Making and Canning Your Own Homemade Chicken Broth
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You don’t actually need a recipe to make your own homemade chicken broth. Stock. Brock. Bone broth. Whatever the heck the culinary experts that troll my pages say it’s supposed to be called. I’m a scientifically illiterate fakesteader don’tcha know?! But, seriously. I do not care about using the right term, because it is what it is in my household and I use my homemade chicken broth for everything. If a recipe calls for stock, I add broth. If it calls for broth, I add stock. Whateverrrrrrrrrr. LOL
Making your own chicken broth is so delicious and easy, you’re gonna be made at yourself for ever buying it. I am grateful for having the ability to raise my own meat birds and process them myself every year. Store bought chicken is not it… it smells weird and just… no. But, you do the best with what you got and can do. So, if store bought chicken carcasses is what you got, it’s better than nothing! Buy a whole chicken, use the meat, and then use the chicken bones to make your chicken stock. Get the most bang for your buck this way! You also need to make sure you’re stealing the turkey carcass at holidays and family get togethers to make turkey broth. Free broth! :D
To make your own chicken jello juice… you can use just bones, meat AND bones, skin, connective tissue, veggie scraps, feet, heads, necks… ALL THE PARTS. For the sake of this recipe, I am not giving you exact measurements, but will give you the ingredients I choose to use in my broth to make a very satisfying and gelatinous broth.
Vinegar
I gotta do a blurb on this because why oh whyyyy did we start using vinegar. I’ve shared this on social media because literally everyone and their mother and uncle and cousin tell me to add vinegar to pull out the minerals. Even Sally Fallon Morel did me dirty and her recipe says to add vinegar. But, you know me, I’m going to tell you exactly why I don’t. And it’s heavily my opinion. Vinegar doesn’t belong in everything, and broth is one of them. I don’t want to taste it. And you can tell me the amount is negligible so I won’t taste it, but I’m not chancing it. That’s gross and silly to me.
Second, SCIENTIFICALLYYYYYY, the heat you apply to the bones is sufficient in pulling the minerals and goodies from the bones. You don’t need vinegar to do that. You need slow and low heat applied over an extended amount of time, just below boiling, to fully use those bones to their maximum potential. What I get from this method is a perfectly rich and GELATINOUS broth every single time… since errrbudyyy obsessed with the wiggle and jiggle.
Also. Vinegar chelates. That basically means it encourages the heavy metals to be pulled from the bones. Our bones store said heavy metals we’re exposed to in the environment, and simple heat doesn’t normally release many of those. There were multiple studies done proving this as well. Batches without and with your beloved apple cider vinegar with bones from the same animal were cooked identically and the batch with vinegar had significantly more heavy metals present than that that was cooked without. Why do we need MORE heavy metal exposure when you can see they’re coating us with plenty in the skies. That’s just my $0.02, but dang if the vinegar trend isn’t one of the dumbest things I’ve seen amongst the homesteader crowd… INCLUDING from you miss Sally!
Rebel Canning
A note on the rebel canning aspect of this recipe. One: this recipe isn’t an EXACT recipe given by the Ball Blue Book or the NCHFP, so it is considered rebel canning. Did you know there’s people that actually think you’ll die of botulism because you made bone broth with 2 stalks of celery and a mushroom instead of 1 stalk of celery? It’s true. So, I get to share this lovely moment on rebel canning. It doesn’t mean you’re gonna die… okayyyyy?? You can safely make your own homemade broth and can it made the exact way you want to make it.
Two: I do choose to process my broth via a water bath canner. That’s also rebel since canning low acid food via water bath is considered unapproved. That doesn’t mean it’s highly illegal or I’m going to die… it just means the USDA adopted the 240F or die rule and ignored science. Misinformation much?! I don’t see the letter agencies getting censored for sharing LIES. In this recipe, I give you both my water bath canning method and the pressure canning method. I do choose to water bath mine for 2 reasons: it’s faster than the pressure canner and I find that lower heat for an extended time preserves the quality of my broth as opposed to higher pressure. Less denatured proteins and all that. Upon opening, I do properly heat my broth by bringing to a boil for 5-10 minutes prior to consumption, which I normally do anyway, but felt I needed to mention that. If you don’t want to can it at all, you can freeze it, but you won’t find me using up precious freezer real estate for broth.
Equipment You Might Want:
- Electric Roaster
- Electric Pressure Cooker
- Large Stock Pot
- Fine mesh strainer
- Canning jars
- Canning lids & screw bands
- Jar funnel
- Jar lifter
- Pressure Canner
- Water bath canner
Ingredients:
- chicken bones, necks, feet, skin, cartilage, heads, etc.
- vegetable scraps (optional)
- fresh herbs
- filtered water
- salt
Step 1: Choose a Method & Cook
Electric Roaster
Fill your electric roaster about 2/3 full with your chicken bones and scraps and any scraps of vegetables you may want to use. Add enough water to just cover. Set the roaster pan to 200F and allow it to cook for 12-24 hours. (my preferred method for large batches during chicken processing)
Pressure Cooker
Fill the insert to your pressure cooker about 1/2 full with chicken scraps and any veggie scraps you may have and want to use. Add water to the max fill line. Add the lid and hit the “soup/broth” button or cook at high pressure for 4 hours. (my preferred method for small batches of bone scraps)
Stock Pot
Fill the stock pot with your chicken bones and veggie scraps as desired. Add enough water to just cover the bones. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Adjust heat to keep the liquid at a very gentle bubble. Boiling your stock can make it go cloudy and milky looking, which looks gross, but doesn’t affect the taste.
