Recipe: Essential Golden Chicken Bone Broth

You may find it useful to read my The Bone Broth Manifesto for additional details about improving the flavor, nutritional content, and color of your chicken bone broth. 

Essential Golden Chicken Bone Broth
Yields: About 6 quarts
Prep Time	Cook Time		Special Equipment
15 minutes	24 to 48 hours* *Time can be reduced but quality will not be the same		10-12 quart stockpot Wire mesh strainer Optional: cheesecloth *This recipe can be adapted for crockpot use by reducing the amount of water added. Yield will decrease accordingly.
Ingredients
3-4 pound fresh or thawed chicken or equivalent amount of bones, meat, and skin		2 cups diced yellow onion, including onion ends and onion skins to add color and nutrients
1 cup diced carrots, heirloom if available		1 cup sliced celery
Leaves from 1 pound celery		1 cup loosely chopped parsley stems and leaves
1 medium head of garlic, chopped or smashed		2 bay leaves
1 TBSP black or mixed peppercorns		4 TBSP powdered kelp (optional)
4 TBSP apple cider vinegar		Salt and pepper to taste (when cooking is completed)
1/8 cup red cabbage OR several red onion skins to add color and nutrients (optional)		1/2 tsp ground turmeric (optional)
1 TBSP dried herbs such as thyme, rosemary, herbes de Provence, or Italian seasoning
Directions
OPTIONAL STEP: If you wish to roast your chicken bones, place them in a baking dish at 350 degrees F for 30-45 minutes. When roasting is complete, tip roasted bones and any juices into the stockpot.
1. Place all ingredients in covered stockpot with 7-8 quarts of cold water on high heat.
2. Once the pot is at a full boil, reduce heat to simmer. The ideal temperature is 208-210 degrees F. If you have a thermometer, adjust the heat to bring contents to the target temperature. If not, adjust heat so that you see a bubble or two every minute or so. It is not ideal for the stock to boil, but if it does, this is not a big deal.
3. Check the stock after 20 minutes. Adjust heat as needed.
4. At 60 minutes, check chicken meat to see if it has fully cooked. If so, remove meat and store in refrigerator or freezer for later use in other recipes. Consider cutting largest chicken bones into smaller pieces with a meat cleaver or poultry shears. Return all skin, bones, connective tissues, and other parts to stockpot.
5. Maintain low simmer for a total of 24 hours. Stir if desired. Broth does not need frequent stirring. If desired, you may even continue cooking for a total of 48 hours.
6. When time is up, remove stockpot from heat and cool until the stock is at a comfortable temperature for handling.
7. Pour stock through a wire mesh strainer. Line the strainer with cheesecloth if desired. Discard remnants unless you plan to use them again. If you wish to remove fat, cool broth overnight in the refrigerator and use a spoon to scrape fat from the surface. Save chicken fat for frying and flavoring. Salt and pepper broth to taste if desired.
8. Store broth in different amounts according to how you will use it. A mixture of 1, 2, 4, and 8 cup containers is useful for everyday use and recipes.
Recipe Source: www.PrescriptionPlate.com   Recipe and content copyright Amy Ward ©2014, 2015