Another health milestone reached

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Look! My own homemade chicken broth.



Today I made a recipe for the first time and to my surprise it turned out well. Instead of roasting a chicken like I used to I put the whole chicken along with chopped up carrots, garlic and onions into a big pan of water, brought to boil and simmered with a lid on for 2 hours. I turned the chicken over halfway through.

At the end I used rubber tongs to pull away the meat from the chicken to drop back into the pan and the bones out onto a plate. I was going to sprinkle over fresh coriander once I put a portion in a bowl but forgot to get some. It was tasty though and more importantly nourishing.

Cooking chicken bones for 2 hours in water is enough to get the goodness out of the bones but cooking for 3 hours or more can mean the benefits begin to diminish. The gelatin from within the whole chicken that leaks into the soup helps build stronger bones and muscles, heal wounds and improves skin, nails and hair.

The amino acid glycine that's in homemade chicken broth is closely related to the immune and digestive system, and an important building block for many different acids that keep your body healthy. It helps your body with the detoxification of toxins and even helps to break down fat!

Congratulations. It looks excellent. I enjoy cooking from scratch as well and I make chicken broth regularly to use in cooking, soup making, gravy making, etc.

You should be proud of making something like that. If we lived in close proximity to each other I'd be honored to dine as one of your guests.

I have a natural foods grocery store near me that sells produce and farm raised meats from our area. Generally I will be able to buy frozen packages of organic "free range" chicken backs. A package of 3-4 chicken backs costs as little as $2.50 U.S. I have a pressure cooker and I will usually cook the chicken backs in the pressure cooker. It makes a superbly rich broth. I then strain out the cooked bones and meat and I separate the meat/skin from the bones. It's surprising how much good meat I can yield from this. I use that meat for making soup, cold "salad" mixed with mayonnaise, spices, onion and celery for sandwiches or, if I can't get to using the meat in a timely manner, I feed it along with the skin to our dog along with his regular food.

All in all, it's amazing at how little it costs using a "byproduct" that most people don't want to make such a variety and quantity of good healthy food.

Thanks for posting your picture. Congratulations on the accomplishment!

Thank you Magna, it sounds like you are an accomplished cook yourself, I would take you up on a return invitation to dine if you lived closer too.

Do you cook legumes such as lentils, dried peas or beans?

No because I can't digest them well. I'm going to try sprouting some first sometime to see if that helps. Do you cook them?

Yes I do. It's too bad they don't agree with you. Lentils are so inexpensive and easy to cook. They make a great base for mixing in some vegetables and making veggie burgers. My pressure cooker is excellent to use for cooking dry beans such as pinto beans. I can make perfectly done beans from dry to cooked in about an hour with no pre-soaking.

Grains? Do you cook brown rice or other grains such as quinoa, wheat, oats, etc?

I have to admit I haven't tried cooking beans with a pressure cooker, that must help with making them digestible because it will cook them more. I'm a little hesitant about getting a pressure cooker because I read that sometimes they've exploded when people were using them.

Sometimes I make muesli by soaking oats overnight in milk, I don't cook it though. I don't eat wheat because of gluten intolerance but sometimes I'll have rice or quinoa. I like how easy quinoa is to cook, the way you can measure an amount in a jug, then double the amount of water and cook until the water's absorbed. I prefer simple cooking usually because it saves time for doing other things and not having to spend too long in the kitchen!

That looks very appetizing! Much more generous amount of chicken than you'd ever get from stuff in a tin as well, including Baxter's.