Beautiful gut healing bone broth is simple to make, contains lots of nutrients and tastes delicious as it adds depth of flavour to your meals.

After roasting up a chicken (usually delicious turmeric roasted chicken) I'm left with the carcass and gristle. All I do is throw it in the pot with some herbs and leftover veggie scraps and boom - delicious bone broth is ready to add to my next soup, casserole or even cook some legumes or rice in.

Just adapt the recipe to whatever herbs or spices you have on hand to make the whole processes even easier.

Why Bone Broth?

Making bone broth is a wonderful way to extract the amino acids glycine, proline and glutamine from the collagen in a chicken carcass. Collagen is found in the tendons, ligaments and skin in animals - and is especially abundant in chickens. These amino acids are the building blocks of proteins found in cells in the body. Glutamine and gelatine found in bone broth is especially helpful at healing the lining of the digestive tract.

Bone broth also contains many minerals and electrolytes including calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium. These nutrients help to regulate fluid homeostasis in the body, provide cofactors for bone health and neurotransmitter production to regulate mood.

Why Organic?

You will hear Renee and I talk about this a lot at Westside. When consuming meat it is important that you are choosing organic or biodynamic meat wherever possible.

Conventionally-raised animals are fed diets of grain and grasses that are sprayed with toxic herbicides and insecticides such as organophosphates (a known neurotoxin and suspected carcinogen). These chemicals are retained in animal tissue and not readily excreted meaning that when you eat a diet rich in conventionally-raised livestock you are also consuming these stored toxins.

Whenever possible also prioritise consumption of organic and biodynamic meat.

A Word of Warning

Bone broth is not for everyone. It is high in sodium and potassium so people with impaired kidney function or hypertension should err on the side of caution by consulting a healthcare professional before adding this into their regular diet.

Ingredients

All the bones from a roasted organic or biodynamic chicken
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
6 black peppercorns
Handful of fresh or dried herbs: oregano, sage, parsley, thyme, rosemary etc...
Handful of veggie scraps: onion skins and tops, zucchini or carrot ends, celery sticks etc...
1 tablespoon dried or fresh ginger or turmeric
3.5L of filtered water
Pinch of sea salt (optional)

Method

Add all ingredients to your stock pot or slow cooker. Allow to sit for 20 minutes for the apple cider to take affect and help the bones and cartilage to break down.
Place the pot on the stove or in the oven and turn to the lowest possible heat. Alternatively set your slow cooker to low. Ensure the lid is properly covering your pot to prevent evaporation.
Cook for 8-12 hours, checking every hour or so that the liquid has not cooked off. Ideally the pot should be bubbling very slowly.
After 8-12 hours the ends of the chicken bones should crumble under slight pressure. This is when you know it is done.
Strain with a muslin cloth or clean tea towel once the liquid is cooled.
Store in glass jars.

Bone broth lasts about 1 week when refrigerated or 3 months when frozen.