It doesn’t really feel right to call this crockpot bone broth a recipe. It’s super easy and flexible. I’m going to call it simple instructions. Up until Ollie was born, I had never made my own broth. NEVER. On the rare occasion we made soup, we bought a carton of broth at the store. Then Ollie came along and we learned about how allergens hide in everything. Literally EVERYTHING. I still remember how many cartons we looked at in the store one day that had sunflower oil in them. Why?!

why you should make your own crockpot bone broth

I’d like to say it was that moment that made me decide to always make our own broth, but that’s not the case. If I’m being perfectly honest, it first came from my desire to save money. The safe broths were expensive. Then I started thinking about all the extra additives in them. Then I finally got brave enough to make my own.

I really don’t know why I waited so long to do it. Now I’m happy to say I think we’ve perfected making our own broth. Seriously. It’s so good. I know it makes things taste better. Not only does it taste better, it saves a lot of money and helps reduce our food waste (which makes me feel like we are saving even more money). We keep a stasher bag in the freezer and add all our veggie scraps to it. You can put nearly everything in: carrot ends, pepper insides, onion skins, cucumber, anything… Just make sure that the veggie scraps you put in the bag are clean.

The other important part of the crockpot bone broth are obviously the bones. We usually roast a chicken and then use that carcass. I often find organic whole chickens on sale. I stock up whenever that is the case. You certainly don’t have to roast your own if that isn’t your thing. I’m told you can buy bones at your local meat counter. Money-saving me doesn’t want to do that though. We roast a chicken, eat the meat for dinner with veggies, and then shred the rest of the meat for chicken salad. The carcass then make broth. That’s some money-stretching goodness right there!

what you need for crockpot bone broth:

• crockpot
• bones (we usually use a chicken carcass after we roast a chicken)
• veggie scraps (see above – any and all veggie scraps)
• garlic (a few cloves)
• fresh ground ginger
• a few tablespoons of ACV (a tip from my friend)

Ready for the instructions? Take the first item on this list and put all the others inside of it. Then add water to the crockpot and turn it on low. Leave it on low for at least 8 hours. We usually do 16 to 20 hours, mainly because we run out of time to strain it.

In terms of straining, we use a mesh strainer and a big glass bowl. Turn the crockpot off and let it cool a little. Strain the broth by pouring it into the bowl through the strainer. From there transfer to mason jars and freeze.

There you have it! That’s crockpot bone broth. I don’t know all of the science behind why it’s good for you, but I know it is. I’ve read some about it but I won’t pretend to know all of that. I’ll leave that to the professionals. What I will tell you is that this is easy, delicious, allergy-friendly, money-saving, and waste-reducing. Let me know if you give it a try!