How To Make The Best Bone Broth Recipe
In this article, I will be sharing my ultimate bone broth recipe, which I am continuously improving and refining. You can simply just throw chicken bones into a pot of filtered water, pop the lid on, and be done with it — but that's too boring for me and I am sure you want something extraordinary.
WHAT IS bone broth?
Bone broth is fundamentally an ancestral way of respecting the whole animal nose to tail (and shell, as you will see). It can also include local and seasonal plants, which can be added for an extra dimension of flavor. Bone broth can be prepared via various different methods and from a wide range of different animal sources. There are no real rules to follow when making bone broth, but having spent a good few years perfecting the art of cooking nutrient-dense recipes for myself and my friends, I think I have a few (previously) secret tricks and tips up my sleeve that you’ll want to hear about.
The Benefits of Bone Broth
Bone broth provides the nourishing amino acids of hydroxyproline, glutamine and glycine, which are the precursors of collagen in the body. Two of those amino acids, glutamine and glycine, also help us to produce glutathione, which is one of the key antioxidant enzymes in our body and helps mitigate naturally occurring free radicals and excessive free radical damage. Glycine also has a role in neurotransmitter function, particularly influencing GABA. This is why some people feel a nice chilled and mellow response to consuming bone broth in the evening. The glycine in bone broth can also improve growth hormone levels, which have a more pronounced circadian rhythm at night.
How to use bone broth IN YOUR DIET
Bone broth can be incorporated into your diet in multiple ways. It can be used as a base for soups, added to slow cooks as part of the wet liquid-like Passata or coconut milk, and it can be used to make gravy. Additionally, you can have it just by itself as an appetizer to prime your digestive system before the main meal, as a super-light meal in the evening, or as part of a bone broth liquid fast.
The cost of bone broth
WHY I STARTED MAKING MY OWN ULTIMATE BONE BROTH —
Bone broth is all the rage — you can now purchase it in the UK for £5 or more and that's just for one serving. With the ever-increasing costs of food, we need to be smarter about our healthier conveniences like bone broth.
Back in the day, when I first started making bone broth, the bones were freely given to me by my butcher because they had no clue about what bone broth was. A few cookbooks and years later, they clocked on and charged £1 for a few chicken carcasses and now it’s hard even to find bones because they sell out so quickly at the farmers’ markets and local butchers!
As a result, I realised I needed to start saving my bones from the slow cooks and roasting joints I was making. This is easy when you don't consume excessive amounts of muscle meat like steaks and instead cook ribs, chops, whole birds, shins, and other bits and pieces; for those cuts, the meat-to-cost ratio is superior to that of prime steaks. Whilst the bigger joints and slow cooks do take a little more time to cook, you get the added benefits of the leftover bones and cartilage, which you can use for making bone broths afterward.
My ultimate hack for making bone broth
Whilst in Baja California Sur this year, home to the best seafood in Mexico, I enjoyed all the best shrimp on offer. I was stacking the shrimp shells and using them as part of my ultimate bone broth recipe, which you will find below.
I’d read a lot about shellfish and utilising their shells, especially from crustacean species like crab, crayfish, lobster, and shrimp/prawns. The shells contain unique compounds such as carotenoids like astaxanthin, 1 which has impressive anti-inflammatory action in the skin and can act as a UV sun protector akin to sun cream. 2
Typically, people discard the shells although I do know some people that actually eat it in a similar way to cooked chicken wing bones. The shells contain nutrient-rich unique animal-derived fiber in the form of polysaccharides called “chitooligosaccharides” and even the pharmaceutical industry is catching on and now by using the cytoskeletons of these crustacean species. 3
As I mentioned earlier, there are no real rules involved in making bone broth. Every 2 weeks, whatever I’ve previously been cooking and what bones, discarded cartilage or shells I have leftover, will make its way into the pot or slow cooker and transcend into the liquid gold that is bone broth.
MY complete guide to making bone broth
For this bone broth recipe, I have used a mixture of bones from beef short rib, T bone steak, pork chops and also around 300 grams worth of shrimp shells and some heads, saved from 1.5 kilos of shrimp that I’ve eaten over the last 2 weeks. The land animal bones equated to around 1 kilo.
