Crock-pot Bone Broth (Chicken)...Made My Way!

A very dear friend sent me the cookbook, "Nourishing Traditions,"  I LOVE the book and have learned more than I can imagine.  One thing I now make regularly is Bone Broth.  It's incredibly easy and makes any soup or risotto or anything else I dream up taste much better than it would if I just used a boxed or canned broth.  When Sally Fallon makes a chicken bone broth her recipe uses chicken parts and not many herbs.  When I make the bone broth I use a whole chicken and add a bunch of things straight out of the herb patch I have, which gives the broth so much more flavor.  Here is my recipe based off of hers:

Here I made a Chicken soup for the boys out of the bone broth

 1 whole organic chicken, including neck, and chicken parts found in cavity

8 cups filtered water

1 onion, peeled and cut in half

1 cup carrots, cut into chunks

1 cup celery sticks (include the leaves, most of the flavor is in the leaves)

Handful fresh parsley (garden)

2 springs rosemary

Handful of fresh thyme (garden)

2 springs fresh sage (garden)

1 teaspoon Celtic sea salt

5 peppercorns

1 tablespoon of vinegar

  Place all ingredients in the crock- pot and set on low for as many hours as your crock-pot goes.  Making sure you're able to turn it back on when the timer stops.  My crock-pot goes for 15 hours.  So I put everything in the crock-pot early evening and let it go until morning and then turn it back on again so it runs another 10 hours until I get home.  With bone broth you want the bones to be almost disintegrating or liquifying (I use that term lightly because I've never seen it totally do that).  At this point you can strain it and use the meat for burritos or even make a quick chicken soup.  This is what I did for my boys and the rest of the broth I will freeze.  Yummy!  It's amazing how much better things taste when you start with a good quality broth.

Closeup of the bone broth!

Yes, I decorate the boys soup... It's always the first thing they take out of the soup!

You can see how different this broth looks...Amazing!

Out of the book Ageless Remedies from Mother's Kitchen I took this quick little excerpt:

"Why is chicken soup superior to all the things we have, even more relaxing than Tylenol?  It is because chicken soup has a natural ingredient which feeds, repairs and calms the mucous lining in the small intestine.  This inner lining is the beginning or ending of the nervous system.  It is easily pulled away from the intestine through too many laxatives, too many food additives...and parasites.  Chicken soup...heals the nerves, improves digestion, reduces allergies, relaxes and gives strength".