Chicken broth is easy and relatively inexpensive to purchase at the store, but making your own is also really simple and uses basic ingredients. Homemade Chicken Broth has extra rich flavor, and one of the benefits is that you can control things like flavor notes and salt content. My method here uses something that is normally discarded- a leftover rotisserie chicken! After you use the meat on the chicken for a meal, instead of tossing the remaining bones and scraps, simmer them with a few more ingredients and it results in a delicious homemade broth. I’m including instructions to make this both on the stove top or in a pressure cooker. If both options are available to you, I strongly recommend the pressure cooker. It will result in a more flavorful and less cloudy broth, and it cooks fast, too!
Ingredients Needed
You really only need basic ingredients to make great broth at home and it’s incredibly flexible. I don’t even always measure the vegetables. It’s also fine if your veggies are just barely starting to go bad. Instead of tossing them out, toss them in the pot!
- Chicken stock bones – This recipe calls for the leftover meat, cartilage, and bones of a rotisserie chicken. You can make broth with a chicken that is mostly picked apart, or one that still has quite a bit of meat on it. This is a great use for a chicken that still has meat on it, but it’s perhaps been in the fridge for a couple days and you no longer want to just eat it plain. You could also use leftovers from any cooked, bone-in chicken or simply use whole, raw drumsticks, or bone-in thighs or chicken breasts.
- Celery
- Carrots – Regular or baby carrots work great.
- Onion – I prefer yellow or white onion. Red will also work, but it may turn your broth a murky color.
- Fresh garlic
- Peppercorns – Peppercorns add flavor but can also be strained out at the end. If you don’t have whole peppercorns and don’t mind pepper flakes in your finished broth, feel free to crack some black pepper into the pot.
- Kosher salt
- Herbs – As desired. Fresh herbs are wonderful, but you could also used dried. Feel free to add different herbs to taste, it’s very flexible!
How to Make Easy Homemade Chicken Broth
- Pull off any large pieces of fat and skin from the chicken and discard. Place the carcass in a pressure cooker (or stove top pot).
- Add carrots, celery, onion, garlic, salt and peppercorns.
- Add water.
- In a pressure cooker, I cook on high for 45 minutes and then let it naturally depressurize. On the stovetop you’ll want to simmer, covered, for at least an hour. The longer you cook it the more flavorful it will be, but it will also reduce. Feel free to add more water if needed to make sure all ingredients are covered.
- When it’s done, strain your liquid to remove the solids. I like to use a large-hole strainer to discard the chicken bones and vegetables, and then run it through a fine-mesh strainer to further remove solids. You don’t need to remove all solids if you don’t want to, they usually just add flavor and body to your finished dishes!
- Use or freeze to enjoy later.
Storing and Other Tips
- Store finished, cooled broth in an airtight container in the refrigerator and use within 3-4 days for best results.
Freezing Homemade Broth
- Food service containers are a great way to freeze broth. I put a piece of masking tape on it and label with the contents and date.
- Another favorite tool for frozen broth are my favorite Souper Cubes, which make it easy to freeze portioned amounts. I freeze into cubes and then transfer the cubes into Ziplock bags, an airtight container, or a vacuum sealed bag for longer term storage.
- To Defrost: Place containers of broth in the fridge a day ahead of time to thaw, or I add the frozen cubes directly into warm pots of soups and sauces to melt.
Frequently Asked Questions
I use this Chicken and Dumplings recipe- just omit the dumplings, add noodles, and replace the milk with broth.
The quick answer is that both broth and stock involve simmering water and vegetables with parts of a chicken. Generally broth is made with chicken meat, like a whole chicken while stock is made with a large quantity of bones. Often in stock, the bones are roasted first as well. Overall, stock is known for having a deeper, richer flavor. Because the bones contain a lot of gelatin, stock usually has a little more body. I think this is true for homemade restaurant quality stock, but when it comes to the store-bought options, there’s not a huge difference (in my opinion). Some companies aren’t even consistent in labeling. So are they interchangeable in recipes? Generally speaking, yes. I buy broth 100% of the time. It’s more widely available and I like the light, clean flavor. The recipe above does contain bones, but it’s mostly the meaty chicken scraps attached that gives the broth its flavor.
You can, if you have a good quantity of leftover meaty bones. Beef broth requires a higher meat/bones to water ratio than chicken. Beef broth will need to cook longer and you may want to replace some of the herbs with a bay leaf. Beef contains more fat as well, so you will need to skim that off as well.
Easy Homemade Chicken Broth
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 rotisserie chicken leftover scraps
- 2-3 ribs celery you can leave the leaves on
- 2 carrots or a handful of baby carrots
- 1 onion, medium
- 3 cloves garlic smashed or roughly chopped
- 10 peppercorns
- 1 heaping tablespoon kosher salt
- fresh herbs a few fresh sprigs of parsley, thyme, and a bay leaf. Rosemary and sage are also good. You can also use 2 teaspoons each of rosemary, parsley, and thyme.
Instructions
Preperation
- Trim any excess fat and skin off of chicken and place it in a pressure cooker or stock pot.
