How to Make and Store Homemade Chicken Broth, Bone Broth and Vegetable Broth

Have you ever tried to make homemade chicken broth? I started a while ago and we love the idea so much that I wanted to share what I learned about homemade broth with you including our go-to chicken broth, bone broth and vegetable broth recipes, broth benefits and how to store homemade broth for up to 6 months.

You know, of all the foods in the world, broth is one of the most versatile. There are three fundamental broths that will take you a long way in the kitchen. From there, you can experiment with adding different ingredients to your basic broth recipes. The three basic broths are chicken broth, bone broth, and vegetable broth. If you can master the art of making rich broths, you will have laid the groundwork for achieving superlative flavor in every dish you make from now on.

A good broth can serve as the foundation for hundreds of soups, gravies and sauces. Broth can even be used to supplement medical care for colds, flus, stomach upsets and more. Certain broths are known as a superfood, meaning they have a high density of vitamins and micronutrients.

It’s so easy to make your own broth at home that it’s a real saving to skip the boxed version. And when you make your own broth, you can omit or reduce the salt if you want. You can make it as spicy or bland as your taste prefers, and of course, you get the benefit of controlling the quality of the ingredients. We recommend you try making your own homemade broth at least once and compare the flavor to your favorite commercial brand. Let us know in the comments section which one you liked more!

Homemade Chicken Broth

The finished chicken broth tastes like a subtle version of chicken soup. This broth can be made with almost any chicken parts, but most cooks agree that the wings and thighs with bones impart the most flavor.

You don’t even have to remove the skin to make homemade chicken broth. In fact, you may end up with a better tasting broth if you leave the skin on while making the chicken broth. Watch the video below and learn how to make chicken broth in a slow cooker.

It’s crucial to start with clean chicken. Raw chicken is susceptible to contaminants that you don’t want on your kitchen surfaces or in your broth.

1. To wash chicken safely, begin with a clean sink.
2. Next, set a dish next to the sink to place the raw chicken after you rinse it. (You don’t want to be fumbling around in the cabinets with unwashed hands after you’ve just handled the raw chicken.)
3. Turn your faucet on so you have a very low stream of warm water. The key is to avoid splattering.
4. Place the chicken in the bottom of the sink (again, if you hold it up high near the faucet, the water may splatter), and rub it gently under the running water. Be sure to rinse inside the crevices and folds.
5. Place the raw chicken on the platter for use in the chicken broth recipe.
6. Scrub out the bottom of the sink and wipe down the faucet, and wash your hands thoroughly.

We prefer to let our broth cook nice and slow in a slow cooker to ensure a rich flavor. Plus, you can set and forget it for a few hours and save electricity at the same time. What’s not to love? Here’s our all-time favorite chicken broth recipe for you to try.
SLOW COOKER CHICKEN BROTH RECIPE
Yield: 12 cups

INGREDIENTS
3 pounds chicken thighs/wings, bone in and skin on
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 ounce fresh ginger, sliced
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 bay leaves
3 quarts water

1. Rinse chicken thoroughly and place them at the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker.
2. Add onion, ginger, sea salt, bay leaves into the slow cooker and pour water over all ingredients.
3. Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours or on high for 4-5 hours, until the broth is deeply flavored.
4. Let the broth settle for 5 minutes and remove as much fat as possible from the surface using a large spoon.
5. Discard the solids and strain the broth through a fine-mesh strainer into a large container. Enjoy and refrigerate or freeze the leftovers for later.

*Note: We only use 1 teaspoon salt in this recipe, but you can certainly add more salt based on your own taste. You may save the chicken for shredded chicken. To do so, remove the skin and the bones; tear up the chicken meat using your hands or two forks. This recipe yields 12 cups (3 quarts) chicken broth.

Homemade Bone Broth

Bone broth has been called a superfood, due to the many health benefits it offers. It has, among other things, calcium, collagen, and bone marrow. It’s been linked to reducing systemic inflammation, relieving joint pain, and improving hair and nail growth. It’s amazing restorative properties can’t be valued highly enough.

If you can imagine what beef stew would taste like if you took out all the meat and vegetables, that’s what bone broth tastes like. It’s amazingly rich and satisfying, yet it’s completely gentle on the digestive system. It’s perfect for adults who are under the weather and can’t stomach a solid meal. Yet it’s also ideal for those cold winter days when you feel like more than a cup of tea to go with your book, but not a heavy snack.

So where do you get the bone for the bone broth? Well, you can buy prepackaged beef bones from many grocery stores. They may offer oxtails or a few other types. But a less expensive source is to save the bones from your steak dinner. Grilled Porterhouse and T-bones are our favorite kind of steak meals. Since you already spend the money on those, why not make the most out of them by saving the bones for a nutritious broth? You know there is always a bit of meat that you can’t easily get to on a T-bone, but it’s an excellent addition to a bone broth and the meat comes right off after the broth is done. See, absolutely no waste!

And if you buy a roast with bone in, you can use that, too. Remember, bones can always be reused. They might yield less flavor, but will still yield nutrition.

