Did you want to know what you are probably wasting your money on? Soup stock! You can easily make your own homemade chicken broth from scraps for pennies.
I know chicken and beef, even veggie broth is only a couple of dollars from the store but it adds up, and to be honest, we have no idea where the ingredients came from.
Making it at home is super easy and all you need to do is have a large freezer bag handy each time you make dinner with a few ingredients.
Save your Poultry Carcasses
When cooking a whole turkey or chicken and all or most of the meat is gone, you don’t have to throw out the carcass. Pull out a large freezer bag or grocery bag and pop it in the freezer to use in your homemade soup broth! The spices and juices from your dinner will still be there when you pull it from the freezer to make your soup stock, adding in additional flavours that you just can’t get from the grocery store.
Save Your Vegetable Scraps
This may be odd to some, but I have a large freezer bag handy in our fridge freezer for when I cook with onions, carrots, celery, and garlic. All the scraps that we usually throw out are perfect for adding additional nutrients and flavors to your soup stock. It’s so simple to do, all you have to do is remember. After a few times, it will become second nature. Once my large freezer bag is full, I move it to our freezers in the basement and start a new freezer bag upstairs again. Once I have 1-2 large bags ready in the basement is when I know I need to make some more broth.
Have lots of beef bones on hand? Follow the same steps as this homemade chicken broth recipe to make gut-healing beef bone broth from scraps!
How Long Can You Leave the Scraps in the Freezer?
As per my rule above, my veggie scraps as usually the first to start to freezer burn the quickest. This means that once I get 1-2 full bags is when I will pull them out to make soup stock. Generally, this is 2-3 months of collecting.
As for the poultry carcass, we have saved them in the freezer for up to 4-5 months before they started to shrivel from freezer burn.
How to Store Homemade Chicken Broth
You can store your homemade chicken broth in two ways.
- Freezer – This is my go-to option right now as we haven’t invested in a pressure canner. You can freeze your broth in a freezer-safe container, mason jar, or a freezer bag. I freeze ours in mason jars.
- Canning – In order to safely can your homemade chicken broth and have it shelf stable you need to use a pressure canner. Water bath canning will not work for canning broth.
Freezing Homemade Chicken Broth in Mason Jars
In order to freeze homemade chicken broth in mason jars without cracking there are a few things to remember. Try to use mason jars that do not have a shoulder. I like to use straight wide mouth mason jars to store broth and fill the broth up, leaving 2 inches of head space in order to let the broth expand while freezing without cracking the jars. If you are using jars that have a shoulder, fill the jar up just below the shoulder so it has room to expand upwards towards the shoulders.
Equipment Needed to Make Homemade Chicken Broth
- Large pot
- Freezer bags
- Strainer ladle
Lodge Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven
My favorite cast iron pot! I use this dutch oven for everything!
What you Need to Make Homemade Chicken Broth
- Veggie scraps (onions, carrots, celery, kale, garlic, etc.)
- Chicken or turkey carcass
- Water
- Salt & pepper
How to Make Homemade Chicken Broth From Scraps
- Pull your freezer bags full of veggie scraps out of the freezer along with 1-2 poultry carcasses. Depending on the size of your stock pot will determine how many carcasses you can use. I use my 7-jar canner stock pot so I am able to fit 1 full turkey carcass along with 2 chicken carcasses in one pot.
- Dump the carcasses in the pot frozen, along with 1-2 large freezer bags of veggie scraps. Add a generous amount of salt and pepper. Fill your pot leaving 2-3 inches at the top.
- Turn your oven to medium-high heat, and cover until the water hits a rolling boil.
- Once the water starts to boil, turn the temperature down to medium heat and let simmer for 2-3 hours.
- Strain the veggie scraps, and carcasses and pull out any remaining bones. You may wish to separate the oil from the broth at this time. I like to keep the oil in the broth for added flavor when cooking.
- Ladle the soup into your mason jars with a canning funnel, leaving 2 inches of head space. Let cool before twisting on tops. Label and date, and toss in the freezer.
Other Preserving Recipes:
- Homemade Beef Bone Broth
- How to Freeze Carrots
- How to Save Money on Groceries
- 6 Tips to Start Urban Homesteading Now!
