Recently while grocery shopping, I noticed chicken broth was on sale. I love me a good sale (especially if you can get a case discount with it!) so I picked up a carton. Thankfully no one saw my disgusted face as I read the ingredients. I won't name any names, but I was disappointed that even a "natural" type of chicken broth had extra ingredients in it like natural coloring. Why did my stock need color added? Needless to say I put the carton back on the shelf and passed up the sale.

You may be wondering why I would use chicken broth in a recipe when there are so many great health benefits of bone broth. Great question! I recently was prescribed to be on a low-histamine diet for a short period of time in order to decrease my overall histamine levels to manage some health concerns that flared up. Bone broth can actually be high in histamine. Normally the high histamine in bone broth is not a problem for most people, but for this particular diet modification I needed something with lower histamine. I decided to do a little researching and ultimately decided to make up my own recipe for chicken broth.

Now one other question you may have is what is the difference between chicken broth, chicken stock, and chicken bone broth. If you search online any of these names you will ultimately find recipes for all three. There isn't a black & white definition but generally:

Chicken stock and bone broth= broth from mostly chicken bones

Chicken broth= broth from mostly chicken meat

Chicken broth does not have all the nutritional benefits of bone broth; however after making the recipe below, I did find that chicken broth definitely has more of a chicken-y flavor than chicken bone broth. One other benefit of making chicken broth is that you can make this in under 2 hours compared to bone broth which takes 24-48 hours.

What can you use chicken broth for? The ideas are endless! I used it to make a low-histamine Chicken Zoodle Soup (recipe coming soon!). You could add this broth to our "Cheesy" Lentil Macaroni or Potage Parmentier Soup or make up your own creation!

So without further delay here's the recipe, enjoy!

Download/print recipe

Nourishing & Easy Chicken Broth Recipe

AUTHOR: Caitlyn J. Hanson, Recipe adapted from Daniel Gritzer's Basic Chicken Stock Recipe
TIME: Active- 5 minutes, Cook- 90 minutes

Ingredients

4 lbs chicken **see note
4 quarts water
2 sweet onions, diced
2 shallots, diced
4 carrots, diced
4 celery, diced
4 sprigs fresh parsley
2 sprigs fresh thyme, rosemary optional

Instructions

Place chicken in pot followed by all other ingredients (this minimizes raw chicken water splashing.
Cover and bring to a low boil over medium heat. Lower heat just enough to maintain a low simmer. Cook for 90 minutes. Keep covered if wanting to maintain most amount of liquid. Uncover for a more condensed broth.
Strain broth through a fine-mesh strainer and allow to cook before storing.

**Note: Remember chicken broth is primarily from chicken meat unlike bone broth or stock which is primarily from bones. I chose to use 2lbs. chicken wings with all meat attached and 2lbs. chicken breast. Check out this post for which cuts of the chicken are best for the type of broth you are wanting. One thing I really wanted to know before I made chicken broth was if I could re-use the meat that I boiled to make the broth. I couldn't find an answer online so I tested it out myself. You can! The meat and the veggies have a muted flavor compared to if you would have cooked them by roasting or sauteing. Toss them in another dish such as Chicken Divan (recipe coming soon) or make a flavorful gravy to add to them.

Storage

I store mine in Mason jars in the fridge and use or freeze it within a few days.

I love to freeze the broth in ice cube trays like this one and once frozen transfer to air tight container or baggie. Defrosting these cubes for a soup or another recipe is so much easier than defrosting a quart-sized block of ice. If you need an exact amount for your recipe and your using your frozen broth cubes, use a teaspoon to fill one empty ice cube in the tray in order to calculate how much each cube will give you. For example, my ice cubes are 1 tablespoon each. If I need a cup of broth then I'll use 16 of my broth cubes.

Having frozen cubes of chicken broth or bone broth on hand also makes it super easy to add a few cubes to a recipe like our "Cheesy" Lentil Macaronii or heat up and drink for an immune-boosting pick-me-up.

What's your favorite way to use Chicken Broth? Share your ideas below!

Happy cooking!

Caitlyn J. Hanson

www.LWGG.org

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to diagnose or treat any illnesses or disease. Please always check with your doctor before beginning any new nutritional or fitness program or before making any nutritional/fitness changes.