How to Make Nourishing Bone Broth Recipes to Heal

Did you know that nourishing, delicious bone broths are one of the most healing foods one can eat? Bone broth is a super food and used by almost every culture through out history. To increase health in travel, or at home, I've found bone broths to be a key travel health secret and easy to do with slow travel. This recipe in yummy, full of amazing health benefits and I know the best way to make it easy!

"Good broth resurrects the dead." ~ South American Proverb


"There is no such thing as a good chicken bouillon, and you should stoop to using canned chicken broth only during times of dire emergency." - Jeff Smith

I was not very aware of bone broth benefits, until my Santa Cruz acupuncturist Kathy Pouls first told me about them last year and we have all been eating them regularly ever since. That and homemade kefir have been my best food cures, so I eat them daily, To be a healing food, one must make it from scratch with the best ingredients the traditional way like your grandmothers or great grandmothers did.

Most folks and even most restaurants do not make soup from scratch anymore, despite how easy it is. They use powdered or liquid flavorings loaded with  MSG, autolyzed yeast extract, hydrolyzed vegetable proteins and bad fats that are quite toxic to our nervous systems and brain.




In the GAPS diet protocol ( and many others) bone broths ( along with other super foods like kefir and fermented foods)  are the corner stone to "heal and seal" the gut lining which supports the immune system and cures many diseases.

This versitile broth can be made ahead, then drunk as a beverage, used in cooking (like making soaked rice or as the liquid to steam veggies) and used as a base for stews, curries and many soups.

Indeed, stock is everything in cooking. . . without it nothing can be done. ~ Auguste Escoffier





BENEFITS OF BONE BROTHS

* Fortifies the immune system

* Full of minerals like calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur & trace minerals in an easy to assimilate form

* Nourishing gelatin-rich, collagen-building substances heal bones, joints, tendons, ligaments, skin, and muscus membranes like the gut

* Enhances digestion and heals anemia, ulcers, IBS, colitis, Chrohns, GERD

* Aids arthritis, osteoporosis, gastritis, cancer, food allergies, leaky gut, wound healing, lowering athreosclerosis, dental degeneration ( cavities and gum problems), lowering cholesterol,  bone injury healing, liver health, detoxification, killing flu bugs, food poisoning, malnutrition, Celiac disease, diabetes, insomnia, heart attack and more


"Whenever possible give your soups the full flavor of homemade stock." - Julia Child

HEALTH EXPERTS WHO RECOMMEND EATING BONE BROTHS REGULARLY

Dr. Cate Shanahan M.D. of Deep Nutrition

Dr. Campbell-McBride M.D. of GAPS Diet

Dr. Jonathan Collin M.D. of The Townsend Letter

Dr. Jack Kruse M.D.

Dr. Terry Whals M.D of Minding My Mitochondria

Dr. Joseph Brasco of Brasco Broth and Restoring Your Digestive Health

Paul Jaminet of Perfect Health Diet

Dr, Weston Price and Sally Fallon

Chris Kessler

Mark Sisson of Primal Blue Print


"There is no way that you can run a proper kitchen without having fresh stocks on hand. If you buy commercially prepared products you are generally getting little more than salt, and in a very expensive form." -Jeff Smith

RECIPE FOR HEALING CHICKEN BONE BROTH

3 1/2 litres filtered water

Dash of Perrier natural mineral water

1 tbs apple cider vinegar

4 - 6 tbs organic virgin coconut oil

1 medium organic , pastured ( wild) chicken

2-4 chicken feet

8 organic carrots

6 stalks celery ( we use the non-leaf part of bok choy because organic celery is very expensive in Asia)

2 - 4 sliced organic zucchinis

3 medium white or yellow onions, peeled and diced

4 inches grated ginger

5 cloves garlic (omit if you have upper GI problems or severe heartburn)

2 tbs Celtic sea salt

1 large bunch organic parsley





This is a slight variation of Brasco broth that Dr. Rubin and Dr. Brasco recommend in Restoring Your Digestive Health, but a common recipe that you can tweak to make it your own. The mirepoix is typical for bone broths for flavor and nutrients, but I don't usually use the zucchinis or garlic.

