How to Make Bone Broth (2024)

If you’ve made our Lemon Herb Roasted Chicken,you likely have some chicken bones on hand. Don’t throw them out! We have the perfect use for them. Let’s make bone broth together.

This 3-ingredient, 1-pot recipe yields flavorful bone broth perfect for soups, sauces, and more. But first, let’s talk about what bone broth is and how to make it.

What is Bone Broth

Bone broth is quite simply broth made from animal bones — in this instance, from a whole roasted chicken. You can also opt to make bone broth out of beef or pork bones, but this recipe demonstrates using the bones from a whole roasted chicken.

Origins of Bone Broth

It may be all the rage these days, but bone broth isn’t a new concept! Instead, its origins trace as far back as 2,500 years ago where it was used in Chinese medicine for supporting kidney and digestive health.

Since then, bone broth has been used for both culinary and medicinal purposes around the world. Learn more about its use in various cultures here.

How to Make Bone Broth

Making bone broth is actually quite easy.

Simply save the bones from your roasted chicken (including legs and wings that may have been on the serving platter), and add to a large pot or Dutch oven. We also included the lemon wedges and rosemary that were cooked with our whole roasted chicken*, but this is optional.
Then simply top with filtered water until generously covered (about 12 cups / 2880 ml).
Next, add in a bit of salt to season the broth (you can add more later).
Then add 1-2 Tbsp (15-30ml) apple cider vinegar, which is added primarily as the acidity breaks down the collagen and makes it more abundant in the broth. You can also sub lemon juice, but we prefer apple cider vinegar.
Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for at least 10-12 hours, or until reduced by 1/3 or 1/2, leaving you with 6-8 cups of bone broth. The more it reduces, the more intense the flavor becomes and the more collagen is extracted. We find 12 hours to be the perfect cook time.
Strain and use or store.

*Alternatively, you can go to your local butcher and buy bones exclusively for making broth. But we find it’s much more streamlined to buy a whole chicken, roast it, and then use the leftover bones to make broth.

Bone Broth Benefits

Bone broth is high in vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein. It also contains a high amount of collagen, which may help support bone and joint health.

Because broth is easy to digest, these nutrients are easy for the body to absorb, making them more available to the body — especially for those with digestive issues.

What to Do with Bone Broth

Bone broth can be sipped straight as a health tonic. We like stirring in nutritional yeast, sea salt, and black pepper to taste, plus a little miso and some green onions and minced garlic. It’s comforting, warming, and nourishing.

It can also be used wherever chicken broth is used, such as in soups, gravies, sauces, and more.

How to Store Bone Broth

Once your bone broth has simmered for 10-12 hours and reduced, strain and store as desired. We prefer adding it straight to soup with some of the leftover shredded chicken. This 1-Pot Pumpkin Black Bean Soup or this 1-Pot Chicken Soup with White Bean and Kale are perfect applications.

How to Make Bone Broth

An easy, step-by-step guide to making chicken bone broth! Simple ingredients and fool-proof methods yield a beautiful broth perfect for soups, sauces, and more!

Author Minimalist Baker

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Ingredients

US Customary – Metric

Bones and carcass of 1 chicken (we suggest starting with a whole roasted chicken)
12 cups filtered water
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 generous pinch each sea salt and black pepper (plus more to taste)
Rosemary/herbs (leftover from roasting chicken // optional)
1 sliced lemon (leftover from roasting chicken // optional)

Instructions

To a large pot or Dutch oven, add the bones leftover from a whole roasted chicken (including legs and wings that may have been on the serving platter), or the bones from 1 chicken purchased from a butcher. (Note: This can also be done in a Crock-Pot or Instant Pot.)
We also like adding the lemon wedges and rosemary that were cooked with our whole roasted chicken (optional).
Top with filtered water until generously covered (about 12 cups / 2880 ml). This should reduce down by about 1/3 or 1/2, leaving you with 6-8 cups of bone broth.
Next, add in a bit of salt and pepper to season the broth (you can add more later to taste).
Then add apple cider vinegar, which is added primarily because the acidity breaks down the collagen and makes it more abundant in the broth. You can also sub lemon juice, but we prefer apple cider vinegar.
Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for at least 10-12 hours, or until reduced by 1/3 to 1/2. The more it reduces, the more intense the flavor will become and the more collagen will be extracted. We find 12 hours to be about right.
Strain and discard the bones. Either use immediately or store in glass jars and freeze up to 1-2 months or more. Just be sure to leave a couple inches at the top of the jar to allow for expansion in the freezer.
Note: Bone broth typically gelatinizes when refrigerated because of the collagen content. But don't worry — that's normal. When reheated it liquifies once again, just like store-bought chicken broth.

