Chicken broth (Grandma’s style)

French broth is usually flavorful, richly golden-brown colored, and very different from store-bought broth (which, unfortunately, is for me pretty bland and oversalted, as I’ve not been used to it.)
If you like the true chicken flavor, you’ll never use any store-bought broth after trying this broth.

It’s very easy to make and only requires 10′ of your time at the beginning.
In a large pot on medium-high heat, you just need to sauté onions, carrots, celery, leeks if you have, and chicken bones, until golden brown.

Fill your pot with water. Then you’re going to add some vinegar, herbs, salt and pepper. And bring the pot to a light simmer with very little bubbles.
You don’t want to boil it and get large bubbles.

Then leave it to simmer gently on the stove for a minimum of 9 hours (and up to 24h if you need to go to bed !). You don’t need to watch it or stir it. Just leave it and go live your life 🙂

Don’t rush and try to remove it before 9h, the taste is NOT the same. If you started it in the afternoon or at night, you can definitely leave it on the stove overnight.

After 9h minimum, strain the broth, or take laddles directly from the pot, and save in glass jars (up to 5 days in the fridge, and for months in the freezer).
I usually make a 20L pot and save the broth these 1L Le Parfait glass jars. I find we almost always need 1L of broth in recipes !

What is awesome with these jars, is that they can go directly from the freezer to the steamer. Or under hot water. Glass is sturdy enough.
And as they’re perfectly cylindrical, you just need to hold one 1-2 minutes under warm water, and the block of broth gets out in one piece. Veeeeery convenient on the “what-am-I-going-to-make-for-dinner-tonight ?!?” evenings 🙂

Filtered chicken broth

Print Recipe

Chicken broth (Grandma’s style)

10' to start it, 10' at the end to save it in jars, is all you need to have liters of delicious homemade chicken broth – you're ready for months of recipes !

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time9 hours hrs

Course: Side Dish, Soup, Staples

Cuisine: French

Keyword: affordable, Comfort food, delicious, easy, freezes, staple, versatile

Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 1 chicken carcass, or bones from a rotisserie chicken (keep bones from all chickens you eat, in a bag in the freezer, to make broth)
• 1 onion, roughly chopped (fresh or frozen)
• 2 carrots, roughly chopped (fresh or frozen)
• 2 stacks of celery, roughly chopped (when preparing celery, just wash the outer pieces and put them in the chicken boens bag in the freezer))
• 2 green leaves from a leek, optional (when you're cooking leeks, keep the outer leaves and add them in the chicken bones bag, in the freezer)
• 5-6 parsley stems (keep the elaves for another use)
• 2 sprigs of thyme, or 1 tsp dried thyme
• 2-3 bay leaves (fresh if possible)
• 15 ml apple cider vinegar (don't skip)
• Coarse salt, back peppercorns

Instructions

• In a large pot on medium-high heat, you just need to sauté onions, carrots, celery, leeks if you have, and chicken bones, until golden brown.
• Fill your pot with water. Add vinegar, thyme and bay leaves, a pinch of coarse salt, and about 5-6 black peppercorns.
• Bring the pot to a light simmer with very little bubbles.You don’t want to boil it and get large bubbles, flavor won’t be the same.
• Then leave it to simmer gently on the stove for a minimum of 9 hours (and up to 24h). You don't need to watch it or stir it. Just leave it and go live your life – or to bed 🙂
• After 9 to 24h, strain the broth in a colander, and store in jars. Discard what's in the colander.

  Or, just take laddles of broth and pour them into the jars. You'll get a few herbs pieces in your broth, which I also like. Broth looks more "authentic" when not filtered 🙂
• Store for up to 5 days in the fridge, or months in the freezer.

Notes

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• When the broth cools off, you’ll see a layer of fat on the top of the jar, which will solidify. You may remove it. But actually, the fat contains lots of flavor, so it’s totally up to you to keep it, or discard it. The broth is still good, even without the fat.
• Save all the bones and carcasses you get from chicken dishes. Freeze them in a large bag that will allow you to add more over time. Then you’re ready to make a broth whenever you need it.
• In the bag of bones, you may add vegetables that turned a bit soft in the fridge, the celery leaves you don’t use, parsley stems after using the leaves, green parts of the leeks…..This way your broth is ready to make at any time !