Is your kitchen all finished, laughable?

Phew, it got busy around here in the last few hours! Lunch, muffin making, grading, unexpected visitors... Anyway, I'm back. : )

Jillius, nope, the kitchen isn't done yet. Thanks for asking! You know how DIY goes. : ) DH and I sat down with our lists of what we want to do on the house yet, and there were other things I'd rather have done right now than the kitchen (like another bathroom and the master bedroom in the attic!). We are using a pair of dressers for the island right now which is working fine. It might be next winter before we do the island and the finishing details of the kitchen. It all depends on what he can get done between now and then.

After reading Nourishing Broth by Sally Fallon recently (and Nourishing Traditions a few years ago), I've renewed my interest in making bone broth for our family. It is sooo good for us. Not only nutritious, but healing to the body, good for joint health, and yummy! Waaay better for our health than bullion. Who knew God designed food could be so good for us?!

I'd be happy to give details, anitamo. Here you go:

This batch of stock started with 2 chicken carcasses from roasts that I made this weekend. I've also used carcasses from the rotisserie chicken that you can pick up on your way home from the grocery store, too. Both have made good tasting stock.

You can also make this with turkey or beef bones. Ideally, you want beef bones from grass fed, young beef for the highest quality stock.

Ok, here goes. This recipe will be roaster sized. You can certainly cut it down if you want a smaller amount. We have a big family, and I wanted enough to freeze to make several batches of soup.

Bones from a roast (a couple of chickens, a turkey, or a few pounds of beef bones, you pick.) Toss the skins in the pot, too, as well as any coagulated gelatin, juice, etc. Feel free to add in the necks, gizzard, heart, and so forth. Just leave out the livers, since their flavor will be too strong. Save them for something else if you're brave enough to eat them. (I'm still working on the courage for that!)

4-6 cloves of garlic, smashed, no need to peel. Ideally, let these sit out for at least 10 minutes after their smashed before starting to cook them. This gives them the time they need to activate all the health properties that are locked inside.

8-10 carrots, depending on size, washed, trimmed, and broken or cut into large chunks. 1 carrot will give you 2 or 3 chunks.

4 cups chopped celery*

2 or 3 onions, cut the ends off to remove dirt, then cut in half. No need to peel. Supposedly the skins give the stock a more robust color.

You can add some greens such as kale, if desired and available.

A splash of vinegar to help dissolve the nutrients from the bones. NT suggests 2 Tbsp per 4 qts. of water.

A few bunches of parsley can be added about 10 minutes before the finishing of the stock for extra nutrition.

Put all of these ingredients into the roaster. Cover everything with water until the roaster is almost full. Put the cover on, and set the roaster to Slow Cook. Leave it for hours. I left mine for about 8 hours, but you can go longer. Some people will even strain the liquid off, pour new liquid in, and continue making a second batch.

Once your stock has finished cooking, let it cool enough to handle (I let mine sit, turned off, over night. Shhhhhh...the germ police might come get me if you tell them...), and then start ladling the stock through a strainer and into your storage containers. I like to use 5 qt. ice cream pails, or the large Rubbermaid storage bowls. These are great because they are pot shaped, which comes in handy when it's time to use the stock. Leave enough room for the liquid to expand in the freezer container without disturbing the lid. See the small sauce pan in the picture? That's my "ladle" for this job. : )

Chill the stock in the fridge. The fat will from a skin at the top of the container that you can remove. Then freeze your stock.

Now, I'm the kind of cook that almost never remembers to get things out of the freezer ahead of time. You are probably smarter than me, and will remember to take the stock out the day before you want to use it. But if you forget, you can loosen the lid on the plastic container, slide the whole shebang into a larger stock pot, fill the pot partway with water, and put it on the stove to heat up. The stock will defrost enough to use in about 20 minutes or so.

The trick to using this is that your soups will need extra salt than what you are used to using as compared to store bought broth or bouillon. You can also cook rice in the broth, or drink it, if you are so inclined.

*(We grow our own celery. In the fall, we harvest it and use the food processor to chop the celery. I bag and freeze them in 2 cup portions, ready to dump into homemade soup.)

I made a spatchcocked chicken for dinner, and the cleaned carcass, skin, and giblets are simmering as I type. I fried the liver for my SIL this afternoon--he's the only one in the house who will eat them. After I clean the bones of cartilage and sinew (for the dog), I'll put them in fresh water and simmer a while longer.

I admit to clicking on this thread to see if you use the chicken-foot recipe. No chicken feet in sight!

I've read chicken feet make awesome stock, Mama Goose. But, we raised chickens when we had the farm; their feet were so dirty. I'm not sure how to get them clean enough to put them in my cooker. (?)

I'm with you--even if I felt they were scrubbed clean, just the thought of how gnarly they always look would be enough to make me pass.

Thank you! I hope we can get in the habit of making our own broth and this is a perfect encouragement to finally do it.

Thank you so much for your detailed recipe. I'm printing it out. I don't have a roaster yet, but it's on my list . Target has one in Ivory for 50.00 that I'm thinking of getting. I'll certainly let you know how mine turns out.

I agree that bone broth is excellent for us.

Nothing better than homemade stock! I generally smoke our chickens, so it imparts a subtle smokey flavor to the stock. In addition to soups, we use the stock for making rice- Yum!

LOL, Mama, the feet are gnarly, and not in the "cool" way. I can't picture a scrub brush that could get into all those cracks and crevices. Maybe it all just boils out??? (cringing a bit at the thought...)

Just do it, nightowl. : ) It's worth it and it's not hard. I have a friend that freezes her chicken bones and scraps and does them all in a great big batch. I'm too much of a procrastinator for that. If they go in the freezer, they might never come back out. But if I do it right after we eat, it's done.

You're very welcome, Anitamo. : ) The roaster is nice, but it's not necessary to have this to begin. A big pot on the stove or a crock pot for smaller batches will work well, too. I happened to find the roaster a few years ago on clearance after Thanksgiving and snatched it up. This give me an excuse to use it. : )

Oh yummy, mushcreek! Smoked chicken and then stock from it? I'm salivating thinking about it. We have friends who turned an old oil tank into a giant smoker. They'll line up a whole flock full of chickens on spits in there and cook them outside over a fire. It makes the best tasting chicken ever! They then freeze the whole lot of them. I've helped bag after they're done. I was tempted to eat as much as I bagged. De-licious.

Thank you for sharing! What makes this 'bone broth' and not chicken stock? I always assumed bone broth had an extra step involving the marrow. It seems easier than I thought.

re smoked chicken. We smoke 5-6 roasters every few months and make bunches of smoked chicken and wild rice soup and freeze it. Very good. Equally good is smoked turkey and wild rice soup. Super easy to make. I am sure smoked chicken broth would be a great specialty broth for some fun recipe.

We simmer the chickens whole in cheese cloth with basic soup veggies and seasonings and rice and then pick and put the meat in the soup - so we sort of do broth. But, it just never occurs to me to make dedicated broth.