Place cold filtered water in a large stainless steel pot, add the Perrier, apple cider vinegar, and let stand for 10 minutes or so. Add the chicken and chicken feet. Turn the heat on high, bring to a boil over high heat. and let boil for just 60 seconds, ( low heat makes the best bone broth),  skim off any foam and lower the heat.

Add the coconut oil, vegetables. ginger, garlic and sea salt; and let simmer for 12 to 24 hours. Approximately 30 minutes from finishing, add the cut up organic parsley.




We get wonderful DQ pastured chickens here with feet attached ( far superior nutritionally to conventional chickens which have hormones, antibiotics and eat bad grain under stressful, crowded conditions).  I use to thaw them and cut up, but  I've learned the easy trick is to just use the whole frozen chicken, then after it slow cooks awhile, I take it out and cut it, separate the meat from the bones. I store the chicken meat in a mason jar in the fridge for several meals, break up the bones and put them in the broth to simmer more for many hours.

I also often add the vegetables later and it is not uncommon for me to brew this mix for several days ( putting the pot in the fridge at night, then putting it back on the burner when I wake up). This can all be done in a crock pot, which I may invest in one of these days.

You do not want to cook this in a pressure cooker as I've read that affects the nutrients in a negative way. Both Dr. Campbell-McBride and Sally Fallon say it is not a good idea as it makes it less nutritious. I am guessing partly from that high heat.




The most challenging part is when the soup is done, but it soon becomes an easy ritual if you do it once a week or like me several times a week.

Remove the soup from the heat and discard the chicken feet. ( I still get grossed out by the feet, but they are a very important ingredient and particularly rich in gelatin). Remove chicken from bones and place the meat back into the soup ( or separate them as I do, explained above) and throw the bones away. You can ladel it into bowls and/or store some in mason jars that will keep for about a week in the refrigerator and months in the freezer.

For the bone broth I store, I  use a strainer and pour into a smaller stainless steel pan, then use a funnel to pour into the mason jars. I pick out the carrots, parsley etc and put them in another jar. Then when I make a soup for lunch and dinner, I just combine these things and often cilantro, tumeric and maybe a poached pastured egg ( that I poach in the soup) if I don't have chicken. One can also add left over rice, sea weed, pasta, cabbage, sardines, coconut milk etc if you eat these things to make various quick soup combos from the broth.



I hope this inspires you to make your own bone broth and use it regularly in your kitchen. Any questions?

Comments

[Stacey]

Perfect timing Jeanne! I've been making my own chicken broth (and vegetable), but always looking for good recipes. Haven't used one with chicken feet before. Can't wait to try yours!

[Jeanne @soultravelers3]

Glad to hear it Stacey! This particular recipe is simple purposely for healing big problems, but if you are not dealing with illness, I think you can tweak it lots of different ways and add other veggies that you like.

The feet are so important...and now I have much greater understanding of some of that weird food we have run into in Europe and Asia and WHY these odd body parts they put into food are so good for you.

Funny!

[Jessica Holt]

A local Vietnamese restaurant has the best Pho on the planet. When my husband asked the lady her secret for the broth, she said: Big bones and cook for hours! So simple :)

[Janie]

What kind of recipes would you make with the broths?

[Jeanne @soultravelers3]

Sorry, in the delay in answering this Janie. Looks like you wrote this when we were in China with less internet access.

The broth itself is delicious so we eat a few cup fulls a day as a snack and I use it in almost all my cooking.

I throw it into cooked veggies, I use it to cook things like wild salmon ( use it with coconut oil to start with onions), I use it for rice, I make many different soups with it for most of our dinner starters by adding different spices or ingredients, etc etc etc.

The possibilities are really limitless.

[Gabrielle]

Hey Jeanne ! Going back in your archives to re-read your healthy food posts after having read "Restoring your digestive health" and trying to figure out how to incorporate all this in our family ´s diet and rythm. I'm thinking that making a big pot of chicken bone broth once a week, at the week-end, is a good and relatively easy place to start. Plus by doing it your way it will give us the basis for a few meal to start our week ! As for supplements I ´m planning to start with clay to help with DH´s ulcerative colitis. Thanks for sharing all this !

