Bone Broth - It's That Time of the Year

[CriticalStinker]

So my best friend and his wife are expecting (Yay!). Only down side is her stomach has been all kinds of turnt. I know when I get into a funk, bone broth and kombucha are my two main additions to get things right.

Usually I make a batch that is pretty neutral, and I can doctor it up. That way I can cook with it and go the direction I want.

Since I figured this batch was really purely going to be to get her on the right track, I decided to get as much collagen in it as I could.

In the past, I go with a mix of beef marrow bones, and chicken feet. Through lots of experimentation, I found that chicken feet is really the holy grail of collagen, so I decided to go with just that for this batch.

Behold:




After refrigeration, it's literal jello. 


Loose recipe as follows (I used an instantpot for speed).

2.5~lb chicken feet (discard any that have bumble foot, gross).
2~ carrots
2~ celery stalks
1~ small yellow onion
2~ cloves of garlic (I love garlic, but don't go higher, it will overpower)
2~ sprigs of thyme
2~ bay leaves
1~ sprig of rosemary
2~ sage leaves
Whole peppercorn to taste
Reduced Sodium broth to fill line (I used a 6 quart instantpot)
Splash of apple cider vinegar (this is important to leach the collagen)
*kosher salt and reduced sodium better than bullion to taste after completion - if you're making sipping broth, skip this if you intend to cook with it*

1. Boil chicken feet for about 5-10 minutes. This step shouldn't be skipped as it gets impurities out that will make the broth bitter and cloudy. After boiling, discard water and rinse the feet. 

2. Roast the chicken feet until browned at 425~ *optional for more flavor*

3. Sauté vegies in the pan *optional, deglaze with reduced sodium stock after*

4. Combine all ingredients, sans optional salt and bullion in pot. I ran the instant pot for about 3 hours, and let it do natural release of pressure and warm for about another hour or two.

I did mason jars this time since I was gifting most of it, and I knew it would be mostly for sipping. But silicon molds are great to do as well to freeze, then put in a freezer Ziplock so you have pre portioned cubes for cooking.

[DontTreadOnMe]

You are wonderful to help your friends this way.
And for sharing your recipe with us.
I am amazed at how well your broth jelled!

[CriticalStinker]

You are wonderful to help your friends this way.
And for sharing your recipe with us.
I am amazed at how well your broth jelled!

Thank ya! It takes a village, and they do all kinds of nice stuff too. I just happened to have been doing this recipe for years, have it down, and it takes very little prep other than the long cook time.

Honestly, the chicken feet are a game changer to getting the collagen. I always though marrow bones because it's called bone broth, but after reading on it people said it's connective tissue that really has the bulk of it. They also reduce the amount of fat in it, which is whatever to me. I would put the pot in the fridge, skim that and freeze it for cooking anyways. But if you're just trying to skip a step, the amount of fat I had in the first pick was all that was in each jar. The whole recipe yielded 7 pint mason jars.

Edit: Thank you for noticing the jello consistency, everyone I've shown so far hasn't been impressed because they don't understand how long it takes to acheive it lol.