Simple Homemade Bone Broth Recipe & Benefits

Bone broth is awesome, but why does it have to be so darn expensive?

What if I told you that you could make your own, homemade bone broth – a recipe that is super easy to make, delicious, natural and affordable?

Would you be interested?

I’m all about practicality and figuring out how to provide healthy, nutrient-rich foods for my family without breaking the bank. No one has thousands of dollars to spare on healthy groceries. Not in this economy for sure!

Bone broth is one of those items that has become a trendy ‘superfood’ and because of that new label it now comes with a price tag.

But wait! There is a very simple solution: you can make bone broth at home!

There’s no reason to be spending so much money on store-bought bone broth when you could make your own that is:

fresh
nutrient-rich
incredibly easy to make
cost-effective

Access to healthy foods should be doable for everyone, and this easy homemade bone broth recipe shows you just how to do it!

All you need are eight ingredients and less than five minutes of prep time to make bone broth full of health benefits.

This post is all about the benefits of drinking bone broth, how to make bone broth on the stovetop or slow cooker, and seven fantastic ways to incorporate it into your daily lifestyle!

What Are The Benefits of Drinking Bone Broth?

I’m sure you’ve noticed bone broth became super trendy over the last couple of years but you might be wondering, how does drinking bone broth help you?

Bone broth has been used for generations all across the world – and it continues to be a staple in the diet of many cultures!

It’s a healing food, full of essential nutrients the body needs for overall health and wellness.

Some benefits of drinking bone broth, noted in the amazing book The Bone Broth Secret include:

Bioavailable collagen – collagen in broth is broken down into gelatin which makes it easy to digest and use in the body
Gelatin helps line the mucous membranes in the intestines to protect and improve digestive issues
Rich in bioavailable nutrients – pre-digested, easily usable amino acids, healthy fats, minerals and vitamins
Support and boost immunity – amino acids such as glutamine, arginine, and cysteine have been found to boost immunity in humans and animals
Helps aid and alleviate cold symptoms by opening respiratory pathways and mobilizing mucous
Reduce inflammation – amino acids cystine, histidine and glycine fight inflammation, L-glutamine is specific to gut inflammation
The proteins, minerals and vitamins in broth help strengthen bones and teeth
Improves cellular rehydration – the minerals (electrolytes) in broth help hydrate better than plain water
The amino acids in broth help to support muscle growth, maintenance and repair

And so many more!

The health benefits of bone broth continue to be studied, but its safe to say it is a potent healing and nourishing food.

5 Reasons You’ll Love This Homemade Bone Broth Recipe

Super Easy to make

I like to call this recipe a ‘one pot’ recipe because truly that’s all you need to make it.

You gather all of your ingredients, toss them into a pot and let it cook for several hours.

That’s it!

There are no confusing steps or special ingredients.

Everything you need for this homemade bone broth recipe you likely already have at home right now. That’s why I love it so much! It’s a quick, simple recipe that yields flavourful, nutrient-rich bone broth (without the added price tag!).

Inexpensive

Let’s be honest, store-bought bone broth can be seriously expensive!

Especially if you’re selective about the ingredients in the broth you buy. If you want to buy a brand that uses real ingredients and has no additives, stabilizers or gums, you are going to pay a good amount.

For example, the popular brand Fire & Kettle sells their 400mL bone broth for $9.

From this homemade bone broth recipe I made 4L of broth. You can buy soup bones for less than $10, which are likely the most expensive ingredients in the recipe.

From one batch you can make a large volume of potent bone broth for a fraction of the price.

100% Natural

Store-bought bone broth commonly includes several additives and stabilizers to help the product stay shelf-stable and prevent it from going bad on the shelves.

Commonly added ingredients include sugars and sweeteners, artificial flavours, caramel colouring, hydrolyzed soy and corn protein, high oleic sunflower oil, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate and carnauba wax.

All things you really don’t want to have in your bone broth.

Making homemade bone broth gives you full control over every ingredient that goes into making it. You know what you put in and can be sure that you use the highest quality ingredients for the most nutrients.

You Can Batch Prepare

Instead of running to the store each time you need bone broth, simply double or triple this homemade bone broth recipe and you’ll have tons of ready-to-use bone broth.

Any time I set out to make bone broth, I always make a large amount so that it lasts me for at least a couple of months. This saves me lots of time and work so that I don’t need to make broth over and over.

