Homemade Chicken Broth Dairy-Free

 

Get our printable recipe sheet for this and 24 other top MAM recipes when you join membership!

 

Homemade chicken broth has to be the number one game-changer in my food allergy kitchen.

I make it allergy-safe, no worries about hidden ingredients.

Plus, it tastes better than store-bought, every single time.

Homemade broth makes for absolutely delicious meals,

it isn’t hard to make, just takes some time,

and it literally costs pennies.

Most importantly,

it’s good for us and good for our bellies.

And as a food allergy mom, I’m all for some gut-healing magic. 

Typically, we buy about two whole chickens a month.

A whole chicken yields two meals for our family of four.

And each time, we use the chicken juice, bones, and carcass from the meal to make 8-12 cups of chicken broth.

In a month, that’s about 6 jars of broth to freeze for later.

We’ve learned to never run out, and always keep the supply going. 

If we use our last jar of frozen broth, it’s definitely time to buy another chicken and make more.

As you can imagine, this is so economical as well as healthy and delicious. 

It’s usually about $8 for a small chicken that makes two meals and 3 jars of broth.

Now let’s talk about how to make this! 

HOW TO MAXIMIZE COOKING A WHOLE CHICKEN

We first roast the chicken in our dutch oven and have it for dinner. 

Hubby carves the roasted chicken, and we enjoy hot, roasted chicken alongside sweet potatoes and rice.

After carving the meat off the bones, we save the carcass, bones, skin, and scraps to make broth the next day by returning these bits to the dutch oven. Put the lid on, and refrigerate it for making broth the next day. 

The next day, we have a leftover meal with any chicken meat that’s left.

Chicken salad sandwiches.

Shredded barbecue chicken sandwiches. 

Cold chicken on lettuce salad. 

Also that next day, we pull the dutch oven out of the refrigerator and make broth using the chicken scraps inside. 

Here are easy steps for making the chicken broth with your pot of scraps. 

It’s not hard as you literally just add water, add fresh vegetables if you’d like, and let it simmer for hours.

HOMEMADE CHICKEN BROTH IN 4 STEPS

1. COOK A WHOLE CHICKEN

Roast a chicken in a large pot (affiliate) or crock pot.

We love to cover it in this spice rub before cooking.

After it’s cooked, carve the meat off and enjoy a delicious chicken dinner.

Save the carcass, bones, and juices in the bottom of the pot for making broth. 

2. SIMMER CHICKEN CARCASS IN WATER

Put the carcass, bones, and scraps back into the pot with all the spices and juices still in the bottom.

Cover with a lid and refrigerate if making broth the next day.

Optionally, you can add fresh, cleaned carrots, onion, and/or celery to the pot in big chunks for even more nutrients.

When you’re ready to make broth, fill the pot up with cold water until the carcass is fully covered.

See our chicken broth video in this post. 

Put a splash of apple cider vinegar in the pot to leach minerals from the bones.

Put the pot on the stove on low/medium simmer for 4-8 hours.

3. STRAIN THE BROTH

After simmering 4-8 hours, pull the pot off the heat and let cool a little.

Spoon out all the big chunks of bones and vegetables and toss them.

Finish by straining the liquid into glass jars using a fine mesh strainer

4. STORE BROTH IN REFRIGERATOR OR FREEZER

Put air tight lids on the broth jars and store in the refrigerator over night.

Next day, skim and toss the fat at the top of the jars and seal jars up again.

Chicken broth will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week. 

Or freeze the jars for later, making sure they aren’t filled to the top or the jars will break when frozen.

Experiment with this same concept using ham, turkey, or beef carcass.

But we think chicken tastes the best. 

Now how do we like to eat our chicken broth?

If someone is sick, heat it up and sip on it plain.

I drink it right from a mug, just add a little salt if needed.

Otherwise, there are several recipes we use our broth in.

Homemade broth makes the most amazing soups!

Meals made with homemade broth need very little seasoning because most of the seasoning is already in the broth. 

Remember all the spice rub at the bottom of the pot? 

RECIPES USING CHICKEN BROTH

Here are recipes we use our homemade chicken broth in. 

Chicken and Dumplings

Chicken Pot Pie

Taco Soup

Potato Soup

Chicken Soup

 

Homemade broth is so delicious that any recipes using it will taste amazing! 

So much more flavor than using store-bought. 

And at that point, you’ll thank yourself for taking the time to make it. 

Working in a cycle of chicken for dinner and making broth the next day is something I highly recommend. 

I’m not super susie homemaker, but this is something definitely worth the effort. 

Again, it’s cheap. And it’s healthy. 

What’s not to love?!

Hope you get to try making homemade chicken broth very soon. 

Let us know how it goes!

Original Post January 2010