Bone Broth has been in the forefront a lot these days with GAPS, Paleo, AIP and Keto diets all reinforcing its benefits. And rightfully so! Bone broth stock is a great place to find all of the valuable amino acids, collagen, gelatin and trace minerals. By regularly drinking bone broth or using it in recipes, you can help heal your gut and promote healthy gut integrity while reducing permeability and inflammation. Hence Bone Broth is recommended in all healing diets. Our ancestors used up all parts of an animal including the carcass and bones. They cooked bones, skin, ligaments, feet and tendon over slow heat over a period of days resulting in a soup (broth) that had medicinal qualities! Amino acids like glutamine, glycine as well as collagen are present in bone broth that have tremendous healing power by reducing permeability and inflammation. Bone broths also contain minerals in forms that your body can easily absorb: calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and others. They also contain chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine, which reduce inflammation and consequently arthritis and joint pain.Here are some of the benefits of drinking bone broth regularly:
- Treat leaky gut syndrome (one of the causes of autoimmune diseases)
- Overcome food intolerances and allergies
- Improve joint health
- Boost immune system
To make beef bone broth properly at home, it is very important to get organic grass-fed bones from your local farmers market. You can get bones from your butcher. You can get beef bones, lamb bones or chicken bones. Whole Foods usually has it in a box in a freezer shelf in the frozen meats aisle. For making a chicken bone broth, you can alternatively also first cook a whole chicken and then use the carcass and bones from the already cooked chicken. Isn’t that a win-win with nothing going waste?
Bone broth has been an important component of my healing diet as well. And here is how I cook my Bone Broth. There are lots of recipes out there showing how to make bone broth and everyone’s recipe is basically same with slight differences in the ingredients and spices/herbs used which consequently lead to slightly different flavors. I have been making bone broth for the last two years and just thought of posting my recipe now since my clients often ask me how I make it. So I thought of doing a video too. In the video I show using beef bones and I roast them first in the oven for a bit however that is not a necessary step and you can make the bone soup skipping this step too.
I put very low level of spices because I like to have a very light / mild flavor in the soup and like to enjoy the actual flavor of the soup more. I use some whole spices like bay leaves, a piece of cinnamon and cloves etc. Fresh ginger also adds a very nice flavor. Some folks pay a lot of importance to getting their broth to ‘gel’! But that is really not that important. Whether a broth will gel or not depends upon the gelatin content of the broth which in turn depends upon what kind of bones you used and also the amount of water. Using chicken legs and feet for instance will give you a more gelatinous broth.
For bone broth, you will need to remove the bones and also strain the liquid using a strainer or cheesecloth to get the whole spices and vegetables out. I sometimes don’t strain the vegetables and like to have bone soup!
- 2 lbs of grass fed beef bones or goat bones or carcass of a whole chicken
- 1 medium red onion or 2 small shallots, chopped
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- 1 carrot, chopped
- a 1 by 2 inch of fresh ginger root, peeled and chopped into thin rounds or big chunks
- 3-4 whole cloves
- one 2 inch piece of cinnamon stick
- 1-2 bay leaves
- 4-6 whole peppercorns (omit for AIP)
- 8 cups filtered water
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- About 1½ to 2 tsp sea salt
- If using Beef or goat bones: Place the bones on a baking tray lined with parchment and bake at 400 F for 30 mins. Remove from oven. This step is optional.
- Add all the ingredients to the pot and close the lid. Cook on slow heat for about 10 hours. Now open the pot and remove the bones out (if using beef bones) and take out the bone marrow and discard or save the bones(you can use them twice to make broth). You can add the bone marrow to the soup and drink the soup as is or keep the marrow separate and strain the rest of the soup through a large strainer or cheese cloth to get clear liquid.
Thank you for this recipe. I am making this broth for my husband who has an autoimmune disease and this is a great bulk base to have on hand.
You are welcome! I agree – this is a great base for many recipes! And bone broth is so good for healing the gut!
I make bone broth pretty regularly too, especially after I’ve cooked a whole chicken. But recently I’ve been making beef bone broth and also cook the bones in the oven first to release the flavor. They are pretty expensive, but I do so enjoy it knowing it is also good for the body.
That’s great Loretta. Do you know that you can use the bones twice to make the broth? That way they don’t seem that expensive!