{Easy} Crockpot Bone Broth

Have you ever enjoyed a chicken for dinner and thrown away the bones?  I used to do that too!

And then I discovered how to make chicken bone broth. Basically, bone broth is just broth cooked long enough to pull more nutrients from the bones, joints and marrow.

Here is my easy method: 

Enjoy your Sunday dinner, or even the rotisserie chicken you brought home from the market. (Preferably organic.)

Once you have removed the meat from the bones, put the carcass into your crock pot, along with any giblets that were in the chicken when you prepared it.  Add water to cover.  At this point you can also add leftover veggies, carrots, celery, garlic, etc. But you don't have to. Set your crock on low and cook all night and into the next morning...........

......or longer, if you like. When you are ready for the next step, you will need a strainer that fits into a large bowl, in order to separate the broth from the bones.

See how the leg bone is soft enough to break? See the marrow?

Now you are ready to save the broth.

If you like, you can super-strain it with a piece of muslin.

Next, I pour some of the broth into a glass container to use in cooking. The rest, I pour into ice trays and freeze. When frozen, I dump the cubes into a bag. Then, anytime I need some broth, I can grab as much as I need. I often melt a cube in a bowl and add my dog's kibble. Needless to say (but I will) she loves it!

If you have chickens...do not throw the mush away! I bag it up (remember the bones crushed easily between my fingers) and I feed it to my hens.  My 9 hens share about 1 cup of this weekly. (Well Big Meany doesn't share, but the rest do.)

I know this looks like a lot of steps, but it only takes a few minutes of your time.  It is economical and, of course, EASY!

About 31 days of EASY: 

So many things in life are hard.  And some of those hard things are necessary. But why make things harder than they need to be?  For 31 days, I'll be writing about ways to bring ease.  I would be honored if you came along on my journey.  Pack light. 

If you want to know more about the 31 Day Blog Challenge, click here:
Nesting Place: It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful.
or here: Why 31 days?

Many Blessings to you.

Nothing Wasted : How I Used 100 Percent of our Thanksgiving Turkey

Four days after Thanksgiving, our turkey was entirely utilized-- every bit of it, bones and all.

Here's how:

First, I bought a 21 lb, fresh, free range turkey at Sprouts Market and soaked it in brine. I cooked the giblets and the neck in a small crock pot overnight, feeding the meat to my dog and to our chickens over the next several days.

Next,  I roasted the bird in our new electric roaster at 450 for 30 minutes, then another 3 1/2 hours at 325 degrees. I was able to roast the turkey in our laundry room, leaving the oven available to warm our side dishes.

I wish I had taken photos of the bird on a platter, but we were too busy getting everything else ready.

As soon as the table was cleared, and before pie, I put the turkey carcass into our large crock pot, covered it with water, and set it on low.  I kept it on low for a day and a half.  Then I strained the broth into a bowl and divided the bones, meat and skin into bags for the freezer.  I will serve this to our chickens, about one bag per week.

Even though our turkey was well built -- due to his "free range life" -- a day and a half in the crock brought his stalwart bones to the point where I could crush them easily between my fingers, exposing  the marrow, which my chickens love; actually, the hens eat every single bone, but not all at once.

(We ate our share of the leftovers too.)

I poured the strained broth back into the crock pot, along with three of the biggest bones, an onion, 2 carrots, a stalk of celery, and 3 cloves of garlic, a bay leaf and a stray pepper top from someones's lunch.

Then I cooked the broth for another a couple of days, adding water a few times. In this way, I was able to pull all the nutrition from the combined elements. Then I strained the stock, adding the vegetables to my compost bin.

Four days after eating our turkey, I made soup:

Creamed Turkey Soup and Dumplings.
~Saute 1 diced onion, one stalk celery and 2 cloves chopped garlic in 2 tbsp butter. Add 3 cups turkey stock (you could use chicken stock) and 3 cups water. 
~Pour into crock pot. 
~Add 1-2 sliced carrots and bits of turkey, about 2 cups I slightly shredded it with my fingers (after removing any 'surprises', because I don't like 'surprises.'
~Salt and pepper and do something else for a couple of hours. ( I went to yoga class.)
~Ladle about a cup of broth into a separate container and add 2 tbs cornstarch, mixing well and return to pot.
~Add some whole milk, cream or half and half, slowly, while stirring until it looks right.
~Turn up the heat and bring to a simmer.
~Add one pinch of love ( I add this to everything I make.)

 I found the dumpling recipe on the internet and cut it in half, because I was only serving 3 people but here is the uncut version.

