bone broth
“Chicken soup heals the nerves, improves digestion, reduces allergies, and gives strength.”
Remember the days of a nourishing homemade chicken soup growing up? So nourishing, partly because it was made with love, but also because of the amazing health benefits of a slow cook broth.
Bone broth was traditionally a way to use all the animal. Simmering of the bones and marrow, ligaments and tendons causes the release of collagen, proline, glycine, and glutamine. All incredible nutrients for health.
Nutrition researcher Sally Fallon of the Weston A. Price Foundation explains that bone broths contain minerals in easily absorbable forms. These include calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, and sulfur, along with chondroitin and glucosamine. Brilliant amino acids for inflammation and reinforcing connective tissue which help to cushion and protect joints.
Gelatin versus Collagen
Collagen is the most abundant protein in your body. Its fibrous structure makes up the connective tissue and is a major component of tendons, cartilage, bones, muscle and skin. Whereas gelatin is the made by breaking down collagen by boiling or cooking animal bones and skin.
They are both made of 100% protein and share the same nutritional amount. So, can be used therapeutically in the same way.
Health Benefits
The gelatin helps in the recovery and healthy maintenance of the gut lining by soothing, repairing, and calming the mucosal lining in the small intestine. This enables the microbiome to flourish and build, nurturing and nourishing your immune system at the same time.
How to Have It
As many cups as you like, whenever you like.
I've been having bone broth every day, sometimes 3 cups, depending on how I feel my body is functioning. If I'm feeling a little run down, or a bit rashy, then I'll add another cup of broth into my day, often adding in 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric for extra anti-inflammatory goodness. Over the time that I've incorporated broth into my daily diet, my skin has become clearer, and my system on the whole feels like it's functioning better, especially in terms of my digestion and mental clarity.
I usually have it first thing in the morning, as part of my morning ritual and feel it sets up my system for the day.
Cooking Broth Notes
Use organic ingredients where possible, most importantly the chicken.
The more joint bits you put in, the more gelatin is released. The feet and wings are great.
Apparently adding some apple cider vinegar pre-cooking has been shown to help draw the minerals and nutrients out of the bones and ligaments.
A slow cooker is fantastic to make the stock, but a heavy-based saucepan is fine too. The most important thing is to keep it at a slow simmer, only just bubbling.
The longer you cook the stock the better in terms of minerals and gelatin released, so somewhere between 12-16 hours is fantastic. However, if you have histamine intolerance, reduce cooking time to 4-6 hours. This is because more histamines are released with a longer cooking time. The good news is, you’ll still be getting gut-healing nutrients in a shorter time, and will be gentler for a sensitive system. If you’re not sure what histamine intolerance is, this article can help explain it.
If using a whole chicken, pull the meat off the bone with some tongs after 2 hours of cooking and put it aside for other meals, like chicken and vegetable pie or keep for salads and lunches.
If using a slow cooker, you might need to turn it to low after 4-5 hours, depending on how powerful it is.
If using a saucepan, bring it to a boil, then turn it to a gentle simmer for the remaining time, keep an eye on it to make sure that you're not losing it all through evaporation.
Chicken Bone Broth Recipe
1 organic chicken (or a bunch of wings, drumsticks, and feet adding up to about 1.5-2 kg)
extra chicken wings and/or drumsticks
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
1 onion chopped in half, skin on (omit if low FODMAP)
2 tablespoons organic apple cider vinegar
4 peppercorns
1 teaspoon of sea salt
1 piece of wakame (dried seaweed) - the macrobiotic sea nutrients will leech into the stock (optional)
Place all ingredients into your cooking pot and cover with filtered water and the apple cider vinegar, let it all sit for 1/2-1 hour.
Bring to a gentle boil. Depending on how good your slow cooker is, you might need to turn it to low after 4-5 hours, depending on how much it's bubbling,
Remove flesh and reserve after 2 hours of cooking, it should easily fall away from the bone. Leave to cook longer if it doesn’t.
Once the cooking time is up, strain through a colander into a large saucepan, then pour into freezer/fridge-safe jars.
Can be stored in the fridge for 5 days, and in the freezer for 3 months.