Just toss the bone in a freezer bag for use anytime you want to make bone broth in the future or make it right after dinner in your slow cooker. Serve the bone broth by itself in a mug for easy sipping. Or, keep it on hand for use as a base in your slow cooker recipes, beef gravies, soups, and stews.

However, even if making bone broth at home isn’t difficult, sometimes marrow bones are not always accessible to us and other times we just simply don’t have the time to make it. That’s when I stock up some 100% grass-fed bone broth from Kettle & Fire, America’s first and only USDA grass-fed bone broth. If you do decide to try it out, don’t forget to use code “DelishPlan” to get 15% off your first order.
SLOW COOKER BONE BROTH RECIPE 
Yield: 12 cups

INGREDIENTS
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
7 garlic cloves, smashed
3-3.5 pounds of beef bones (or leftover T-bones from your steak dinner)
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
sea salt
3 quarts water

1. Throw carrots, celery, onion and garlic at the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker. Place beef bones on top of the vegetables. Add bay leaves and drizzle with apple cider vinegar. Sprinkle a pinch of salt, then pour water into the slow cooker.
2. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours.
3. Discard the solids and strain the broth through a fine-mesh strainer into a large container. Enjoy and refrigerate or freeze the leftovers for later.

Homemade Vegetable Broth

One of our favorite things about vegetable broth is that there are endless ingredient combinations you can use. If you like a more oniony-taste, you can add more onion or shallots, or if you prefer a sweeter flavor, you can include sweet red or yellow peppers to the mix.

If you dislike wasting food (we do!), here’s a frugal way to source ingredients for a fine vegetable broth. Each time you cut vegetables for supper, save the ends and peels. Just toss them into a large freezer bag and keep adding to it. When the bag is full, use these “scraps” to make a big batch of vegetable broth. Here are some suitable vegetables that you can save the cut ends from:

• Asparagus ends
• Broccoli stalks
• Bell pepper tops
• Cauliflower stems
• Onion tops and bottoms (sans skin)
• Carrot tops, bottoms and peels
• Carrot greens
• Celery bottoms, and the celery bulb and leaves
• Leek’s green part
• Tomato tops and bottoms

This homemade vegetable broth recipe below will get you started making delicious broth, and you can alter it according to the ingredients you have on hand.
SLOW COOKER VEGETABLE BROTH RECIPE 
Yield: 8-12 cups

INGREDIENTS
2 medium onions, chopped
2 to 3 carrots, chopped
3 to 4 celery stalks, chopped
1 large tomato, chopped
8 ounces mushrooms (or mushroom stems)
4 sprigs fresh thyme (optional)
1 bay leaf
1 small bunch parsley
Salt, to taste
1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
8-12 cups water

1. Combine all ingredients in a 6-quart slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours or on high for 4-5 hours, until the broth is deeply flavored.
2. Discard the solids and strain the broth through a fine-mesh strainer into a large container. Enjoy and refrigerate or freeze the leftovers for later.

Vegetable broth captures all the nutrients from the vegetables during the making of it. You can then deliver those nutrients to any dish via the broth. For example, when you use vegetable broth as the liquid to make rice or pasta, those nutrients are absorbed into the grain. You and your family will then reap all the added nutritive benefits when you enjoy your regular meals.

How To Store Homemade Broth Efficiently

Broth responds well to freezing, so you can make big batches at a time and have it readily available for enjoying on its own or in recipes. There are many ways to freeze broth, but in order to do it efficiently and create the convenience when you are ready to defrost and use it, we’ve got some of our favorite methods to share with you.

Ziploc Bag Method

Ladle the broth into a coffee mug lined with a quart-size Ziploc bag. Seal the bag and repeat this step with the rest of the broth. Place the filled bags flat in a large shallow roasting pan and put it in the freezer. Once the broth is solidly frozen, the bags can be removed from the pan and stored in the freezer. Watch the video below to see how it’s done.

Silicone Muffin Tin Method

If you have silicone muffin tins, ladle cooled broth into each muffin tin and freeze. When the broth is frozen, twist the muffin tin like you would twist an ice tray to get the frozen broth blocks out. Place the frozen blocks in a large Ziploc bag and seal it tightly. Store the bag in the freezer.

Mason Jar Method

If you invest in different sizes of Mason jars, you can freeze different portion sizes quite easily. Ball is a quality brand, and you can often find these for sale in supermarkets in the canning section.

To freeze broth in glass Mason jars, start with clean jars—fresh out of the dishwasher is fine. Allow the finished broth to come to room temperature. Ladle into the jar, leaving at least an inch of headroom. Water expands as it freezes, so you are basically allowing space for expansion. If you don’t do this, the jar will crack in the freezer. Secure the metal canning lid to the top and label the jar with the name and date. You can store frozen broth for up to six months (but you’ll use it up long before that, we promise!).

Once you start using broth in your daily cooking, it’s likely you’ll never want to go back to using plain water again when you cook. Broth is so nutritive, it may feel like you’re cheating yourself out of vitamins if you don’t use it every chance you get! Here you have it – slow cooker chicken broth, bone broth and vegetable broth recipes and how to store homemade broth efficiently.

Now, tell us which broth recipe is your favorite and how you use it in the comments below.