicken broth even if you didn’t cook your chicken in a slow-cooker. All you need is the leftover chicken bones.
Basically, you throw everything into your slow-cooker, set it on low, and let it cook overnight {or all day}.
Homemade Chicken Broth
Keywords: soup/stew egg-free gluten-free low-carb low-sodium lower-sodium no-sugar-added nut-free soy-free veggies chicken
Ingredients
- bones leftover from whole chicken
- 1 celery stalk, roughly chopped
- 1 carrot, roughly chopped
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- fresh rosemary sprigs
- fresh thyme sprigs
- water
Instructions
Add leftover chicken bones, celery, carrot, onions, rosemary, and thyme to the Crock-Pot.
Pour enough water to completely fill the Crock-Pot, about 1 inch from the top of the Crock-Pot.
Cover and cook on Low overnight or for 8-10 hours.
Using a strainer, take out the chicken bones, vegetables, and herbs.
Refrigerate the broth until the fat rises to the top and solidifies.
Using a fine mesh strainer, skim the fat off the top of the broth. Discard chicken fat or reserve for later use {like making chicken gravy}.
this is what it looks like after you’ve refrigerated it and the fat solidifies & rises to the top
Transfer the broth to containers, and refrigerate up to 1 week or freeze up to 3 months.
*If you made the whole chicken in a Crock-Pot you can omit this onion since there is already an onion from the chicken in a Crock-Pot recipe. Just make sure there is some onion in the Crock-Pot.
[...] Making homemade chicken broth is easy when you use your Crock-Pot. [...]