Chicken broth is a nutritious food that can be eaten on its own or as a base for soups, casseroles, and sauces.
There are many options, from traditional french consomme to long-cooked bone broth.
This is the chicken broth I love to share with my patients in the clinic. It’s simple and quick to make, and unlike bone broth which can take up to 24 hours to cook, it contains lower levels of histamines and glutamates, which can cause some people to feel a little edgy.
To reduce the number of histamines and glutamates in the broth and shorten the cooking time by 2 hours, if you are prone to anxiety, restlessness, or insomnia, you might want to throw out the skin from the chicken.
Ingredients
- 6L of cold, filtered water is enough to cover the chicken. I recommend using a large pot to ensure you have plenty of broth. K-mart sells 10-15L stainless steel pots.
- One whole chicken + 10 wings, or (if you don’t have a whole bird) a combination of chicken drumsticks & wings. You will need quite a lot to make a broth (1kg). You can also add chicken carcasses to increase nutrition (available from your organic butcher, or you could use leftover frozen carcasses from roast chicken meals).
- 2 onions, quartered
- Quartered 1-2 carrots
- 3 sticks of celery
- A few sprigs of fresh thyme (omit it if you are sensitive to salicylate)
- Parsley bunch (omit if you are sensitive to salicylate)
- You can add a generous amount of rock, Himalayan, or Celtic salt to your dish.
- 2 tbsp apple vinegar (omit if you are sensitive to salicylate)
Method
- Cover the meat, vinegar, and water in a large saucepan. Let stand for 30 minutes. This will allow the vinegar to draw minerals from bones into the water.
- Bring to a boil
- In the next half an hour, foamy scum will appear on the surface. It is worth skimming it multiple times.
- Once no more foam appears, add the vegetables and thyme, and reduce heat until it reaches a simmer.
- Cook for 2 to 4 hours.
- Add the parsley ten minutes before the end. This will increase the number of minerals in the broth.
- Remove the vegetables and carcasses from the oven and place them in a strainer.
- You can store the broth in small glass containers in the refrigerator. Before freezing, chill well.