u/rita292

Let me tell you how I do it.

Credentials: My wife has chronic tummy troubles, and needs to drink a LOT of broth. Since November I have made this much broth about every two weeks, and I would love to share what I have learned with you all. May my hard-won broth knowledge make your soups delicious.

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs chicken backs
• 2 lbs chicken feet
• Bones/skin of one roast/rotisserie chicken
• 2 Tbs salt
• 4 Tbs apple cider vinegar
• 12 liters water

Recipe:

• Parboil the backs (bring to a boil for ten minutes in a smaller amount of water then drain and rinse thoroughly to remove the scum)
• Add remaining ingredients and water to a very, very large pot
• Simmer (NOT boil) for 2-3 hours or until the contents have reduced by about 1/3

Rationale:

• The chicken feet provide collagen, and are the key to making your broth really gelatinous and silky.
• The rotisserie chicken bones and skin provide that roasted flavor and beautiful golden color.
• You don't need a lot of feet or roast chicken bones to get these benefits, so it's fine to pad the rest of the stock with backs, which are cheaper. Parboiling the backs helps remove hemoglobin that turns into scum and can make your soup cloudy.
• ACV helps extract nutrients and flavor.
• You do not have to boil for hours and hours to get very gelatinous and nutritious stock. In fact, over-boiling can degrade the proteins and make it less gelatinous/less tasty (see this video for more details if you don't believe me).

Where I live, a single one cup container of Butchers brand bone broth costs 10 dollars, and it's less flavorful, less gelatinous, and frankly pretty bitter and unappetizing. This will make you a broth that is more nutritious, infinitely more delicious, and literally 5% of the cost per cup.

If you want acres of pure chicken stock, this is exactly the thing for you. If you need less stock, don't have a large enough pot, want to use other ingredients besides chicken in your stock, I encourage you to take what information is helpful from this and adapt it to your needs.

Happy simmering everyone!