It’s Full of Nutrients

Now I’m not saying all store-bought bone broth is bad, not at all. But, when broth has been sitting, packaged, for weeks or even months the nutrient density is sure to diminish over time.

Plus, as a consumer, you’ll never know what kind of bones were used, whether they came from a grass-fed animal or what the quality of the other ingredients is.

You also don’t know how long the broth was cooked for. There are a lot of unknowns that all influence nutrient density.

By making your bone broth at home you’ll have guaranteed fresh bone broth made from high-quality ingredients. This is far better than any store-bought version could give you!

What You’ll Need For This Easy Bone Broth Recipe

Ingredients

4 Celery Stalks

4 Large Carrots

1 Large Onion

5 Garlic Cloves

2-3 lbs Grassfed Beef Bones or Raw Chicken Meat and Bones

3 Bay Leaves

2-3 Allspice

Sea salt and pepper, to taste (add near the end)

Supplies

Stainless steel pot, Dutch oven or Slow cooker

Mesh strainer or cheesecloth

Glass jars for storing

How To Make Bone Broth: Easy Homemade Recipe

Step 1

Gather all of your ingredients.

Roughly chop the onion, celery and carrots and place them in your stainless steel pot, dutch oven or slow cooker.

Step 2

Add all of the rest of the ingredients and spices to your pot (except salt and pepper).

Add your filtered water, covering roughly 1-2 inches above your bones and set your stove top (or slow cooker) to a simmer. (Adding more water may over-dilute your broth, resulting in a less flavourful end-product).

Step 3

Allow your bone broth to simmer for 8-10 hours if using beef bones and 6-8 for chicken.

During the first hour, you may notice grayish bubbles or ‘froth’ forming on the surface – these are denatured proteins from the meat on bones.

You can leave it or scrape it off. Leaving it will not alter your bone broth in any way, it just won’t be as clear).

Step 4

Once your broth is medium to dark brown and the vegetables are almost translucent, it’s ready! At this point, salt and pepper your broth to taste. Allow it to cool.

Once cooled, use a mesh strainer or a cheesecloth to strain the homemade bone broth into clean glass jars.

Depending on how quickly you plan to use your bone broth you can opt to either store it in the refrigerator, freeze it or can it.

If you’re going to use your bone broth within a couple of days, storing in the refrigerator is fine.
If you won’t be using it within the next couple of days or need a longer storage method, freeze or can your broth.

Scroll down to the frequently asked questions to read about the shelf-life of each storage method!

If you like this simple homemade bone broth recipe, please share it with your natural-minded friends! 🙂

7 Awesome Ideas For How To Use Bone Broth

There are many different ways to use bone broth!

You don’t just have to drink it straight-up to get awesome nutritional benefits. Some people don’t like the flavour of broth on its own, which is totally fine!

There are so many ways to use bone broth in cooking too, here are just a couple of my favourites:

Drink it hot in the morning or before a meal
Use it as a base for any soup or stew recipe. This adds nutritional value to your meal and gives a delicious flavour!
Use it as an ingredient in pasta sauces. I frequently add some homemade bone broth to tomato or mushroom pasta sauce.
Use it to make gravy
In homemade salad dressing. (1 Tbsp bone broth, 1 Tbsp ACV, 1 Tbsp OVOO, Dash of maple syrup or honey)
In a meat marinade or to braise meat
For cooking rice or quinoa (use instead of water)

Growing up, my mum told me that her grandparents and great-grandparents all started their day by drinking a hot cup of bone broth every single day. All year round they would incorporate hot bone broth into their daily lives, and especially during colder months!

Even still, daily bone broth remains a staple in the diet of many European, Middle Eastern and Asian countries.

And for good reason!

The nutritional value of bone broth is pure gold for the body and should be thought of as a wellness tonic.

So, whichever way you decide to use bone broth at home, know that you are nourishing your body from within!

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should I boil the bones for bone broth?

How long you boil bones for bone broth depends on the type of bones you are using.

If you are using beef bones, let your broth simmer for 8-10 hours. For chicken broth, boil your meat and bones for 6-8 hours. The longer you cook the stronger, more nutrient-rich the broth will be.

If you’re short on time or unable to make broth on the stovetop, using a slow cooker is an excellent option. Simply follow the same recipe, set your slow cooker to high and let your broth simmer for 8-12 hours (depending on the temperature setting of your slow cooker).

