Why I Make My Own Chicken Broth From Scraps (And How I Can It So It Lasts)

Broth is what gets made for someone who’s sick and can’t hold down a full meal. It’s what my own family has always reached for when someone’s under the weather — something warm, easy on the stomach, and nourishing without asking much of your body to process it. That’s not a new idea, and it’s not something I need permission from anyone to believe. People have known this for generations, long before anyone got paid to study it.

This week’s video is about making that broth from the cheapest parts in the meat aisle, plus scraps you’d normally throw away, and canning it so it’s shelf-stable whenever you need it.

Why I Actually Make This

I’m not going to stand here and promise this fixes any specific problem — that’s not my place, and it’s not really what this is about anyway. What I know is what I’ve lived: real food, made with your own hands, from parts that would otherwise go to waste, has always served my family well. That’s reason enough for me to make it, and reason enough to can it.

What’s actually in it is simple: real protein, and gelatin that breaks down into amino acids as it simmers for hours. That’s just what happens when you cook bones and meat scraps low and slow — it’s not a trend, it’s just food, made the way it’s always been made.

Save Your Scraps

Here’s a habit that makes broth basically free: every time I cook, I save what most people throw away. Onion peels, carrot peels, the leafy tops of celery — anything with real flavor in it goes into a bag in the freezer instead of the trash. By the time I’m ready to make broth, I’ve usually got a full bag of scraps ready to go, on top of whatever fresh vegetables I add.

What Goes In the Pot

For the meat side, I use the cheapest parts and bones I can find — backs, necks, wings, whatever’s on sale, plus any bones left over from a previous meal. This is also the perfect use for leftover turkey parts from Thanksgiving, so that flavor doesn’t have to disappear the day after the holiday — it can show up in soup all year long.

For aromatics, I add whole garlic cloves, celery (including the leaves), and onion, plus fresh herbs straight from the garden.

The Long, Slow Cook

Here’s the part that takes patience: broth needs to simmer low and slow, anywhere from 3 to 12 hours depending on how deep a flavor you want. That’s genuinely the hardest part of this whole process — not the effort, just the wait. Lamentations 3:25-26 says the Lord is good to those who wait for Him, and that it’s good to wait quietly. Most of what this recipe actually asks of you is exactly that — hours of quiet waiting while something good slowly becomes what it’s supposed to be. There’s no shortcut for broth, and there isn’t always one for the rest of life either.

The Recipe

(makes approximately 4-6 quarts)

• Chicken or turkey parts, bones, and leftovers — 3 to 4 pounds (backs, necks, wings, carcass from a previous meal, or a mix)

• Celery, including leafy tops — 2 to 3 stalks, roughly chopped

• Onion — 1 large, quartered (skins on are fine if using saved scraps)

• Garlic — 4 to 6 whole cloves, smashed

• Carrots — 2 to 3 medium, roughly chopped (peels fine if using saved scraps)

• Fresh parsley — 4 to 5 sprigs

• Fresh thyme — 3 to 4 sprigs

• Fresh rosemary — 1 to 2 sprigs

• Fresh sage — 2 to 3 leaves

• Fresh oregano — 2 to 3 sprigs

• Water — enough to cover everything by 1 to 2 inches (roughly 4 to 5 quarts, depending on stockpot size)

Combine everything in a large stockpot, cover with water, bring to a simmer, then reduce heat and simmer low and slow for 3 to 12 hours. Strain out all solids before canning — the finished broth should be a clear liquid with nothing left in it.

Straining & Canning

Once the simmer’s done, strain out every solid — bones, vegetable scraps, herb stems, all of it.

Here’s how I actually can mine: I let the broth cool completely, fill cold jars with the cooled broth leaving 1 inch of headspace, and load them into a pressure canner that hasn’t been preheated. Then I process for 25 minutes once it comes up to pressure, at 10 pounds weighted gauge or 11 pounds dial gauge, 0 to 1,000 feet elevation.

I want to be straightforward about this: NCHFP’s published Meat Stock recipe is tested specifically as a hot-pack product — hot broth into hot jars, with the canner already prepped, processed 20 minutes for pints or 25 minutes for quarts. What I described above is a cold start, and it hasn’t been separately tested and published as an equivalent method the way the hot-pack version has. I’m telling you how I do it in my own kitchen, not telling you it’s the officially validated USDA process. If you want to follow the tested procedure exactly, that means reheating your broth to boiling and filling hot jars before it goes in — look into that difference yourself and decide what’s right for your kitchen.

One more distinction worth naming: this recipe is for everyday chicken and turkey broth, not the 24-to-48-hour bone broth trend you’ve probably seen online. That’s a different product with its own considerations, and it’ll get its own article and video later.

What To Do With It — Southwestern Pumpkin & Chicken Soup

(serves 4-6)

• 1 quart jar homemade chicken broth

• 1 cup water (adjust to reach your preferred consistency)

• Pumpkin, cubed — about 2 cups (fresh, frozen, or home-canned, from your own garden)

• 1 jar home-canned shredded chicken (or 1 can, about 12-14 oz)

• 1/2 cup diced onion

• 1/2 cup chopped green or red bell pepper

• 1 to 2 teaspoons ground cumin

• 1 to 2 teaspoons ancho chili powder (or southwestern seasoning blend of your choice)

• Salt, to taste

• Optional: 1/4 to 1/2 cup cream, stirred in at the end

Combine the broth, water, pumpkin, onion, and peppers in a pot. Simmer until the pumpkin is soft — about 15 to 20 minutes for fresh or frozen pumpkin, or just a few minutes to heat through if using home-canned pumpkin, since it’s already cooked. Blend the soup right in the pot with an immersion blender (or transfer in batches to a regular blender) until smooth. Stir in the chicken, cumin, ancho chili powder, and salt, and heat through. Stir in cream at the end if using, and adjust seasoning to taste.

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References

National Center for Home Food Preservation — Meat Stock (tested hot-pack canning procedure)