How to Make Homemade Bone Broth Using Ingredients You Already Have

Learn how to make the most flavorful, cozy homemade bone broth to level up your soups.

So you’ve just finished a big meal, and now you have all the leftover parts you aren’t going to eat. We’re talking bones, skin, tendons, ligaments, onion skins, etc. You could throw all these scraps away. Or you can hang onto them and make a hearty broth. It might sound intimidating to save bones and vegetable skin and cook with them, but making a homemade bone broth couldn’t be easier! In fact, outside of your food scraps, all you really need is water, a pot, and a stove.

What is bone broth?

Bone broth is made by boiling animal bones and connective tissue, such as ligaments and tendons, in water. We also add vegetables, but you can make a homemade bone broth with just bones. You can drink it by itself or add it to other dishes. Primarily, bone broth is used in soups to give it flavor and nutritional value and even enhance the texture of the soup.

Health benefits of bone broth

There are a myriad of health benefits from drinking bone broth. As bones cook, they will release vitamin-rich marrow, various minerals, and collagen into the water. The collagen that gets released turns into gelatin as it cooks and is full of various amino acids that can aid with your digestive system, sleep, weight management, and inflammation. And on top of this, the longer you simmer bone broth, the stronger and more nutritious it becomes.

Best scraps to add to your homemade bone broth

• Corn husks
• Carrots
• Celery
• Ginger
• Garlic
• Onions
• Bay leaves
• Peppercorns
• Salt
• Thyme
• Tarragon

Different types of bone broth

Chicken/Turkey

Chicken or turkey bone broth is my personal favorite. I try to make it a couple of times a month. It has a nice, mild flavor and works well with basically any soup. All you need is the leftover carcass from a whole chicken or turkey.

Fish

Using a fish stock is game-changing in recipes like clam chowder. I generally use shrimp tails as the base for my fish stock. You can also use fish carcasses and heads to make this broth as well. Just make sure your fish isn’t high in oils or your stock can easily go rancid.

Beef

Beef broth is much darker and has a richer flavor compared to chicken or turkey broth. Because of the size and density of beef bones, more collagen and marrow can infuse into the water. With that in mind, the size of beef bones means it may also take longer to simmer than chicken or fish stock. Like the others, beef broth can be consumed alone or added to various dishes. It works especially well with heartier soups and stews, like slow-cooked beef stew.

Pork

Pork broth is less common than beef or chicken broth, but it absolutely has a place in our hearts. Broth made from pig bones can be thicker than the other broth types because of the high level of gelatin it creates during cooking. It is also lighter in flavor compared to beef broth. Some people say pork and chicken broth taste similar to one another. Pork is a common broth for meals like ramen noodles.

How to make homemade bone broth

The method for making broth remains the same whether you use chicken, pork, beef, fish, or just vegetables. One thing to note is that many recipes advise you to roast raw bones before making them into a broth to help bring out their full flavor potential. We tend to skip this because we generally use bones that were cooked in prior meals.

1. Add your desired bones, meat, and vegetables into a slow cooker or dutch oven.
2. Fill the pot with water until all the dry ingredients are covered (you can add more to maximize the amount of stock you make).
3. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover the pot.
4. After that, let the broth simmer for 8-16 hours depending on the bones and how strong of a broth you want.
5. Once the broth has finished simmering, let cool, then strain the broth out into a storage container of your choice.

Notes

When you strain the broth out, we have found that it is easier to strain our Dutch oven out into another large bowl first. That way, we don’t have to worry about the bones falling out and spilling the broth when we put it in the mason jars.

You can also use a pressure cooker if you want to make bone broth, but be aware that this will shorten the amount of time it takes to simmer the broth.

How to store bone broth

You can store your bone broth in the fridge or freezer. In the fridge, it will last around 3 to 4 days. In the freezer, the broth will last around 3 to 6 months.

To freeze the broth, you can put it into ice cube trays for small personal servings. Or you can add it to a quart glass mason jar. Just be sure to leave plenty of room at the top to prevent the glass from cracking when the broth freezes. Along with this, don’t seal the jar completely or it can shatter as the broth freezes. If you don’t want to worry about the potential of your mason jar shattering, you can put the broth in a freezer-safe plastic bag. Just leave your broth out overnight to thaw before you use it.