How To Make Immune Boosting Bone Broth

How To Make Immune Boosting Bone Broth

Nutrient-dense bone broth is incredibly easy and inexpensive to make and can be a very powerful part of any wellness protocol. Broth contains lots of minerals that your body can absorb very easily including calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, sulphur, and trace minerals. It also contains the broken down material from cartilage and tendons such as chondroitin and glucosamine (you know the stuff you pay a lot of money for in supplement form). Bone broth is known to boost the immune system, improve digestion, and is amazing for bone and teeth health. It also supports low energy, arthritis and joint pain, libido, and nervous system issues. Its high collagen content supports joints, hair, skin, and nails. Broth is high in amino acids which are vital for healthy connective tissues. It’s also amazing for our digestive system by helping to heal mucous membranes that cause leaky gut thanks to its gelatin content.

In selecting the bones for broth, look for high quality bones from grass fed cattle or bison, pastured poultry, or wild caught fish. Since you’ll be extracting the minerals and drinking them in a concentrated form, you ideally want to make sure that the animal was as healthy as possible.

Ingredients:

• Roughly 2 pounds bones- chicken, beef, lamb, pork or any good quality bones from your local butcher. You can also use leftover bones from a cooked chicken or other meat. This works out to be the bones from about two whole chickens. 
• 1 gal water
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar or the juice of 1 lemon (the acid helps make the nutrients in the bones more available).
• 1 onion
• 2 carrots
• 3 stalks of celery * see note below
• Handful of medicinal mushrooms like shiitake, maitake, or whatever is available locally (optional)
• 3 inch piece of seaweed like kelp (optional)
• 1 tablespoon salt (optional)
• herbs and spices (optional)- thyme, rosemary, sage, parsley, etc. 
• 2-4 cloves garlic (optional)

* I toss scraps from chopping/peeling vegetables in a gallon size ziploc bag that I leave in the freezer (onion peels, carrot peels and greens, celery leaves and ends for example). When making broth I dump the contents of the bag in the pot instead of chopping up fresh vegetables. 

Directions:

1. If you are using raw bones, especially beef bones, it improves flavor to roast them in the oven first. They can be roasted for 30 minutes at 350°F.
2. Place the bones in a large stock pot or crock pot.
3. Pour water over the bones.
4. Roughly chop and add vegetables to the pot, or just add a bag of vegetable scraps.  
5. Add any salt, mushrooms, seaweed, spices, or herbs, if using.
6. Add in the vinegar or lemon juice.
7. Bring the broth to a boil. Once it has reached a vigorous boil, reduce heat to a simmer and simmer for at least 4-6 hours or ideally up to 48 hours for beef, 24 hours for chicken, or 8 hours for fish bones. 
8. Add the garlic in the last 30 minutes of cooking. 
9. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Strain using a fine mesh strainer to remove all the bones and vegetables. 
10. Let sit until it cools down enough to refrigerate. When cool enough, store in glass jars in the fridge for up to 5 days, or freeze for later use. 

How to Use Bone Broth

Broth can be used in replace of the liquid in making soups, stews, gravies, sauces, and rice. It can also be used to saute or roast vegetables.

I try to drink at least ½ cup per person per day, especially in the winter. My favorite way is to use it when making soups and stews. For breakfast I sometimes drop a poached egg in a cup of broth and add a little salt and miso or fermented vegetables. Super nutritious.  

When you are sick, it’s great to consume primarily bone broth as it’s a very easy to digest sustenance force. This allows your body to focus more on fighting off the illness/recuperating, rather than digestion. It also provides a great boost for your immune system by filling your body with nutrition and directly supporting it when it needs it.

Additional tips:

• Add the cooled broth to ice cube trays to freeze. When frozen toss the cubes into a ziploc bag and you will have small portion sizes to use as needed.

• When the broth is simmering you can remove some to drink after the first few hours. Just add the same amount of fresh water back in and continue simmering. This is a version of continuous brew bone broth where you can actually let the broth simmer for several days taking out a cup at a time as you need it while it still cooks.