- Give the celery, carrots and onions a rough chop and add to pot. Add all remaining ingredients.
- Add water so it covers the ingredients by a couple inches. If using a pressure cooker, do not exceed the max fill line. In my pressure cooker, I add about 12 cups of water. In a stock pot, I generally add 12-16 cups.
Cook Broth
- Pressure Cooker: Cook at high pressure for 45 minutes and then do a natural release.
- Stove Top: Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Simmer covered, stirring occasionally for 1-2 hours.
- Strain mixture to remove solids. Cool broth to room temp and then store in portioned containers in the freezer for up to 3 months, or in the fridge for about 5 days. Quantity varies, but it will reduce in volume after simmering.
Notes
- Store finished, cooled broth in an airtight container in the refrigerator and use within 3-4 days for best results.
Freezing Homemade Broth
- Food service containers are a great way to freeze broth. I put a piece of masking tape on it and label with the contents and date.
- Another favorite tool for frozen broth are my favorite Souper Cubes, which make it easy to freeze portioned amounts. I freeze into cubes and then transfer the cubes into Ziplock bags, an airtight container, or a vacuum sealed bag for longer term storage.
- To Defrost: Place containers of broth in the fridge a day ahead of time to thaw, or I add the frozen cubes directly into warm pots of soups and sauces to melt.
Questions & Reviews
I was just wondering what you do with the veggies…do you eat them or just toss them? I’ve never made homemade broth and know I’d want to eat the veggies (I hate to waste) but wondered if they were mush by the end of cooking time. BTW, I totally had to LOL at the picture in my head of you chomping on that rotisserie chicken! LOL!
The veges give all their flavor to the stock. Luckily I have a flock of chickens I give all my left over stock goodies to. They love the over cooked onions and carrots…. nothing wasted. Adding in fresh carrots to the new soup makes a world of difference. I wouldn’t do it until I tried it and now I am converted.
The first time I made my stock, I kept the carrots, and they were awesome! It was a pain in the neck to pick them out, since I had cut them up into small pieces. I discarded the onions though. I don’t care if the nutrients have been boiled out of them, they tasted great. Just making my second batch right now, put in large pieces of carrots and celery, making it easier to remove at the end, then will slice them up. I will be keeping those…
I have heard about doing this, but never brave enough to do this.
Amazing recipes. I can’t wait to get your book.
Ana – NothingsBroken.com
I have learned to de-bone the chicken after the first meal! While it’s still warm and has not been refrigerated. Then it’s easy to get the meat off. After I get the yummy meat off THEN I use those bones for broth. Meat simmered in broth gives all of it’s flavor to the broth and is tasteless. So use the good meat for some other yummy recipes. 🙂
Kori
This is exactly what I do. Also I throw in onions, peel and all. The peel gives a beautiful color. Then I strain everything. Add back in diced onions, carrots, celery and at the end, add in noodles and the diced cooked chicken meat and you have the most fantastic and easy chicken noodle soup. The meat stays tender and not soggy or stringy. Also done on the pressure cooker knocks back the time for a midweek meal. YUM.
Katie… (please excuse me if I’m over-stepping…) but you can definitely make your own vegetable stock. I keep homemade vegetable “stock”, beef stock/broth, chicken broth, and sometimes fish stock in the freezer at all times.
I can’t believe how easy that is! is it the same for Vegetable Stock? my alton brown Turkey that I do at Thanksgiving calls for Vegetable Stock and it is a pain in the butt to find! maybe I can make my own???
I read a recipe one time that kept all the veggie and fruit peelings to make a veggie stock…
Wow…one of those questions sounded very familiar! Thanks for even more feedback and the great recipe!
Hello,
I am a fellow Boisian (actually Meridianite), and since you mention Costco… do you have the digital pressure cooker that can be purchased there? It is amazing and I’m looking for more recipes. This broth could be cooked up in less than 10 minutes with the pressure cooker. What do you say you do a segment on digital pressure cooker recipes?!!! AND, I DID see what Costco had this week-end! I think I bought one right after you took that picture because the runaway shrink-wrap was in that exact spot!!
Who knew all these years I was making broth and not stock. Thanks for the explanation of the difference. I’m going to try the rotisserie method…sounds so much tastier and easier than using a whole raw chicken (not to mention sounding more appetizing than having to clean out and handle said raw chicken)
Oh my goodness! We just made the fauxtisserie chicken yesterday and when Jake asked if he could throw the “carcass” out I told him “No! I’m going to make chicken broth out of it!” He looked at me like I was crazy (which I am, I didn’t have the foggiest clue on how to do it) and behold, you and your mind reading ability, you provide the directions. Thanks Sara, you are a true friend!
Although the recipe is terrific, easy and just what I needed….I have to say the dialog that went into this chicken broth posting is my favorite part!!! I seldom laugh right out loud when reading recipes. But the visual of driving out of the Costco parking lot gnawing on a chicken leg AND the side comments on the word “carcass” were hilarious. Thanks for “humor and personality plus” with the cooking!!!