If you’ve read my older post on the benefits of homemade broth, you already know I always suggest drinking meat and veggie broths – both for everyday health and in between the Absorb Plus shakes (if you are on an elemental diet).
Not only are there TONS of health benefits to making and consuming homemade bone broths, but this also “shakes” (no pun intended!) things up a bit so that if you’re on an elemental diet, your taste buds don’t get burned out by the continual sweetness of Absorb Plus. Even if you’re using these easily-tolerated whole food shakes, it’s a good idea to alternate them with bone broths for the gut-healing effects of gelatin.
If you have the newer version of my Listen To Your Gut program, you may have already delved into the Healing Diets Recipe Book I provided as one of your Complimentary Bonuses. There you can find all the recipes for making homemade broths and can use them for all sorts of soups, sauces, or stews.
Here are a just few of the broth recipes I have available throughout my blog, all in one place for easy accessibility! We will start with the easiest – chicken broth.
EASY CHICKEN BROTH RECIPE
Here is the quickest way to make chicken broth! You can either buy organic chicken necks and backs from your grocer, or you can buy your chicken breasts, thighs, etc. with “bone-in” – then remove the bones after cooking. The bones are an important contribution to the health benefits of this broth, so make sure if you are not using necks & backs that you buy chicken pieces with the bone-in.
In addition to just sipping the broth itself, you can also quickly turn this into a super healthy meal for yourself or the kids in about 5 minutes. Just add rice ramen noodles, or egg noodles, and a spoonful of dehydrated veggies. You can buy these from your local organic store. It’s that easy!
- Take raw or cooked organic chicken bones, back, neck, feet (about 2-3 lbs) and place in a large saucepan. Add 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar.
- Chop up a couple carrots, 3 sticks of celery and 1 large onion (omit if sensitive to onion) and throw them in the pot. Fill saucepan 1 inch from the top with filtered water, making sure all ingredients are covered with water. Bring to a boil.
- Simmer, covered, for as long as you can – anywhere from 6 to 12 hours. If any gunk/foam appears on top, skim it off. Add more water as/if needed.
- Strain off broth into a large bowl, allow to cool for a bit, then place in the fridge. You can leave it uncovered, or put a plate on top of the bowl if you wish.
- The next day, skim off any fat (if you want – keep it if you need some good fat) and portion broth/jelly into Ziplock freezer bags. I usually put 2 cups in each bag. Freeze until you need it! If you want to eat it right away, it’s good in the fridge for 3 days.
3 CHICKEN MEALS + BROTH RECIPE
Here you will get WAY more bang for your buck – 3 delicious chicken recipes from one organic chicken, plus a homemade broth to boot. Let’s get started:
- Buy a whole, organic chicken (remove the gizzards, neck etc. from the chest cavity and set aside in the fridge). Place the chicken (breast down, spine up) in a roasting pan. Surround the chicken with quartered potatoes, peeled carrots, and peeled, quartered onions (you can also add peeled, cubed squash or sweet potato if you like).
- Drizzle olive oil over the top of the chicken and vegetables and then sprinkle the following spices on the chicken: powdered garlic, basil, oregano, hungarian (non-spicy) paprika, powdered ginger (use whichever of these spices you have on hand).
- Put the lid on the roasting pan and put it into a preheated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. An average size chicken should cook in about 1.5 hours. To check if the chicken is done, the legs should wiggle freely and if you make a cut between the inside of the leg and the body, the juices should be clear – if you see any blood, it’s not fully cooked yet.
- When the chicken is cooked, remove the lovely roasted chicken and vegetables from the pan and set aside for supper or later – that’s your 1st meal. You can also make a gravy from the drippings left in the pan, if you wish.
Whatever chicken meat is left from your dinner, package it up and freeze it for these future meals:
- Cut into chunks ready for use in stews, casseroles, stir-fry or curry. Freeze meat until you need it.
- Dice finely and either freeze, or use the next day for Chicken Salad sandwiches (add equal parts yoghurt and cold-pressed mayonnaise to make the chicken salad – serve in sandwiches, or open-faced with raw cheddar melted on top).
You see, from one easily cooked chicken (much easier than even pan-frying!) you get at least three meals!
Now let’s make the chicken broth from the same chicken…
1. Take all the remaining skin, bones, gristle, and the neck you removed initially, and throw them all in a large saucepan.
NOTE: If you made the roast chicken for supper, then you may not have time to simmer the broth that same day. In that case, simply put a lid on your saucepan at this point, and put it in the fridge until tomorrow.
2. Add 2 tablespoons of Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar (or regular vinegar), and 1 teaspoon of sea salt. If you like, you can throw some veggies in there; a chopped onion, 2 chopped carrots, 3 chopped celery stalks. Add filtered or spring water to within 1 inch of the top of the pot.
3. Place your pot on high heat, and bring to a boil (uncovered) on your stovetop. Skim off any scum that might appear, then put the lid on and simmer on low heat for 6-8 hours. Stir contents and break up softened bones halfway through.
NOTE: While you can’t normally feed cooked bones to dogs (can splinter and harm/kill dog). You can follow my instructions here to render them soft as mush (the bones will literally crumble in your fingers) and then you can feed them to your dogs with no danger.
4. Remove saucepan from the stove and throw chicken parts away. Strain the contents of the pan through a sieve into a large bowl underneath the sieve. Allow this bowl to cool for a bit, then place in your fridge and allow to cool completely. You can leave the bowl uncovered, or place a plate on top as a lid.