There’s a thin layer of gray bubbles floating on my bone broth, what’s that?

Depending on the type of bones you’re using for your bone broth, you may notice a thin layer of grayish bubbles or frothiness on the surface of your broth.

Many sources online say to scrape it off, that those are ‘impurities’ from the bones.

The frothiness or bubbles are denatured proteins from the meat on bones. These proteins are some of the same proteins found in egg whites. It’s pretty much flavourless, edible and it’s not dangerous in any way.

One of the main reasons people may choose to scrape it off is to have a clear broth.

Leaving the bubbles will not alter your bone broth in any way, other than making it cloudier.

My bone broth isn’t gelatinous, what happened?

If your homemade bone broth isn’t gelatinous when cooled or placed in the refrigerator that simply means your broth is diluted with water.

As a general rule of thumb, when making your broth, you only want to cover your bones with about 1-2 inches of water.

Depending on the type of bones you use, you’ll just need to adjust the ratio of bones to water. You may need more bones or less water.

Now, just because your bone broth isn’t gelatinous it does not mean that collagen was not extracted from the bones. It will still possess these nutrients, it will just be diluted and possibly not have as rich of a flavour.

Should I be adding apple cider vinegar?

Some recipes call for apple cider vinegar in bone broth.

There is the belief that the acidity in ACV helps to break down the collagen in the bones, extracting more from the bones. The efficacy of ACV for collagen extraction hasn’t been confirmed.

You can absolutely add ACV to your bone broth if you’d like. Just add 1-2 Tbsp. It will only add nutritional value to your broth.

However, even without ACV, cooking your broth for 6-12 hours will still yield nutrient-rich broth!

Can I drink bone broth every day?

So, you know that bone broth is great for the body but is it healthy to drink bone broth every day?

Absolutely!

Bone broth is a natural source of amino acids, minerals/electrolytes, vitamins and healthy fats! All essential things the body needs to function optimally.

Cultures all around the world have been drinking bone broth daily for centuries. It’s a simple way to support holistic health and wellness through nutrition. After all, food is medicine, too.

Regularly incorporating bone broth into your diet is a great way to support many different organ systems and functions of the body. Some great ways to drink bone broth every day is drinking it in the morning instead of coffee, or having a hot cup right before lunch or dinner.

If you need more ideas for how to use bone broth, check out the 7 awesome ideas listed above!

How should I store my homemade bone broth?

There are a couple of ways you can store this homemade bone broth recipe.

If you make a batch and know you’ll use it up quickly, simply strain your bone broth into clean glass jars, seal them tightly and store them in the refrigerator. Bone broth will last for up to a week in the refrigerator. If you choose to store it like this, be sure to use up it during this timeframe and watch for any signs of spoilage.

If you want to store your bone broth recipe for longer, you can either freeze or can your broth.

Both are great options, it just depends on whether or not you have enough freezer space. If you choose to freeze your bone broth, strain your broth into your clean jars and place them in the freezer unsealed, first. After 12-24 hours, your broth should be frozen, you can now add your lids and close them tightly. Frozen bone broth is good for up to 12 months.

If you don’t have that much freezer space (like me!), canning is the best option. Strain your bone broth into clean glass jars and follow a pressure canning method to preserve your broth. Canned bone broth will last up to a year (if canned appropriately).

In short:

Will you use up your broth quickly? Store it in the refrigerator.
Want it to last longer? Freeze it or pressure can it.

Should I roast my bones before making broth?

You can use both raw, uncooked or roasted bones to make this homemade bone broth recipe.

Roasting bones will give bone broth a stronger, slightly more bitter flavour and a much darker colour. Depending on the bones you use, roasting may make the broth a very dark brown almost blackish colour.

If you’d like to roast your bones first, simply place them on a baking sheet and bake at 400 F for 30-50 minutes. Add them to your Dutch oven, pot or slow cooker and follow the directions above for a homemade bone broth recipe using roasted bones.

I always use raw bones for my broth and it ends up just as potent and nutrient-rich as roasting. So, if you prefer a simpler, less time-consuming method, using raw bones works well.

I hope you’ll love making homemade bone broth as much as I do! What’s your favourite way to use bone broth at home?

Resources

The Bone Broth Secret by Louise Hay and Heather Dane

Simple Homemade Bone Broth Recipe & Benefits

What Are The Benefits of Drinking Bone Broth?

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