Bone broth is a nutrient dense food that is a staple in any traditional food diet. The broth is easy to make and even easier for your body to digest. Bone broth is full of collagen which provides great benefits for your skin, bone, and gut health. In this post I will show you a super easy crockpot bone broth recipe that you can make with little effort.
Benefits of Bone Broth
Bone broth is full of vital nutrients for our bodies. Collagen is the most abundant protein in our bodies and bone broth is a great way to make sure you are getting all those amino acids. Bones are also full of calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous which are essential for our bodies. Not only that, but bone broth also provides these nutrients in a form your body can actually absorb unlike many over the counter supplements today.
Bone broth also can help with digestion and healing an unhealthy gut. Because of its anti-inflammatory properties, drinking broth regularly can improve digestion and strengthen the lining of the intestines. Bone broth can help with the growth of good bacteria in the gut which will help your body detox all the toxins that we are exposed to.
Ingredients for Bone Broth
Bone broth is easy to make and making it will end up saving you a ton of money. To start, you want to find the right bones. Though any will technically do, if you want to reap the most benefits from the collagen, you need bones like knuckles for beef broth or feet for chicken broth. These are the parts of the animal that have the most connective tissue and in return, give you the most nutrients.
So where on earth do you find such a thing? We buy ours from a local farm where we get beef 1/4 of a cow at a time. The farm raises organic, grass-fed cows that are free from hormones and anti-biotics. Buying cow this way can save you a lot of money and get you much better-quality meat. They also typically have all kinds of bones and organ meat for next to nothing. If you don’t have a local farm you work with, you should look into that!
Now, once you have your bones, it’s time to chop the veggies. You will need celery, carrots, onions, and garlic. These veggies will not only add great flavor to your broth, but they will also provide more nutrients to support your health. You can also use scrap veggies that you have on hand. I like to keep a bag in my freezer that I add scraps to as I go then, when I am ready to make broth, I have a full bag ready to dump in.
Next you will need herbs and spices. I like to use salt, pepper, parsley and oregano. These can be adjusted to taste but start with 1 TBSP of each. The final ingredient is apple cider vinegar. ACV is full of health benefits on its own but, when added to bone broth, it can help extract the collagen from the bones. This makes it a win-win for sure!
How to Make Bone Broth
Once you have all your ingredients, it is time to make the broth. Dump all your bones, veggies, herbs and apple cider vinegar in the crockpot. Fill to the top with water. I typically have room for about 16 cups of water. Cover and turn on low for 36 hours. Your crockpot may only go up to 20 hours. That is fine, just make sure you it will turn off at a time when you are home and awake so you can add another 16 hours! The reason the broth has to cook for so long is because it takes this long to fully break down the collagen and extract all the nutrients.
Once the time is up, let the bone broth cool slightly, then pour into a large bowl through a colander to strain out all the bones and veggies. Let the broth cool fully on the counter and then put in the fridge for a while to chill it and harden all the fat on top. At this point, you can pull the fat off and throw it out or, you can take this and render it into a cooking fat called tallow. (This is a blog post for another day!)
After you have taken the fat off, pour the bone broth into containers. You can keep it in the fridge for up to a week or freeze for up to 3 months.
Isn’t it amazing how God created all parts of the animal to be useful to us? Bones may not be the most glamourous part of the cow but, they are packed full of nutrients to help us stay healthy.
Disclaimer: This page contains affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase after clicking a link, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.
Crockpot Bone Broth
Equipment
- 1 Crockpot
Ingredients
- 5 lbs beef bones with marrow
- 4 carrots, chopped
- 3 celery stalks, chopped
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp pepper
- 1 tbsp parsley
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
- 12 cups water
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in the crockpot.
- Add water to fill the crockpot.
- Cook on low for 36 hours. (You may have to restart the time depending on how long your crockpot goes for.)
- Let cool.
- Strain through a colander into a large bowl.
- Allow to cool then place in the fridge.
- Once cooled in fridge, remove the fat from the top.
- Pour broth into containers and freeze for up to 3 months.
