Chicken bone broth

Telegraph

16-06-2025

Bone broth is relatively easy and incredibly cheap to make yourself, without having to resort to expensive health-food shop varieties.
Ingredients
Leftover bones and skin of 2 chickens – freeze them until you have enough
3 large onions
1 leek (optional)
4 carrots
2 sticks of celery
4 cloves of garlic
Bunch of parsley
Bunch of thyme
3 bay leaves
Chunk of ginger (optional)
Sea salt
1-2 tbsp peppercorns
Method
Step
Gather your ingredients then roughly chop your vegetables (no need to peel the carrots). Leaving the skin on, smash 4 cloves of garlic once with your fist on the flat side of a knife. Add all this – together with the ginger, if using – into a deep pot along with the chicken bones and skin (can be from frozen), herbs and 1-2 tbsp peppercorns.
Step
Cover with approximately two litres of water (or enough for the ingredients to be fully submerged), add a generous pinch of sea salt and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Reduce to a simmer and partly cover.
Step
Simmer for three to four hours and use a spoon to skim off any foam. Keep an eye on it and top up with water if needed so it doesn't catch on the bottom of the pan. Aim to have the bones covered at all times.
Step
Place a colander in a large heatproof bowl and tip in the stock to remove the bones and chunks of vegetable. Allow the liquid to drain through the colander. Press the bones and vegetables down with the back of a spoon to squeeze as much juice out as possible. You can also pass the liquid through a sieve to remove any smaller bits if you prefer. Allow it to cool slightly then pour into a container. Use from the fridge within five days, or it will last in the freezer for six months.
Step
You can choose to stop here if you'd prefer, but to make this truly a zero-waste recipe, return the bones and vegetables to the pot and top up with water again to make a second stock. This is called a 'remouillage' – the process of using bones twice.