Making your own bone broth at home is one of the simplest ways to create a deeply nourishing staple for your kitchen. Whether you’re using a whole raw chicken, leftover chicken bones, chicken carcasses, or even pounds of chicken bones saved in a freezer bag, there are so many different ways to turn them into rich, flavorful homemade chicken stock.

You can make small batches of broth in a pot on the stove or in a slow cooker or crockpot. I like to make large batches of broth in my roasters, or if you prefer a faster method, try instant pot chicken bone broth using your pressure cooker. Cook on high pressure for about 90–120 minutes, followed by natural release. The reduced cook time still produces a flavorful, batch of broth without tending a stove all day.

Anytime I can add broth to a recipe, I do it. Not only because of the rich flavor it adds, but also because it is rich in vitamins, minerals, and collagen. I love being able to grab a jar off the pantry shelf and quickly add it to a meal. Some of our favorite ways to use canned broth are in

soups
stews
beef and noodles
cream sauce for pasta
homemade mushroom soup
beef pot pie
sourdough stuffing

Why You'll Love This Recipe

The flavor will be superior to any broth you can purchase from the grocery store.
It will be rich in vitamins, minerals, and collagen.
You can make it in large batches and freeze it or can it.
It can also be made in small batches if you only have a few bones at a time.
It’s a great way to utilize all the nutrition from the animal, whether it’s one you raised or purchased.
Making bone broth is one of the easiest things you can make in your kitchen.

Ingredients

Chicken bones- Chicken backs, carcasses, wings, necks, and especially feet are best for chicken broth because they provide rich flavor and plenty of collagen for a full-bodied, gelatin-rich broth.
Apple cider vinegar - this helps to draw the collagen and minerals out of the bones and into the broth. And don’t worry, it won’t make the broth taste like vinegar. Learn how to make your own apple cider vinegar here.
Herbs - a mix of whatever herbs you have on hand, either fresh or dried. A list of my favorite herbs is in the recipe card below.
Salt - I like to use Redmond Real Salt
Black Pepper - this will give make a flavorful bone broth
Vegetable scraps - I add a lot of onion and garlic to my broth because I love the flavor, but you can also add other veggies like carrots or celery. You can save your veggie scraps in a ziplock bag in the freezer and then you’ll have a bunch when it’s time to make broth.

Learn how to can your own chicken or turkey here.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here

Sourcing Bones For Making This Bone Broth Recipe

Local

Search around your local area for people who raise chickens because they often have extra roosters or old hens that aren't laying anymore, and they will gladly give them to you for making broth. You'll have to butcher them yourself, but it's not very hard to do, especially if you just skin them out instead of plucking them. We try to do this with extra chickens about once a year, replenishing our supply of chicken broth in our homestead pantry.

Save The Bones From A Chicken

Whenever you roast a chicken, be sure to save the bones for making broth. You can store them in the freezer until you're ready to make a big batch, or just put them in a slow cooker, or a stockpot on the stove on low heat and simmer until done.

Preserving Broth

To keep broth long term, you can freeze it or can it. I prefer to make it shelf stable by canning it, so it doesn’t take up valuable freezer space. Canning broth is simple. It must be pressure canned because it is a meat product, but you don’t have to pressure can it as long as you do meat, because it’s liquid and it doesn’t take long for it to get to a certain high temperature under pressure.

Tools

Large pot, slow cooker, roaster, or instant pot
Crockpot or roaster liner, optional
Large colander or fine mesh strainer
Fine cheesecloth - for straining the broth
Canning Jars – I prefer to put all of my chicken broth in quart wide-mouth jars for our larger family, but you can certainly use pint jars as well. You can find jars at garage sales and auctions, or you can purchase them from Azure Standard. If you use the code NEW15 at this link you will get 15% off your first order of $100 or more.
Lids and rings – I like the lids and rings from ForJarsUSA as they have the best seal rate of any lid I’ve ever tried. Use code wagon10 and get 10% your For Jars USA Order.
Jar Lifter – for taking hot jars out of the canner
Towel – for setting your hot jars on when placing them on the counter.
Pressure Canner – a really good pressure canner is a great initial investment in your canning future and one that will serve you well for many years to come. I prefer this All American pressure canner or the pressure canner from ForJarsUSA. Use code wagon10 and get 10% your For Jars USA Order.

How to Make Chicken Bone Broth

To a large stockpot, slow cooker, roaster, or instant pot, add the roasted bones, herbs, veggie scraps, salt, pepper, vinegar, and water.

Fill the pot with water, and bring to a low boil over medium heat.

adding water to bones to make chicken broth

Cover and simmer for a few hours or up to several days. You may need to add water occasionally if you simmer it for a long time.

