Bone Broth or Perpetual Soup

By lindaauman

Yield: As much or as little broth as you want, my family consumes about 2 to 3 quarts of broth each day.
Perpetual soup: Bone broth can be made in a slow cooker using this simple technique.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (or the frame of a roasted chicken)
• 2 sweet bay leaves
• 1 tbsp black peppercorns
• any vegetable scraps you have on hand
• filtered water

Details

Adapted from nourishedkitchen.com

Preparation

Step 1

Place one whole chicken or the frame of a roasted chicken into your slow cooker with sweet bay, black peppercorns and any vegetable scraps you have on hand. Cover with filtered water and cook on low for one week.

After twenty-four hours, you may begin using the broth. As you need broth or stock, simply dip a ladle or measuring cup into the slow cooker to remove the amount of stock you need. Pour it through a fine-mesh sieve or, preferably, a reusable coffee filter which will help to clarify the broth. Replace the broth you remove from the slow cooker with an equivalent amount of filtered water. If you’re using a whole, fresh chicken, you may also remove chicken meat from the slow cooker as desired for stir-fries, in soups or other dishes that call for broth

At the end of the week, strain off any remaining broth and discard or compost the bones. The bones from your chicken should crumble when pressed between your thumb and forefinger. Their softness is an indication that much of the nourishment from the bones – minerals, amino acids – have leached from the bones and into the broth you’ve enjoyed all week long. Wash the insert of your slow cooker and start again.