If winter (or life in general!) is taking a toll on your health (and your skin) and you feel you need some extra support and nourishment, sip on some bone broth daily! Bone broth is both gut-healing and immune boosting which is a powerful combination to cure what ails you, or to help you maintain your health year-round. It’s packed with essential minerals, vitamins, gut-healing, fat-burning and anti-inflammatory properties, skin-tightening collagen, and protein to keep you feeling and looking your best.
Properly prepared meat and fish bone broths are incredibly nourishing, as the long cooking time allows all the mineral goodness contained inside the bones and cartilage, such as collagen, gelatin, calcium, magnesium and potassium and more to be drawn out of the bones into a delicious and healing broth. When consumed within the broth, the minerals are in an easily absorbable form to support your body in a myriad of ways including super charging your body’s natural healing.
Bone broths have long been used in therapeutic healing (hence, homemade chicken soup when you’re sick!) and are staples in the traditional diets of every culture. Chicken bone broth is particularly good for healing the gut, where most disease begins. Beef broth is great for skin, hair and nails and fish broth aids the body in producing its own collagen.
Here’s a quick summary of some of the benefits and an easy recipe so you can get some simmering away, asap!
Benefits of Bone Broth:
- Promotes healingof the gut lining
- Reduces inflammation
- Boosts immune system. When nutrients are easily assimilated, immunity is supported.
- Relief of gastro-intestinal disorders
- Provides easily absorbable nutrition, which means all nutrients taken in are more bio-available to the body
- Anti-aging power! Bone broth is rich in collagen which is the protein that gives skin its elasticity, for strong and smooth skin. We lose collagen as we age, so we need to replenish. Stronger hair and nails too!
- Supports digestion
- Aids in detoxification
- Promotes bone and joint health
- Aids in weight loss, due to a healthier gut environment
- Adds easily digestible protein to your diet.
- Tastes amazing– Drink it straight out of a mug or use as soup or cooking liquid in other recipes
Bone broth is readily available at many health food stores or online, but it’s so easy (and much more economical) to make your own! If you do purchase bone broth, please know that it is very different that regular broth or stock. It must be labeled bone broth, as the bones (and lengthy cooking time are what give it the high nutritional quality and benefits)
Slow Cooker Chicken Bone Broth
Note: You can use whatever vegetables and herbs you have on hand. And don’t spend a lot of time peeling and chopping the vegetables! A rough chop is fine and, if organic, you don’t need to peel! To make it even easier, you can make bone broth with just bones, water and apple cider vinegar (to help draw out the minerals), the rest is just for flavor, so adjust as needed! Also this is chicken bone broth, just sub beef or fish bones to make those broths!
Ingredients
3 to 4 pounds of chicken bones and cartilage OR a whole chicken
1 to 2 large carrots, roughly chopped
2 large celery ribs, roughly chopped
1 large onion, roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
6 garlic cloves
Herbs and spices of your choice
filtered water to cover
2 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste after cooking
Directions
Add vegetables and bones (or a whole chicken) to a crockpot or stockpot on the stove. Add vegetables, garlic and bay leaves. Feel free to add other herbs and spices of your choice. Fill the crockpot or stockpot with filtered water until it covers the chicken bones or the whole chicken. Add 2 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar. Cook on low for 24 hours. If using a whole chicken, after a few hours when the meat is cooked, you can remove the chicken meat from the bones for another use. Then add the bones back to the broth to continue cooking. After at least 24 hours, strain bones, vegetables, and spices from your broth. Store the broth in glass mason jars and refrigerate or freeze.
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