Strain off the broth using fine cheesecloth and a colander.

Refrigerate for up to a week, or freeze in freezer-safe containers for up to a year.

Pressure Canning Chicken Bone Broth

Ladle hot broth into pint or quart jars, and cover with lids and rings.

Place 1-2 quarts of water in your pressure canner, place it on your stove, and turn your burner on high. Place jars of meat into the canner and put the lid on, being sure to lock it into place. You can refer to your canner manual for detail instructions related to your canner.

Allow the canner to continue to heat until a steady stream of steam is coming out of the vents. (See video below)

Place pressure gauge or applicable device over steam vent.

When you reach 10 pounds pressure, lower the heat so that the pressure is maintained. You don’t want it to go too far above or below the desired pressure for best results. On my canner, it has a little pressure regulator that jiggles, so when it is put on the canner for 10 pounds of pressure, it is supposed to jiggle 4-5 times per minute. That is how I know it is at 10 pounds of pressure. This is very simple, but will vary from canner to canner, so please refer to your canner instructions for more details.

Process pints for 20 minutes and quarts for 25 minutes at 10 pounds pressure.

At the end of the processing time, simply turn off the heat and let the canner cool down slowly.

Once the canner is completely cooled, remove the lid and using the jar lifter, remove the jars and place them on a towel on your counter to cool.

Allow the jars to fully cool to room temperature. You will hear the satisfying “pop” of the seals as the jars cool. This means you’ve been successful!

Check The Seals

Once the jars are completely cooled, check to make sure they all have a good seal. To do this, you’ll want to make sure that the lid on each jar is indented downwards, and when you press on the center of the lid, it doesn’t move. If you use the For Jars lids, you won’t have any trouble with jars sealing. If you have a jar that doesn’t seal, you can put it into the refrigerator and use it within a week. Or you can replace the lid and re-process it in the canner. Sometimes a lid won’t seal if there is a small crack on the rim of the jar, or if a piece of salt or food particle wasn’t cleaned off the jar rim properly.

Wipe down your jars and put them on your pantry shelf to be enjoyed for a long time to come.

Thanks for following along as we teach you how to grow a simple, sustainable life.

Tips

Keep leftover veggie scraps in a bag in your freezer to add whenever you’re making broth. You can keep the peels and ends from the veggies, because you’re going to strain them off the broth in the end anyway. That way you’ll have zero waste on your veggies and your meat when you make broth.
If freezing your broth, be sure to use a freezer safe container and leave room at the top of the container for the broth to expand as it freezes.
For the best good gel texture by the next day, add chicken feet or other parts rich in connective tissue. That’s what gives the broth it's gelatinous texture.

FAQ

You should simmer broth for at least 12 hours to get the maximum benefits out of the bones, but you can leave it on a very low simmer for as long as you want, even several days. One of my favorite parts of making broth is that I can start it when I have time, and finish it when I have time. So if I get busy, I can just add more water to it and let it continue to simmer.

Chicken backs, carcasses, wings, necks, and especially feet are best for chicken broth because they provide rich flavor and plenty of collagen for a full-bodied, gelatin-rich broth.

It doesn’t really matter whether you slow cook or pressure cook bone broth. Using a slow cooker or a pot on the stove is a great way to make the broth slowly, and pressure cooking it in an instant pot just speeds up the process. It’s really all up to your preference. The key is the cook the broth long enough that when it cools, it gels because it has gotten the gel into it from the bones.

Yes, it’s perfectly safe to can bone broth. Some of the health benefits might be lost during the pressure canning process and the broth doesn’t always gel after being canned because of the high heat. But canned bone broth is still way more nutritious for you, and cheaper than broth from the grocery store. If you’re wanting broth for medicinal purposes only, I would suggest freezing a small batch of it just for that.

Bone broth is full of vitamins, minerals, natural collagen, and amino acids. It has many health benefits making it a delicious choice, good for everyday consumption! You can drink a cup of this collagen-rich liquid everyday, and not have to take collagen supplements.

This is up to you. The fat is healthy and delicious, and adds extra flavor to the broth, so I always leave it on the broth. If you leave it on the broth, there will be a layer of fat on top of the broth once it is cold. You can just add it to your soups and stews right along with the broth, and you'll be getting all the gut health benefits from the collagen and marrow in the broth.

Canned bone broth will keep for at least 1-2 years on your pantry shelves. As long as the seals “pops” when you open it, the broth is still good. I have kept canned broth on my pantry shelves for much longer than 1-2 years and it’s always been fine. It’s important to do what you feel comfortable with, but as long as I can hear a nice “pop” when I open the jar, then I know it’s safe to consume.