[jeanne @soultravelers3]

Hey Gabrielle! After all the books I have read, I still think that is one of the best and we have made bone broths just part of our life.

Interestingly, bone broth daily ( 4 cups) along with raw milk is essential for the cure tooth cavity diet we are on now.

I think the weekend idea is great, also a crock pot helps as well ( something we recently invested in, but I still start it in a pot).

Slow food is definitely more work, but you will find ways to make it easy and fit into your life like your weekend idea.

I usually have 2 days a week where I do major food things including bone broths, soaking all my eggs, paleo baking, making coconut flour etc.

I use the meat for 3 meals for us and little snacks for kidlet putting a bit of chicken and greens in her bone broth snacks daily.

I put it into a mason jar.

I am also adding the pastured egg shells now to my broth for the calcium, but you might want to wait on that, depending how sensitive your husband is.

I am finding that one of the big problems with a gut issue is nutrients don't get absorbed, so it takes a long time to revitalize the gut and body and it is not a quick fix, so do not get discouraged.

Interestingly, the Rubins/Brasco diet is basically the same as SCO and GAPS diet, but each has slightly different tweaks.

One cheap thing she mentions in the GAP diet besides bone broth is epson salts baths a few times a week.

It is hard to get magnesium via digestion, so that works well for getting magnesium and sulfer which seems to help.

Magnesium helps with calcium absorption and bone broths make it easy to absorb minerals that are often missed.

VT D,K, E,A also are very important in this which he doesn't mention. ( I'm keeping track of my VT D levels which were VERY low but have risen now via diet and getting 15 minutes of tropical sun at high noon).

MANY say Green Pastures FERMENTED cod liver oil and butter oil combo is VERY helpful as well, so I am going to try that for us too .

Now's NAC has been very helpful for me and is a cheap supplement, so possibly something else to look into that he doesn't mention.

As this point we are not doing any grains and also being very careful with fructose and no sugar. ( Actually easier than I imagined with the milk and things like turnips which taste like potatoes and sweet potatoes and lots of good fats..so satisfying).

I don't have celiac but think perhaps I am sensitive to gluten as most people are whether they realize it or not. At the moment I am thinking I have SIBO which is one of the very hard ones to cure.

I am not 100% but have made HUGE progress. I have read about many who have cured ( or have in remission) ulcerative colitis so hang in there and keep trying.

It is a lot of work, but worth it as food is so important today.I think we can learn from each other and it is important to keep tweaking a bit as every individual is different.

Bone broths are definitely key for healing and a good habit to get into. We will find a way to keep it up even as we travel.

You are lucky that it is easier to find the chicken feet in France than USA. They are great for gelatin and other healing things.

Good luck!

[Gabrielle]

Thank you Jeanne for taking the time to write this long and detailed message. It really touched me (and it really helped).

Yes we are very lucky in France to be able to find lots of fresh real food directly (or near enough) from the producer on our great weekly (or multi-weekly) markets. Thankfully, supermarkets haven't killed that yet...

I haven't looked yet but I think I might be able to find fresh raw butter and milk. Maybe even goats milk ! Actually, I think that by eating this way, I could do 95% of my shopping at the market. (would be great, I hate supermarkets).

Looking forward to going there early on saturday to enquire.. (If you go after 9.30 it´s packed at this time of the year ! Which makes me so happy for the producers and sellers that come every week and sometimes have a hard time during the winter.)

Having all this on our doorstep makes it harder when we travel because it´s hard to know where to shop and source produces, especially when we're "only" there for 2 or 3 months. I was also thinking of your family the other night and wondering how you will manage to eat like you do on the road... I'm sure you'll find ways, as you are all very ressourceful, but it will certainly make for an interesting adventure!

One last question : Did you do the phases of the Jordan/Rubin plan (with all the correct supplements). Or did you just compiled it with what you already knew to make it work for you ?

