Bone Broth & Collagen Soup

Here, eat these organs.

If you’re already in the habit of eating collagen-rich cartilage, marrow, and organs, AWESOME!

HOWEVER.

If you are amongst the 98% (that stat came from my own imagination, but it just ‘feels’ right, right?) of us who haven’t made it there just yet, you might want to start by adding this super simple recipe for Bone Broth and Collagen to your weekly meal-prep rotation.

Bone broth is the OG of liquid collagen (see liquid collagen vs powder). It’s one of 4 foods that actually contains collagen — it has all the good stuff!

According to an article in Medical News Today:

Bone marrow is rich in nutrients such as: iron vitamins A and K, fatty acids, selenium, zinc, and manganese. Bones themselves are rich in vitamins and nutrients, including calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous…and brewing connective tissue into bone broth provides the body with natural compounds from the cartilage.Medical News Today

I was intimidated at the idea of making my own Bone Broth until a few months ago.

I had visions of my Mom standing around a big stock pot for an hour, picking apart the meat from our Thanksgiving Turkey, adding it to a stock pot, nursing it for hours, putting in the fridge to cool overnight, scraping off the top layer of fat the next day, adding pasta noodles, reheating it and ONLY THEN was it ready to consume.

In my mind it was A CRAP-TON of work for a mildly satisfying payoff.

However, after learning of the health benefits of Bone Broth, I wanted to see if maybe there had been advances in culinary technology that made it a little easier to make. Guess what?! There have been! This version take just a few minutes of prep work, and no baby sitting!

If you buy Rotisserie Chickens on the regular, just save the bones (don’t worry about cleaning them up) in a big ziploc baggie, and throw them in the freezer until you have 2-3, and you are ready to make your soup!

It a perfect base for a more complex soups like Collagen Curry Chicken Soup or Warm Pumpkin Spaghetti Squash Collagen Soup and are a flavorful reduction for other meats and veggies. And BONUS, it also delivers collagen proteins that aren’t common in our Standard American Diet.

3 Different Ways to Cook Bone Broth Collagen Soup

There are 3 different ways you can approach this collagen-rich soup:

1. Stovetop
2. Crockpot (buy one on Amazon)
3. Instant Pot aka Insta Pot (buy one on Amazon)

I’ve listed out instructions for each of these three methods below. Now, lets get cooking!

Prep Time

5-10 minutes

Cook Time

2.5 hours

Total Time

2.75 hours

Yields

8

Ingredients

• 8 Heaping Scoops of CB Supplements Unflavored Multi Collagen Protein Powder
• Bones from 2-3 Rotisserie Chicken
• 3 Stalks Celery
• 1 medium onion peeled and halved
• 2 Carrots
• 1 Tbsp cider vinegar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2-4 smashed garlic cloves
• 2 tsp Pink Himalayan Salt
• Water:
  • Stock Pot: 6 cups
  • 6Qt Slow Cooker: 12 cups
  • Instant Pot: 10-11 cups

Instructions

Stovetop Method (15 hours simmering)

1. Place roasted bones and any accumulated pan juices into your 8 qt stock pot.
2. Add 16 cups (or 4 Qts) filtered water along with apple cider vinegar and salt
3. Bring to boil then reduce heat to a simmer
4. Cover and simmer on low heat 6 hrs then add onion, celery, carrots, garlic cloves
5. Strain & Store (See instructions below)

Crockpot Method (15 hours on low)

1. Place roasted bones and any accumulated pan juices into 6 Qt Crockpot
2. Add 12 cups water, Apple cider vinegar , and salt. Set to low heat for 15 hrs.
3. After 6 hours on low heat, add onion, celery, carrots, 2 smashed garlic cloves
4. Continue cooking on low simmer another 9 hrs for a total of 15 hours cooking time
5. You can let it go longer if needed overnight
6. Strain & Store (See instructions below)

Instant Pot Method (2 hours pressure cooked)

1. Place roasting bones and accumulated pan juices into a 6Qt instant pot.
2. Add onion, celery, carrots, garlic apple cider vinegar and salt.
3. Add 10-11 cups water or until you reach the 2/3 max fill line in the pot.
4. Select ‘Soup/Broth’ and set the time to 2 hours (120 minutes). 
5. It will warm up then cook on high pressure for 2 hours (120 min). 
6. When cooking is complete, wait 30 min to naturally depressurize.
7. With a towel release pressure by flipping the valve at the top from ‘Sealed’ to ‘Venting’
8. Strain & Store (See instructions below)

How to Strain and Store Chicken Stock

1. Strain through a fine mesh sieve into a second pot, extracting as much liquid as possible
2. Discard solids.
3. Cool strained stock to room temp then cover and refrigerate.
4. Store in the fridge for 3-5 days or transfer to freezer safe containers and freeze up to 3 months
5. If freezing, leave space in containers for expansion

Nutritional Facts

• Calories: 74
• Protein: 14g
• Fat: 5g
• Carbs: 1g
• Fiber: 1g
• Net Carbs: 0g
• Sugar: 0g

Recipe Tips

If you have gone to the trouble of getting bones from (free-roaming/cage-free) & grass-fed animals, why remove the fats? They are very healthy. Bone marrow is approximately 80% fat in a healthy animal. If you want the bone marrow nutrients, you need the fat.The Broth Whisperer

1. 1. If using an Instapot, make sure the valve is initially set to ‘Sealed’ NOT ‘Venting’.
   2. Don’t discard the fat once its cooled! You may be tempted, like I was, to scrape the fat trimmings off the top (see above tip from The Broth Whisperer)
   3. Adjust the salt, heat and acid to fit your palate! I typically keep the broth bland and add salt, cayenne pepper, a little lemon or lime juice with each individual serving.
   4. Chop up some leftover Rotisserie Chicken, throw it and some cauliflower rice in a bowl, cover it with broth, adjust seasonings above to your taste, and add a little cilantro for SUPER easy & balanced meal with protein, fiber, fat, and greens.