So you started your chicken bone broth yesterday and woke up to delicious aromas this morning. You’re in the home stretch and you can almost taste the best chicken soup you’ve ever had.
Don’t get hung up on this being a 24-hour process. You can let the bone broth simmer until it’s a convenient time for you to strain and store it. 22 hours up to 36 hours will not hurt the process as long as you’re not cooking on too high a heat. A bare simmer is all you want.
To Dos for Day Two
Add additional water if necessary to keep the bones covered. Keep simmering until you decide to strain the broth.
When you’re about 6-8 hours away from straining your stock, you can add your sweeter vegetables. I always add a few carrots and their green tops if I have them. If I have any fennel trimmings or old fennel, I’ll toss that in too.
It won’t hurt to add a fresh onion quartered, more fresh ginger, and another head of garlic (cut in half) at this time as the earlier additions have given all they’ve got by now. This is completely optional but will add delicious fresh flavor.
When you’re about 30 minutes from straining the stock, and no earlier than that, add in a bundle of parsley and any wilted greens you have around the house. You can leach all the wonderful vitamins and minerals out of the greens and still get a benefit from them.
When you’re ready, turn the stove off and let the bone broth cool. It’s about the temperature of molten lava right now.
Strain out the bones as you run across them and set them aside for the pinch test. See below. Remove the spent vegetables and place them in a strainer over a bowl. Push out as much liquid as you can with the back of a spoon and then discard.
Ladle out the bone broth into a strainer over a bowl to catch any floaties. Then pour the broth into large containers to settle. I use 2 liter canning jars (I’m not affiliated with The Container Store.). Use whatever size works for you.
I like to let the broth settle before putting into smaller canning jars and freezing.
The Pinch Test
As we discussed on day 1, I like to get full value out of my chicken bones. I discovered that while most of the bones fell apart after long cooking but not all of them. So, as I remove them from the pot I give them a little squeeze with my tongs. If they crumble, they’ve given all they have to give. Discard.
But, if the bones are still hard that means I haven’t leached all the goodness out of them. I save those bones for the next batch of bone broth. They go in a new freezer bag and back into the freezer. I wouldn’t make a batch of broth with just these bones. They won’t have much, if any flavor. But, they will give more gelatin and minerals to the next batch so I think they’re still worth saving.
You can reach Day 1 here. I’ll post day 3 tomorrow. Stay tuned!