NOTE: A ceramic or stainless steel bowl is best as you don’t want plastic chemicals leaching into your broth. For this same reason, don’t use plastic wrap to cover your bowel – use a ceramic plate or saucepan lid instead.
5. Once broth is cold, use a spoon to scrape the congealed fat off the top of the broth (unless you like to leave some of it in – it’s a good fat) and throw the fat away or give it to your pets. Then package up the broth into freezer bags for future use in stews, sauces, soups, etc.
If you want to use the broth right away, it is good in the fridge for 3 days. Add sea salt to taste.
I usually use some broth right away as chicken noodle soup for the kids – I add diced carrots, some diced chicken meat, 1 bouillon cube and egg noodles – and freeze the rest.
I also like to add rice ramen noodles, along with slivers of carrot, zucchini, or whatever else I have on hand. See my easy ramen recipe here.
BEEF BROTH RECIPE
Here is a great beef broth recipe for you too! In this recipe you will use:
2 lbs (1 kg) certified organic or grass-fed meaty rib or neck bones
2 lbs of organic or grass-fed beef marrow or knuckle bones
3 celery stalks, 2 carrots, 1 onion – all roughly chopped
Filtered or spring water, and 1 tsp salt
2 tbsp vinegar (regular or apple cider vinegar)
1 tsp dried basil, 1 tsp dried oregano, 1 clove garlic (will be added last)
- Place all ingredients except basil, oregano and garlic in a large pot (saucepan). Add enough spring or filtered water to cover the contents by at least half an inch.
- Bring to a boil and skim off any scum.
- Cover and simmer on the stove top at a low boil. Simmer for 6-12 hours, adding more filtered water as needed. Remove any scum as needed. Add the dried oregano, basil and garlic for the last hour of cooking.
- Remove from heat, remove bones, and then pour the contents of the pot into a fine strainer, catching the broth in another pot or bowl underneath. Throw away everything except the broth.
- If your broth has visible fat in it, skim the fat off first before eating if you like, or put the broth in the fridge until the fat solidifies on the top, and then you can just lift it off easily. Keep the fat if you’re nursing, or need to gain weight, or low in good fats (poor nails and hair), and have some with each bowl of broth. Add salt to taste.
- After broth is cooled (you can leave in the fridge overnight), divide up into 1 or 2 cup servings and freeze in zip-lock plastic bags (or glass containers).
When you’re limited to only consuming certain ingredients and spices, having a homemade stock can make all the difference to the taste in a recipe! You can also eat these broths on their own, or with pasta, rice, barley and/or vegetables added. Basically, you can get a lot of meal variety from just one broth recipe.
2 VEGETABLE BROTH RECIPES
For those of you who are vegetarian, or would like a veggie option, here are two ways to prepare a healing vegetable broth.
Henry Bieler recommended this first broth for fasting, energy, and overall health. Bieler believed this combination of vegetables was ideal for restoring acid-alkaline and sodium-potassium balance to organs and glands, especially the adrenal glands. Normally you would eat the vegetables with the soup, but on an elemental diet, you must consume only the broth.
Bieler Vegetable Broth
- 4 medium summer squash (zucchini, yellow, or summer squash only)
- 1 lb string beans, ends removed
- 2 sticks celery
- 2 bunches parsley, stems removed
- Fresh herbs, such as thyme or tarragon, tied together with a string. (optional)
- 4 cups filtered water
- Fresh whey, not powdered! (optional)
1. Place water, vegetables, and optional herbs in pot. Bring to a boil for 15 minutes, skim off any scum, lower heat and simmer, covered, for about 1 hour.
2. Remove from heat and pour through a fine strainer into a large bowl. You may add 1 tbsp. of liquid whey to each cup of soup. You can also add 1 tbsp. of unrefined coconut oil, or organic butter or ghee to each serving of soup. Add sea salt to taste.
Mixed Vegetable Broth
- Filtered or spring water
- 1/2 tsp. Himalayan or sea salt
- 5 cups of veggies:
- You can use veggies such as organic peeled carrots, zucchini, green beans, celery, parsley, kale, chard, bok choy, sui choy and broccoli – including stalks)
- Do not use starchy vegetables like potatoes or acorn/butternut squash, as they will turn mushy and be very difficult to filter out of your broth.
1. Wash and chop your choice of veggies. Add enough spring or filtered water (no tap water) to cover all veggies, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Bring to a boil for 15 minutes, skim off any scum, lower heat and simmer, covered for 1 hour. Add more water if needed during cooking to keep vegetables covered. Remove from heat and pour through a fine strainer into a large bowl.
2. Allow broth to cool then divide up the liquid into individual servings and freeze in zip-lock plastic bags. Tastes really good on its own or mixed with chicken or beef broth. When you’re back eating regular food it’s also a great stock for soups or sauces. When you’re ready to eat some soup, stir in 1 tbsp. of unrefined organic coconut oil, or organic butter to each serving of soup. Add sea salt to taste if needed.
3. The remaining vegetables can be used, if you wish, (although the nutrient level will be low) for meals for the rest of your family. For example: Spread them out in a pan and grate Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese over the top, broil until cheese is melted and serve.
Fish Broth
If you’d like a fish-based option, my assistant Savannah posted this great fish broth recipe.
As always, I’d love to hear from you if you decide to try any of these recipes! Please feel free to comment and share your experiences below.
If you’d also like to share your pictures with us, please email us at service@listentoyourgut.com