Sorry Jeanne (and all) for the rambling... And I know your time on line is limited so on worries if you can't answer... just wanted to say thanks really... Take care!

[Jeanne @soultravelers3]

It is much harder on the road, but once you find the sources, not bad. I just have to tweak our diet a bit depending on where we are and what is available.

So far we have found no grass fed beef in Penang, so we are limited to pastured chicken, pastured eggs and wild salmon.

They do have it in KL, so maybe we will have to take a bus up there and get some. Missing it!

I did the whole Brasco/Rubin protocol to the best of my ability from the start to finish...still basically eat like that. I love how he breaks down what to eat.

I had some similar supplements that I used, but couldn't get all the things he mentions. I used Perrier instead of the water he suggested and I used Terramin Clay etc.

The first bit is a bit hard because there is little to eat, but I rested mostly and was desperate.

The broth is amazingly healing, so we still drink some daily.

Hope it helps!

[Barbara]

I have just made my first batch of Basco Broth...I am so sensitive to fats and traditionally skim the fat off my broths, do you strain off the fat from this soup or just eat it all?
(I'm thinking we're supposed to eat the fat...but am a little wary given my sensitivity to fats)

Thanks!

[Jeanne @soultravelers3]

I keep the fat in Barbara and even add the coconut oil fat as that is part of the recipe and the healing. I even add grass fed butter to the cups for my child.

DO make sure it is pastured chicken and organic cold pressed coconut oil!

Hope it works for you too!

[Barbara]

Thank you for getting back to me Jeanne. I have used an organic chicken. The coconut oil is Spectrum's organic -
but it is refined, mechanically pressed.

I thought the fat was intended to be part of the healing - but, I confess, it scares me to eat it. I have such a sensitive gallbladder that I'm afraid that much fat will make me quite sick.
(It is a sensitive gallbladder, but not one that they want to remove.)

I shall see. I skimmed my first batch...will probably try a cup of it w/o skimming it.

Thanks again,
Barbara

[Jeanne @soultravelers3]

I would trust your instincts Barbara, as no one knows your body and specific problems better than you. Perhaps read that book where I got the basic recipe or find an expert on Gall Bladder disease or top nutritionist like my friend Kasia to guide you.

Some think I have some gall bladder issues ( some don't) but I haven't had any issues with fats that I know about yet.

One thing I have learned though is what works for some, doesn't for others and we must listen to our bodies.

So trust your instincts!

[Barbara]

I am so grateful for your website and generous sharing of your journey & learned wisdom! Thank you!
I too am currently on the "guts & glory" program
and was not having much success with the fat skimmed broth (which I did for 4 days), so, with your encouragement, while still listening to my own body, the last 5 meals I've eaten the broth with all the fat and find that my bowels are finally moving (perhaps TMI!
But the happy truth!). I had been considering giving the program up but am determined to be healthier. I'm still in phase 1. Have been drinking a brew of cumin, fennel& coriander seeds in place of the anti-inflammatory supplements - altho I think it is probably a good idea to do some combination of both.

1,000 thanks for your sharing & your enthusiasm & commitment. That too is good soulfood.

Blessings,
Barbara

[Barbara]

Hi Jeanne,
Two more questions: Do you eat the bones from broth made with chicken when they've not broken down in the broth but are so soft that they crumble in your mouth? And did you use kefir instead of yogurt in Phase 2 of the Guts & Glory Program?

muchas gracias!
Barbara

[Jeanne @soultravelers3]

Thanks Barbara, I am happy to hear this website and sharing my health journey has been a help to you and others!

I love that book and program and think he says a LOT of important things about what to eat. It made me better, BUT it did not cure me...so I am still adding more things and will keep sharing.

Since you know you have gallbladder issues, two cheap things I would look into if I were you, is coffee enemas and castor oil/"Palma Christe" packs. Do research on the internet and make sure you are using the best High quality cold-pressed castor oil and the best high quality special coffee and equipment for the coffee enemas. These are two very separate things and you must read up on them..but I have found them both to be very helpful and will be writing more about them. Edgar Cayce wrote a lot about the benefits of castor oil packs and people like Gerson, Kelley ( cured himself of pancreatic cancer),Gonzales and more recently GAPS diet MD/neurologist Campbell-Mcbride and others rave about their results with such.

