There’s a theory about store-bought bone broth that has been making the rounds on social media, and our expert backs it up.
“In the greater scheme of things, a lot of the bone broth that is being sold is really just stock,” chef Jon Kung tells TODAY.com, adding that there is no real culinary rule that dictates what bone broth has to be.
“To me, working in restaurants, bone broth is stock,” he says. “That’s all it really is, with a nice, fancy label and maybe a couple extra bucks on the price tag.”
January just so happens to be National Soup Month, so should you have broth or stock on the mind, or if you’ve just resolved to cook more in the new year, Kung says the process of making your own liquid gold is pretty straightforward.
Gather All Your Ingredients
“First of all, you got to find all those bones,” Kung says.
For bone broth, ingredients are mainly — you guessed it — raw or cooked bones, with some meat and fat attached.
For a chicken-based broth, gather ingredients like chicken feet, bones and other parts of the carcass. For a ham- or beef- based broth, offal parts like bones, hocks, oxtail and shank will do nicely.
Additionally, aromatics like onions, carrots, celery, bay leaves, star anise, garlic, parsley, thyme, peppercorns or other spices can take your broth to the next level.
Don’t Be Squeamish Now!
“I think the one mistake that people make when making bone broth is omitting the parts that they might think are gross, like the feet or the head or the or the spine,” Kung says. “Bones are uncomfortable, OK? You just gotta get over that, because what you really need to make a good bone broth at home is actually all the stuff that is actually in between the bones.”
Kung points out that chicken feet are great for broth because of the cartilage and collagen in between the claws.
“Using a chicken carcass is great because it has that one huge cartilage thing that is on its back,” Kung says. “The secret to a really good bone broth is how many parts that interconnect the bones there are that you’re putting into it, because that’s what’s giving it its unctuousness.”
Bring Your Broth-To-Be To a Boil
Place ingredients in a large pot and submerge it with cold water until the water rises at least a couple of inches above the solids. Bring this to a boil and skim off any scum or foam from the top and discard.
“You gotta find a pot that is big enough to hold enough water to boil through the night without burning down,” Kung says, though he points out, if you start early in the day and nurse your broth for hours, you don’t need to sleep with your stove on.
Simmer Time
After bringing your broth to boil, reduce the heat and simmer. Kung calls broth-making a “weekend project,” since the broth should simmer for an extended period to allow the flavors to develop and concentrate.
For most chicken broth, this takes at least two to four hours, with some recipes suggesting a whopping 12 hours. Ham and beef broths usually take longer — at least four but up to 12 hours.
“If you use a pressure cooker, even better,” Kung says, saying that it only takes up to two hours with one. “You can leave your house.”
There’s a Quicker Broth You Can Make
If you don’t have a ton of time, Kung suggests making a fish-based bone broth.
“Roast salmon heads and salmon bones in the oven at 350 F for about 20 minutes, and then boil the crap out of it and then strain it out,” Kung says, adding that this type of broth only takes about an hour to make.
“The cartilage and the bones of the fish are so much more delicate; they leach out all of that stuff much more quickly.”
Strain, Cool and Store
After your broth is done simmering, turn off the heat and let it cool a bit so you can handle it. Then, strain the stock through a fine-mesh strainer or cheesecloth into a bowl. From there, you can portion out your broth into jars or straight into whatever else you’re cooking.
Broth generally keeps for about three days in the fridge and, for best quality, approximately three months in the freezer, though it can likely go a bit longer than that.
How to Enjoy Your Broth
Kung says you can use your flavorful broth in a myriad of ways, beyond taking your chicken noodle soup to the next level.
“I would buy some Chinese dumplings or some noodles and throw that in there and drink it like a ramen,” Kung says. He also suggests simply putting it in a mug with a slice of ginger or crushed garlic for sipping.
“Soup is nourishing,” Kung says. “Chicken soup has been good for you since the dawn of chicken soup.”
