How to make Chicken Broth

This homemade chicken broth recipe is delicious and an excellent way to use leftover chicken scraps and vegetables. It’s easy to make, costs less, and is much more flavorful than store-bought. Make a big batch and keep it on hand for all of your recipes that call for broth. 

Making your own homemade chicken broth or homemade stock is a great addition to your favorite homemade chicken noodle soup. You can have a rich broth with amazing flavor to not only use in the winter season, but have to use year round in all of your recipes that call for broth. 

You’ll love this recipe for homemade chicken broth

This is my go-to recipe for making my own broth. The keys to a successful and delicious broth are:

• using bone-in chicken parts with enough water
• vegetables
• seasonings
• simmering it long enough to develop a delicious flavor

Sometimes it can feel like making homemade chicken broth can be a daunting task that feels complicated. It’s really simple to make and is a great way to use up scraps from your veggies and chicken. 

Not only is it simple to make, but you can make big batches at one time and it’s a lot less expensive than store bought. 

Homemade chicken broth has tons of flavor and is perfect for all of your soups. 

What is chicken broth?

Chicken broth is a liquid made by simmering chicken bones, meat, herbs, spices, and vegetables in water. 

Chicken broth is used in a variety of savory recipes to add moisture and flavor. It’s often used as a base for soups, stews, sauces, and gravies. 

Chicken Stock vs Broth

Chicken stock and chicken broth have a lot of similarities, but there are also some key differences. 

Chicken stock is usually made by simmering bones, vegetables, meat, and spices in water for 4-6 hours. Because of the bones, it often ends up having a richer flavor than broth. 

Because chicken stock has more bones and simmers longer, it usually extracts some of the collagen and gelatin from the bones resulting in a thicker quality. Some say it adds a richer flavor as well. 

You can easily turn this chicken broth recipe into a homemade chicken stock. Just simply add a bit more bones and meat, then let it simmer for about 4-6 hours instead of 2-3. 

kitchen tools to make homemade chicken broth

dutch oven

Buy Now →

Chicken Broth vs Bone Broth

Chicken bone broth is similar to broth and stock. It often includes a much larger bones to liquid ratio than stock. 

Chicken stock is often simmered for 2-3 hours while bone broth is simmered for 24-48 hours to extract more minerals and nutrients from the bones. The result is a much thicker broth. 

The biggest difference between chicken stock and chicken broth is the proportions of bones, cooking time, and consistency. 

Chicken Broth Benefits

One of the major benefits of chicken broth is that it can really enhance the flavor of your meal. Rather than adding plain water, you can replace that with chicken broth to help add even more flavor to your food. 

A common item that you get this benefit from is rice. By replacing the water with chicken broth, you’ll have a much more flavorful rice. 

Another great benefit of chicken broth is that it’s a great way to use up fresh vegetables scraps and leftover bones from chicken. 

Chicken Broth Recipe Ingredients 

You only need a few simple ingredients for a flavorful broth to add to your favorite soup recipe. 

• bones/leftovers from rotisserie chicken or whole-cooked chicken scraps – this is a great way to use the leftover chicken bones from your rotisserie chicken or whole chicken. You can also use a whole raw chicken with your vegetable scraps and have cooked shredded chicken along with your broth. You can also use chicken breasts, bone-in chicken pieces, or even chicken wings. If you have leftovers from a roast chicken, this is a perfect use for it.
• celery stalks – you don’t even have to use full celery stalks. You could use the scraps from the celery you used. The leafy ends and the base of the stalks work perfect. 
• carrots – you can use carrot peels and carrot tops as well
• garlic – you’re using the whole bulb cut in half, but not even peeled
• bay leaves – be sure your bay leaves are expired
• whole black peppercorns – you can find these in the spice aisle of your grocery store
• coarse kosher salt – this is totally optional. For a low sodium chicken broth, you can omit the salt entirely. 
• onion – even if you aren’t a fan of onions, I recommend keeping this in here. It’ll give you a well-rounded, great flavor for your broth. 
• water – just your average water works here
• fresh thyme – fresh herbs will give you the best flavor and help when straining the broth as compared to dried thyme. 

How to make chicken broth

Making homemade broth is actually a really easy process. 

Add all of the ingredients except the water and fresh thyme to a large stock pot. A large stockpot is important to fit everything. 

Pour cold water over the ingredients and add the springs of fresh thyme on top. 

Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat and turn it down to a simmer. 

Let the mixture simmer for 2-3 hours. The longer it simmers, the better the flavor. 

Remove the chicken broth from the heat and strain the mixture into a large bowl using a fine mesh strainer. 

Set the bowl with the broth aside to cool. 

Once it has cooled, skim the fat from the top. 

Store it in an airtight container in the fridge or freeze it for later. 

Recipes with chicken broth

• Instant Pot White Chicken Chili
• Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
• Creamy Chicken and Rice Soup
• One Pot Chicken Alfredo
• Slow Cooker Cilantro Lime Chicken
• No Peek Chicken Casserole
• Crockpot Ranch Chicken
• Cajun Shrimp and Sausage Skillet
• Instant Pot Basmati Rice
• One Pot Pasta with Ricotta and Lemon
• Chicken and Mushroom Stroganoff
• Creamy Parmesan Orzo

how to store the best chicken broth

To store leftover chicken broth, allow it to cool to room temperature. Place it in an airtight container and keep it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. 

To extend the life of your homemade chicken broth, I highly recommend freezing it. 

I love storing my chicken broth in mason jars. Did you know that straight sided mason jars are freezer safe? Just be sure to measure out how much you’ve put in the jar before storing. 

tips and tricks when making homemade chicken broth

It’s best to use a fine-mesh strainer for the best results. You’ll be able to really strain out any vegetables that have completely broken down in the simmering process.

Cooling the broth before storing is important to skim the fat and to also have the best results for storing.

Does chicken broth go bad?

Chicken broth does go bad. Chicken broth should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. You can also freeze it for up to 3 months. 

How long does chicken broth last in the fridge?

When stored properly, chicken broth will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. 

Can you freeze chicken broth?

You can freeze chicken broth. It freezes really well. 

Allow the broth to cool completely. One of my favorite ways to freeze mine is in Souper Cubes freezer containers. You can also store it in any sort of airtight freezer safe container. 

When I use Souper Cubes for freezing my chicken broth, I typically pour it in, let it freeze and then pop them out and store them in a freezer bags. Then, when I need broth, it’s easy to pop out a serving and use it for my recipe. 

​Ice cube trays also work really great for freezing small portions of broth. 

FAQs for making chicken broth

​instant pot chicken stock

This recipe can be made in the instant pot as well. You will want to follow the directions as written above, but place it all into the liner of your instant pot. 

Place the lid on the pressure cooker and set it the valve to sealing. Cook it on high pressure for 1 hour. 

Let the pressure naturally release, and then resume the recipe as written. 

If you are wanting to make an instant pot bone broth, you’ll need to use more bones. Cook it on high pressure for 120 minutes, let it naturally release, then cook on low pressure for another 120 minutes. 

homemade chicken broth in the crockpot

You can make this entire recipe in the crockpot or slow cooker as well.

Follow the recipe as written, except add the ingredients to a slow cooker.

Let it cook on low for 8-10 hours.

If you make this recipe and love it, we would love a 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating! It helps us continue to provide free recipes.