How to Upgrade your Bone Broths with Medicinal + Nutrient-Dense Additions
Yes, those are chicken feet!
I've been teaching my cooking students how to make and use bone broth for way over a decade now, as this powerful substance is one I adore and make often myself, especially when cold season is upon us. There's a reason chicken soup is dubbed "Jewish penicillin" — this ancient healing elixir really works for immune support. It also is easily digestible and restorative and can nourish you when you're too weak or sick to eat anything else.
Bone broths, especially upgraded ones, are delightful to sip daily, even when not sick, and are useful in cooking as a base for soups and stews, or simply as cooking liquid for vegetables or anything really. Once you try a sip, you'll know just what to do!
Since it's easy to find instructions for making basic bone broths on the inter webs, I won't go into too much detail here about the basics of making bone broth. But since most recipes leave out all of the myriad ways that you can easily upgrade your broth so it's even better — more nutritious and also more flavorful — that's where I'll focus. Try one or all of these additions to concoct a truly healing broth that will nourish you and those you share it with deeply.
REGARDING BONES: Make sure you get the best bones for the job — from animals raised on pasture and grass-fed. Avoid grain fed animals if you can! In the case of chicken, the feet have tons of collagen and the heads have lots of nutrition, so definitely try to add those in along with the more readily available chicken backs, wings, or your leftover carcasses from roasted chicken or any other bones you might save up in a plastic bag in the freezer until you have enough to fill a pot. With beef, it's best to get a mix of the split marrow bones and joint/knuckle bones, or any combination of pieces that include skin, cartilage and tendons as well as bones. Never include liver or other organs, even though they are often sold inside a whole packaged chicken — they will render your broth bitter and unpalatable..
Basic Cooking Instructions for Broths
(ingredient options are highlighted in bold)
Cover all of the bones with plenty of water, and ALWAYS add a large splash of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. Their acidity helps to leech minerals and other good stuff from the bones, which of course is why you are making this! You can add the whole lemon rind from a MEYER lemon, but not a regular lemon as they are just too bitter — trust me.
I personally like to store and save leftover scraps for broth in a large plastic baggie in the freezer as I go about my daily cooking, so this is usually what I use in my own broths — a resourceful way to not waste anything! Basic Additions to most traditional broths include at least a handful of vegetables for flavoring. These most often include: onions, leeks, celery, carrots, and parsley stems. Scraps of fennel, onion, garlic, ginger, sweet potatoes, potatoes, winter squashes, parsley stems, mushroom stems, squeezed Meyer lemon rinds are also nice. (I personally prefer to leave out cruciferous veggies like broccoli or cabbage as the flavor they add to broths can be off-putting to me!)
Other additions that you can add in the beginning of the cooking period, to add flavor and nutrition are:
dried reishi slices or chaga mushroom chunks for immunity
seaweeds such as kombu, kelp, or dulse for minerals and iodine (sometimes I add fresh wild seaweeds straight from my bean collecting!)
medicinal Chinese roots such as astragalus, dong quai, etc.
dried mushrooms like shitake or porcini for flavor
a few peppercorns if you like
a bay leaf or two
garlic cloves and ginger
goji berries for a little sweetness and surprisingly potent medicine
leftover rinds of hard cheeses like Pecorino or Parmigiano Reggiano (that might sound weird to you, but saving them is an old trick of Italian peasant cooking and it adds incredible umami and depth of flavor)
fresh or dried nettles for some serious mineralization synergy
a few eggshells for even more mineralization
Once everything is in the pot, bring it all to a boil. Skim any grey foam that is accumulating on the surface and turn down the heat to your lowest setting. One bubble coming up every few seconds is ideal, but hard to achieve if you have a very powerful burners.
Plan to cook the bones at least 6-8 hours or longer, even overnight. I usually cover mine to minimize evaporation; you don't have to, but check your water levels and add more if necessary to keep everything sufficiently covered.
About five to ten minutes before straining your broth, add sprigs of herbs like rosemary, thyme, or sage. Adding them late in the game like this allows them to steep their flavor and medicinal plant compounds sufficiently, without residual bitterness.
Lastly, once everything has cooked, you need to strain out all the solids, so do that. I have one of these cone strainers, which can make the job a lot easier and minimize mess. It's a worthwhile addition if you make broth often.
As for salt, it's a necessary addition for delightful flavor, especially if you're drinking your broth by the mugful. I like to use plenty of good unrefined Himalayan or Celtic salt, added each time I heat some up or use it in cooking rather than salt the entire batch at once.
Sipping on mugs of this broth is a fine way to both stay hydrated, nourish your stressed-out adrenals, or as a staple when you’re feeling under the weather.
I love making broth, especially in winter! Do you?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
A comprehensive article from Chris Kresser
Broth is Beautiful from the Weston A. Price Foundation