Video

Notes

*Nutrition information is a rough estimate calculated without optional ingredients.

Nutrition (1 of 8 servings)

Serving: 1 cup Calories: 53 Carbohydrates: 0.9 g Protein: 5.3 g Fat: 2.9 g Saturated Fat: 0.9 g Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.61 g Monounsaturated Fat: 1.32 g Trans Fat: 0.04 g Cholesterol: 2.63 mg Sodium: 342 mg Potassium: 208 mg Fiber: 0 g Sugar: 0.4 g

FAQs

What are the best bones for bone broth? ›

Traditional recipes recommend using bones rich in marrow and flavor, such as beef marrow bones, oxtails, beef feet or beef neck bones. For this article, we will focus on beef marrow bones. To make a nutritious and delicious beef bone broth, we recommend using beef marrow bones or beef oxtails.

Know More ›

How long to boil to get bone broth? ›

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for at least 10-12 hours, or until reduced by 1/3 or 1/2, leaving you with 6-8 cups of bone broth. The more it reduces, the more intense the flavor becomes and the more collagen is extracted. We find 12 hours to be the perfect cook time.

What type of bone broth is healthiest? ›

What kind of bone broth is healthy to drink? Non-gmo beef or chicken bone broth is the healthiest option to drink. Beef and chicken are both great options because they are high in protein, collagen, gelatin and amino acids for gut health and skin hydration.

Is it cheaper to make your own bone broth? ›

It's economical and eco-friendly! Bones aren't as cheap as they used to be before the bone broth craze, but they're still a lot cheaper than commercial broth. For the price of a quart of store-bought broth, you can make 4 to 6 quarts at home.

What should you not put in bone broth? ›

According to Baraghani, a good bone broth doesn't need much more than bones and a few choice aromatics, like onions, garlic, and black pepper. "Don't even get me started on carrots," he says, which add sweetness.

Keep Reading ›

Which bone broth has the most collagen? ›

Beef has more collagen per gram of protein

Beef bone broth also has slightly more glycine and proline. These are two amino acids that make up collagen, along with hydroxyproline and arginine. Chicken broth still has collagen, however it is around 10% less per serving than beef.

Get More Info ›

Can you overcook bone broth? ›

Canora cautions against overcooking your bone broth, which can actually seriously hamper the flavor. Once you go past the 16-hour mark or so, “you start breaking down the bone itself and it starts infusing a bad flavor to your broth,” he explains.

Read On ›

Should you break bones for bone broth? ›

Pro Cooking Tip: Bone broth is best when it is cooked until you can easily break a chicken bone in half with your hands. This means the amazing nutrients from the marrow are in your broth.

Is Swanson bone broth real bone broth? ›

It starts with beef and chicken bones and the perfect mixture of vegetables and herbs to create a Bone Broth with full-bodied flavor and naturally occurring collagen protein*.

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Is store bought bone broth as healthy? ›

The bones used to make commercial broth may contain high levels of heavy metals, which could make their way into the broth. However, homemade or store-bought bone broth levels are very low and unlikely to cause health problems.

Find Out More ›

Is boxed bone broth as good as homemade? ›

While the Pacific and Kettle Fire Brands both come from clean and well-sourced animals and also contain clean ingredients, they do not contain all of the components of a traditional, homemade and perishable bone broth.

Read The Full Story ›

Is stock as good as bone broth? ›

All that extra time on the stove pulls nutrients out of the bones, rendering the broth thicker, healthier and more gelatinous than a stock. While frequently used as an ingredient in soups and other dishes, both stock and bone broth are also sippable by themselves. The latter is increasingly popular on restaurant menus.