When I first met my nutritionist Pooja, I was dealing with a compromised gut. It affected my energy levels, I felt tired and after every meal my stomach would grumble in protest.
She immediately put me on a bone broth regiment to heal my gut and reduce inflammation – and recommended that I drink one mug of homemade bone broth daily.
The first thought that popped in my head was: Everyday? How am I going to make that much bone broth!!
I was motivated to feel better and I was armed with a good recipe – but doubtful that I’d be able to keep it up regularly.
Making homemade bone broth felt like something you might do once in a while, maybe trying out a Julia Child recipe over the weekend.
But I took action and with each new attempt – I saw new ways to make it a simpler process. And very soon this luxury ingredient became a weekday kitchen staple and the base of much of my cooking.
And that’s what I’m going to share with you today – the steps that help you get into a rhythm making homemade bone broth each week.
Not only has drinking more bone broth made me feel stronger and healthier – but having it always on hand in your fridge, means that you can easily pack flavour and nourishment into all of your meals.
You can use bone broth to make rice, quinoa, soups and stews for healthy weekly meals. And when your kids only want white rice, at least you can cook it nutrient rich broth!
The trick is to get into the routine of making it on the regular so that you always have it on hand.
So here are five tips that will help you more easily maintain a steady supply of collagen-rich, homemade stock in your kitchen.
How to get into the routine of making homemade stock
Get friendly with your butcher: The biggest part of bone broth, are the bones… and it took me a while to figure out how to get a steady supply.
The first thing is to do is to find a good butcher, that provides you quality meat from sustainable suppliers.
Let them know that you’re looking for a weekly supply of bones to make your homemade stocks with.
Very often they’ll sell you the bones for cheap, or even give it away!
My butcher told me that at the end of the day, the bones go to waste – so he’d rather I make use of it. Talk to your butcher too.
TIP: To make the most gelatin-rich bone broth, you’ll want to add in extra chicken feet. It looks gnarly I know, but it produces the best results.
Save your scraps: Get into the habit of keeping a dedicated scrap bowl next to you every time you chop veggies. Place all the ends pieces and scraps in the container and store it in the fridge or freezer to add into your stock recipe.
Batch Cook: Another smart way to make stock, is by poaching an entire chicken. I have an article for you here, where I share the tips to batch cook one chicken for many different uses.
Making stock this way, is a good two-in-one deal! You get to shred the meat and store it in the fridge for quick wraps and salads throughout the week, and you get the stock too!
Remember even if you buy a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken, you can still shred the meat first, and then save those bones for your stock later!
Get the right cooker: Chicken stock takes hours to cook, you’ll never have enough time in the day to mind over a pot of stock.
Consider these two options:
- Pressure Cooker: At night, prepare your stock recipe in a pressure cooker and cook it just until it begins to steam, around 15 minutes. Turn off the fire and leave the pot untouched. The pressure inside will continue cooking the stock throughout the night – even while it’s turned off! The next morning, open the lid, strain out the stock and store it in the fridge.
- Slow Cooker: Put all the ingredients in your slow cooker, set the timer and by the time you wake up or come home from work, the stock is hot, cooked and ready for you.
suggested reading: Slow Cooker vs. Pressure Cooker
Freeze your stock in cubes: These little flavour cubes are going to make your rice and quinoa even more delicious!
Just pop in a few cubes where ever you can.
The great benefit too is that you don’t have to worry about a batch of stock going bad if you haven’t used it, just freeze it and make use of it as you’re collecting fresh bones and veggie scraps for your next batch.
I hope that these tips help you get a good rhythm making homemade bone broth each week. It’s well worth the effort.
I’d love to know – are you into make homemade stock? What makes it easier for you?
3 responses to “How to Never Run out of Homemade Stock”
Hi i was wondering what type of pressure cooker you have? Where can I by one I live in Australia.
I was thinking a stove top stainless steel type as i need to make broth regularly and your idea using it over night sounds great.
Any info would be great.
Hi Angelina! My pressure cooker isn’t fancy at all – I’ll be honest, I was a little scared of it at first – but it was a simple $30 cooker that I got from a big box store. I can’t even see a name brand on it 🙂
I did some research on this a few months back, you can see my write up on pressure cookers here: https://littlegreendot.com/pressure-cooker-vs-slow-cooker/
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