I always use filtered water. Bring it to the boil and then use a spoon to remove the scum / impurities, which typically rise to the surface in the initial stages. Once that step has been completed, the heat can be reduced to a low simmer with the lid on. Let the magic commence. You can also use a slow cooker or pressure cooker, which work just as well.
There are a lot of conflicting views about the length of time to cook your bone broth. If I was cooking just chicken bone broth, then I keep my bone broth to a shorter duration of around 4-6 hours. For beef or pork or lamb and other game animals, I typically believe 8-12 hours is sufficient. I think when you go beyond those length of time there is very little more you get from it. I added the shrimp shells in at the same time as the pork and beef. The shells are pretty strong so require the same length of time.
A cool trick to enhance the mineral extraction of the bones is to keep the broth liquid slightly acidic. The reasons for this are simple and speak to human physiology involving acids and bases pH. When our blood or intracellular fluid is more acidic it has the capacity to buffer the minerals (cations) potassium, calcium and magnesium. The trick with this recipe is the squeeze of lemon juice and lemon zest. Alternatively, you can use apple cider vinegar. I also added sea salt to the broth.
Once the 8 hours is up, I strain the liquid once, then place the bones and shells over the side of the pot to allow the remaining liquid gold from the bones and shells to drip off.
You can serve the both straight away and just simply season it to taste. It will be hot so be careful.
Otherwise, allow it to cool and then store it in glass jars (if using plastic containers then allow the liquid to cool down much further so none of the plastic leaches into the bone broth).
You can discard your bones and shells in the compost bin. Some people like to re-use the bones and get another round out of them. Personally, I don't think there is any point in doing this.
Bone broth tipS:
You can roast the bones prior to boiling, which intensifies the flavor a little and gives a darker appearance. If you do this, you will lose some of the escaping fat from the bones so be mindful of that. I don't enjoy my broths that fatty. There is a difference between fatty and gelatinous. The former is where there’s a big cap of fat at the top of your refrigerated bone broth, the latter is when you spoon out the bone broth and the consistency is similar to that of jelly/jello.
The bone broth will last for 5 days in the fridge. If you’re making a big batch then it’s best to freeze it. You can pour the broth into an ice cube tray so you have bone broth cubes ready to drop into anything you want.
I also throw in any kitchen scraps I have like lemon peels and fresh herb stalks, which I freeze to keep for making my bone broth recipe to complement and enhance the typical bone broth, making it the ultimate version :-). I typically add a variety of spices like fresh ginger, turmeric, garlic, and other things such as lemon peel, onions, celery, carrot and a dash of coconut aminos.
The Ultimate Bone Broth Recipe:
Servings: 12
Prep time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 6-8+ hours
Skill level: Easy
The Ultimate Bone Broth Ingredients
300 grams of leftover shrimp shells (Optiona with heads)
1 kg of mixed bones. Pork, Beef, Chicken or Beef. (I explained in the text above details)
Filtered water as much that fits your lided pot.
1 tsp salt
Bunch of herb stalks or leaves: Rosmerary, thyme, parsley, sage, basil
1 chopped medium tomato deseeded and skin peeled.
5 garlic cloves - smashed
1 inch knob of ginger
Zest of half a lemon
1 tsp of lemon juice or lime juice
Optional add ons.
1 carrot, leek, celery stalk, onion (white or red) and turmeric.
The Ultimate Bone Broth Instructions
It starts by gathering and collecting the bones and shells prior. Keep them in the freezer until you have a good amout.
Using a wide or deep lidded pot. Add the bones and shell to the pot.
Add the fresh herbs of choice, and all of the other items.
Then fill up with filtered water.
Bring the pot to a boil. As it comes to the boil impurities will rise to the surface. Using a spoon, ladle out the disgard, impurities to the trash or compost bin.
Reduce the heat to a low simmer and place the lid on.
Allow the broth to work its magic for 5 hours upwards. I think 8 hours is a sweet spot.
Remove the broth from the heat. Cool down 10 minutes.
Using a small holed stainless steel strainer (not plastic as the liquid is hot) drain the broth over into a glass bowl or other pot/pan.
Then transfer the bone broth into glass jars which make it easy for servings and freezing if needed.
Allow to fully cool before placing in the fridge or freezer.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did making and drinking the bone broth.
If you have any further comments and questions then please drop a comment below.