Allow your broth to cook until the bones easily crumble between your fingers. When using my electric roaster or a stock pot, I normally cook it low and slow for about 24 hours.
Step 2: Strain
​You can either dump the pot directly into a fine mesh strainer with a bowl underneath, or do what I do.
I use my jar funnel placed on a clean jar with a small fine mesh strainer over top and ladle the broth through that straight into the jar. I don’t worry about adding hot liquid to hot jars; hot liquid into room temperature jars if perfectly fine. Fill jars to 1-inch headspace. If you notice a large amount of fat on top (I’ve had jars be half full of fat before and that’s a bit much), use a turkey baster to suck the fat off the top and place it into a bowl for rendering later. You don’t have to skim all that fat; it’ll be fiiiiiiiine.
Step 3: Canning
Once all jars are filled, add salt if you want. For quart jars, I add 1 teaspoon of salt to each jar.
This is a liquid so you don’t have to remove the air bubbles. It’ll debubble itself… so don’t be one of those goofballs poking a liquid with a debubbling tool.
Wipe the rim of the jar with a damp cloth to ensure a proper seal (fat that gets between the lid sealing compound and the jar rim can cause a failed seal), and add a lid and secure with a screw band according to manufacturer’s instruction.
Process pint jars for 20 minutes at your elevations recommended pounds of pressure or quarts for 25 minutes.
​Rebel: I water bath quarts and pints of broth for 1 hour at a full rolling boil. You can adjust your processing time for altitude off of that if you’re comfortable with canning outside the lines, as the times I give are for under 1000ft always.
Once processing time is complete, allow pressure canner to completely depressurize before removing jars to a heat proof surface lined with a towel to cool undisturbed for 18-24 hours.
Step 4: Storing
Once cooled, remove bands, test seals, wash jars, label, and store in a cool dark place away from direct sunlight. Ideal storage conditions are 55-70 degrees F.
Shelf life is ’til you use them. If the seal is good, they’re good.
Notes
If you chose to water bath the broth, do be sure to properly heat your broth prior to consumption by bringing it to a boil for 5-10 minutes.
Your broth will not gel at room temperature unless your storage is VERY COLD. It will remain a liquid. After canning, even pressure canning, your broth will remain gelatinous if you put it in the fridge. Many are obsessed with the gel, and I’m telling you, if your broth doesn’t gel, it doesn’t mean it’s not good for you. Don’t get caught up in that and do your best!
And now you’ve made and preserved your own homemade bone broth!
Equipment
- Electric Pressure Cooker
- Large Stock Pot
- Canning jars
- Canning lids & screw bands
- jar lifter
- Water bath canner
Ingredients
- chicken bones necks, feet, skin, cartilage, heads, etc.
- vegetable scraps optional
- fresh herbs
- filtered water
- salt
Instructions
Electric Roaster
- Fill your electric roaster about 2/3 full with your chicken bones and scraps and any scraps of vegetables you may want to use. Add enough water to just cover. Set the roaster pan to 200F and allow it to cook for 12-24 hours. (my preferred method for large batches during chicken processing)
Pressure Cooker
- Fill the insert to your pressure cooker about 1/2 full with chicken scraps and any veggie scraps you may have and want to use. Add water to the max fill line. Add the lid and hit the “soup/broth” button or cook at high pressure for 4 hours. (my preferred method for small batches of bone scraps)
Stock Pot
- Fill the stock pot with your chicken bones and veggie scraps as desired. Add enough water to just cover the bones. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Adjust heat to keep the liquid at a very gentle bubble. Boiling your stock can make it go cloudy and milky looking, which looks gross, but doesn’t affect the taste.
- Allow your broth to cook until the bones easily crumble between your fingers. When using my electric roaster or a stock pot, I normally cook it low and slow for about 24 hours.
- You can either dump the pot directly into a fine mesh strainer with a bowl underneath, or do what I do.
- I use my jar funnel placed on a clean jar with a small fine mesh strainer over top and ladle the broth through that straight into the jar. I don’t worry about adding hot liquid to hot jars; hot liquid into room temperature jars if perfectly fine. Fill jars to 1-inch headspace. If you notice a large amount of fat on top (I’ve had jars be half full of fat before and that’s a bit much), use a turkey baster to suck the fat off the top and place it into a bowl for rendering later. You don’t have to skim all that fat; it’ll be fiiiiiiiine.
- Once all jars are filled, add salt if you want. For quart jars, I add 1 teaspoon of salt to each jar.
- This is a liquid so you don’t have to remove the air bubbles. It’ll debubble itself… so don’t be one of those goofballs poking a liquid with a debubbling tool.
- Wipe the rim of the jar with a damp cloth to ensure a proper seal (fat that gets between the lid sealing compound and the jar rim can cause a failed seal), and add a lid and secure with a screw band according to manufacturer’s instruction.
- Process pint jars for 20 minutes at your elevations recommended pounds of pressure or quarts for 25 minutes.
- Rebel: I water bath quarts and pints of broth for 1 hour at a full rolling boil. You can adjust your processing time for altitude off of that if you’re comfortable with canning outside the lines, as the times I give are for under 1000ft always.
- Once processing time is complete, allow pressure canner to completely depressurize before removing jars to a heat proof surface lined with a towel to cool undisturbed for 18-24 hours.
- Once cooled, remove bands, test seals, wash jars, label, and store in a cool dark place away from direct sunlight. Ideal storage conditions are 55-70 degrees F.
- Shelf life is ’til you use them. If the seal is good, they’re good.