I have a friend who was riddled with cancer..brain, bone, liver, colon, meloma etc etc..who was told she had 6 weeks to live over a decade ago and cured herself of cancer completely, naturally and coffee enemas were a big part of her protocol.

I will be writing more about this. You might also want to read Ray Peak's information about natural progesterone..as many women are low in this and it is needed for digestion as is thyroid. I think Peak is totally wrong on most of his diet advice, but his progesterone info seems good.

I also don't agree with Dr Cousen's on diet, but like some of his info and I have benefited by nascent iodine and l-tyrosine, so will be writing about that too.

Diatomaceous earth (food grade) also has been a big help to me as had terramin clay.YMMV

Do your research on this stuff as I am not a doctor and only report on my experience and every body is different. Only you can figure out what works for you, but I try to just report what happens to work for me.

Yes, I do eat that marrow and some bone ends when they are in that super soft stage as I have read they are good for you.i chew VERY thoroughly.

I did the yogurt as he recommended for a long time and liked it. Kefir is much stronger, so sometimes people need to work up to it...both SCD author and Campbell-Mcbride and others talk about this.

Good luck!

[Barbara]

Hello Jeanne,
Sorry to be so long in responding to your generous offerings (again!). Yes, I have used castor oil packs in the past and they have helped...a good reminder. The coffee enemas??
I have read about these and am so reluctant to use them. Probably echoes of childhood trauma with enemas and further issues when my colon got lazy after a number of colonics (at my dr's recommendation). I will reconsider.
I actually moved from stage 2 to stage 3 of G&GP too soon...
but was very sick after four or five days of stage 2 with symptoms similar to those I have when my gallbladder is overloaded. I had just worked my way up to the full amt of yogurt suggested (I am only 105#s)and wondered if it was a response to the yogurt, the fat in it & broth or what? (I had also had a prophylactic dose of doxy for a tick bite the previous day, I should add.)Feeling in a quandary. As many on this program, I've lost a lot of weight (w/o much to lose in the first place) and have been woefully fatigued. Decided I needed more calories and less yogurt. Am still very much in flux. Hoping I can find where you wrote about your exp with SIBO. sigh.
"And this too shall pass..."!
Thank you again for your generous offerings and courageous, adventurous, joyful spirit. All good medicine too!

Barbara

[jeanne @soultravelers3]

Sounds like you are dealing with a LOT Barbara and need to get some medical help. If your doctors aren't helping, I HIGHLY recommend Kasia Przechodzka who has a masters in Clinical Nutrition from Columbia and has helped me a ton. She has read my blood work better than ANY MD I have worked with and is brilliant in coming up with well researched natural approaches.

She is in NYC area but can work via email.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kasia-przechodzka-ms-cscs/b/854/93b

Good luck!

BTW as far as I know, Doxy and ALL antibiotics have a profoundly negative affect on gut flora ....and antibiotics is what started my digestive problems, so I am guessing that didn't help.

[Ange]

Hi there,

I came across your bone broth recipe when I was looking for a bone broth recipe for my mum who has oesophageal cancer & has spread throughout her chest, abdomen & is in multiple lymph nodes. She is incurable.

My questions are:
Do you have to sterilise the jars like you would if you were bottling fruit?
If the broth is not frozen does it need to be refrigerated?
I presume in the jar the fat settles to the top so do you break a piece of the fat off & pour some broth into a pot with the fat & reheat it?

Sorry for all the questions, I just really want to help my mum.

[jeanne @soultravelers3]

So so so sorry to hear about your mum and I send you both prayers! No you do not need to sterilize the jars. It is not canning, just using it like a container.

Yes, it needs to be refrigerated.

Yes, that is how I do it, but often we used the whole jar, but if you use less, just take some of the fat on top,

Hope that helps!