Homemade Dumplings 
(Click here for a wheat free dumpling recipe)

Ingredients  

~2 cups of all-purpose flour
~2 teaspoons of baking powder
~3/4 teaspoon of salt
~4 tablespoons margarine
~¾ - 1 cup water, or milk if preferred

Directions~~~~Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut in 4 tablespoons of margarine. Add ¾ cup of water or milk and stir well. Add additional liquid as needed to form a soft dough that can be dropped by a large spoon into the soup.

~Using a large spoon, drop the dumpling dough into simmering Homemade Chicken Soup.
~Cover kettle{ I used my crock-pot} and simmer for 15 minutes. Do not remove the cover to check for doneness before the allotted time. This will cause the dumplings to "fall" and Instead of light fluffy dumplings, you will get dense dumplings. It is possible to cook the dumplings without a cover, but the results are better if they are covered. (Recipe found Here)

In conclusion: I learned how to use 100 per cent of a 20 lb turkey.

1. Neck, Giblets to pets
2. Dinner for 10
3. Sent leftovers home with 3 families
4. Made bone broth with carcass
5. Leftover meal for 2
6. Lunches for 2 days
7. Bones cooked to crushing stage and divided into bags for chickens throughout the month.
8. Creamed turkey soup.
9. Leftover soup
10. 1 quart stock to be used in stew 
11. 2 trays broth ice cubes
12. 2 cups turkey bits in lunch bags for dog's food.

Can you tell I'm pleased?

~Blessings

Linking this post with:
Tuesdays with a Twist
Farm Girl Friday Blog Fest
The Thankful HomeAcre Hop

Bone Broth, By Any Other Name...

Jim has been asking all week long what I'm doing ...and when will I be done? I've been telling him," It is an experiment."  And each morning, Libby has barked and wagged, expectantly, as I ladled the steaming essence of life onto her Blue Buffalo kibble from my simmering pot.

I've been making Bone Broth.

What is BONE BROTH?  Merely bones and veggies, water and a jalapeno, simmered for a long time! So long, that the nutrition is pulled out...so long, that the bones become soft enough to crush between your fingers.  So soft, that they can end up here:

Encouraged in my experiment by a fellow blogger, I've sipped the broth  for breakfast with a dollop of coconut oil, while rolling my eyes with delight!  

       

....BONE BROTH...

Our adult children would prefer another name for this new fascination of mine, I've suggested a few alternative titles: bone stock, bone soup...but bone is the objectionable word, I think.  Just as well -- it is the best name for something that used to be trash at my house.

I used to throw all sorts of things in the trash that I now see as treasure!

I found out that kitchen scraps don't go down the disposal...they now go here:  as treats for the flock of 7 chickens that nest and play behind a 30' span of our 15' tall Oleanders. 

 ( And , no...the Oleanders have not poisoned the birds...They didn't poison the kids, the dogs, cats, rabbits, ducks or the goat... either.)

I've learned in the past year --raising chickens, recycling, and composting -- how wasteful our modern society has become.  A "ton" (literally) of stuff that I used to throw away has been recycled.  If it doesn't go to the Hen Pen,  It goes into one of two compost bins, along with grass clippings, weeds, leaves, dryer lint, newspaper, chicken droppings.  And it gets turned into this: 

Thus, the essence of life continues to  be a blessing in places like this:

Kelly and I planted a veggie garden last year in her backyard that went crazy! We learned what to plant and what to plant less of, namely spaghetti squash!

I'm showing a small fraction of our squash. All from a few small seedlings!  Much of it was given away.  Some was fed to the hens.  

Hens, who gave us these.

After our eggs are boiled and peeled they go all sorts of places.  By now, I think you can guess at least three locations for the shells.  

Here is one of my favorite uses of the edible parts of our eggs.  

Now more of my story about bone broth. Last week I discovered another 2+2=__.

The eggs that I collected went right into the broth.  And after simmering 40 minutes, I ate them, rolling my eyes again with joyous delight...because they tasted like jalapeno and soup!  Guess where the jalapeno came from?  Yep...the garden.  This basket is full of bounty from our backyard...all produced by the very items in the basket...life!  

And that is what Bone Broth is!  A bowl of life!  

Try some. 

Next time you have a roast chicken, or ribs or steak ... plop it into your crock pot, add water and simmer  your brew for days and days...add herbs if you like, veggies in the freezer too long?...Plop them in...?  Sure!  Add water as the week progresses.  Spoon some broth onto your pet's food.    

Then strain.  If you don't have chickens, you will have to throw away the bones. So sad...  

But you will still be able to enjoy a cuppa...

BONE BROTH with a dollop of coconut oil! 

In fact, here is my breakfast!

YUM!

And here is a link to more from my teacher: (http://butterfliesandbumblebees.org)  Blessings upon you!