There is nothing as satisfying as broth, both chicken and beef. Mix it with your water when boiling pasta for an extra flavor boost to those noodles, or simply warm it up to help your body battle a cold.
There are a lot of benefits to broth, especially if you add a lot of bones and have the slow cooker go a long time. This breaks down the collagen in the bones into gelatin. You’ll notice this if the broth seems to jiggle like jello when cold. Collagen helps to keep your skin elastic (that youthful springy look) and your joints moving well, a nice benefit to adding more broth to your life.
Here’s my favorite recipe, particularly because of the use of the slow cooker. God was so kind when he gave us that invention.
You can adjust the amount of bones and additions based on the size of slow cooker you have. Mine is a 7 quart, so once you add in the bones, veggies, and whatnot, the final amount of broth equals 1 gallon.
Slow Cooker Beef Broth
1 gallon, if using a 7 quart slow cooker. Time: 6-24 hours
Ingredients:
- Beef bones, soup bones are great or I like to keep left over bones after having steaks or roasts.
- 1-3 carrots
- 2 stalks celery
- 1⁄2 to 1 onion
- 2-4 cloves garlic
- 1-3 bay leaves
- small handful fresh parsley (stems and all)
- 1-3 sprigs oregano
- 1-3 sprigs thyme
- 1⁄2 teaspoon lemon juice or vinegar (to help pull as much goodness out of the bones as possible.)
- 1 teaspoon pepper (ground or whole)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 gallon plus 1 cup water
Directions:
Roast the beef bones – Set the oven to 400 degrees F and cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place bones on the baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes.
When the bones are getting close to done, pour about half of the water into a pot on the stove and heat on high until boiling. This step is optional
Once the bones are done, drop them into the slow cooker along with any juices or melted fat collected on the parchment paper. Add carrots and celery to the slow cooker. Cut the onion and garlic cloves in half, then toss into the slow cooker as well. Add bay leaves, parsley, oregano, thyme, lemon juice, pepper, and salt.
Add the heated water, if you did that step, and the rest of the water.
Set the slow cooker on high for 2 hours, then low for the remaining 4-22 hours. The longer you go, the more collagen you get.
Strain the broth, let cool, and store in the fridge. This broth will last for a week.