Homemade chicken broth costs almost nothing when you make it from bones and vegetable scraps you would otherwise throw away. The carcass from a rotisserie chicken, the necks and backs you trimmed from chicken thighs, the carrot tops and celery leaves sitting in the produce drawer — all of that becomes a rich, full-flavored broth with about 10 minutes of active work and a few hours of simmering.
Store-bought chicken broth is heavily salted and tastes thin compared to homemade. Once you start making your own, the boxed version becomes a substitute you tolerate rather than prefer.
What bones to use and how to collect them
The most practical approach is keeping a zip-close bag in the freezer for chicken scraps. Whenever you roast a whole chicken or rotisserie chicken, strip the meat and throw the carcass in the bag. When you buy bone-in thighs or legs and trim them, add the bones. When you have chicken wings, save the tips. When the bag is full enough to fill a stockpot, make broth.
Roasted bones produce a richer, deeper broth than raw bones because the browning process (the Maillard reaction) creates flavor compounds that leach into the broth during simmering. A rotisserie chicken carcass is already partially roasted and makes excellent broth. If you are starting from raw bones, spread them on a sheet pan and roast at 400 degrees for 30 minutes before adding to the pot. This single step significantly improves the final flavor.
The aromatics: what to add and what to skip
Classic chicken broth aromatics are onion, carrot, celery, garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, and fresh parsley. You do not need to peel the vegetables. Cut them in rough chunks. The onion skin adds color. The carrot adds sweetness. The celery adds the background savory depth that makes broth taste like broth rather than just chicken water.
Do not add salt during cooking. Broth is a base ingredient used in other recipes, and you have no control over final saltiness if you salt the broth itself. Salt at the end of cooking, or more practically, salt only when using the broth in a recipe.
Avoid strongly flavored vegetables that will overwhelm the chicken flavor: broccoli, cabbage, beets, and turnips all overpower the base flavor. Neutral vegetable scraps like onion peels, parsley stems, leek tops, and carrot pieces are the best additions from your scrap bag.
The cooking method
Add the bones and aromatics to a large stockpot and cover with cold water, about 12 to 14 cups for a standard chicken carcass. Start with cold water. Starting cold draws the proteins and collagen out of the bones slowly, which produces a clearer, cleaner-tasting broth than starting with hot water, which seizes the proteins quickly.
Bring to a bare simmer over medium heat. As the water heats, a gray foam will rise to the surface. Skim it off with a spoon or ladle for the first 20 minutes of simmering. This foam is coagulated protein, and removing it produces a clearer broth. After the initial foaming stops, reduce heat to the lowest simmer you can maintain and cook uncovered for three to four hours.
The broth is done when it has reduced slightly and the liquid has turned a deep golden color. A properly made broth will gel in the refrigerator, forming a loose jelly that melts back to liquid when heated. That gel is collagen, and it is what gives homemade broth its body and richness compared to the watery texture of most store-bought versions.
For the right stockpot and storage containers for homemade broth, Amazon has stainless steel stockpots and glass mason jars in the sizes that work best for home broth production. For portioned broth storage that fits in a meal prep fridge setup, Bentgo containers hold liquid without leaking and stack cleanly.
Straining and storing
Pour the finished broth through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl or another pot. Discard the solids. Let the broth cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. After chilling, a layer of fat will solidify on the surface. Lift it off with a spoon before using or storing. This step is optional but produces a cleaner-tasting broth.
Refrigerated homemade broth keeps for five days. Frozen broth keeps for three months. Freeze in two-cup portions using quart bags laid flat, or in an ice cube tray for small amounts. Frozen broth cubes are useful for deglazing pans and adding small amounts of liquid to braised dishes without thawing a full portion.
Using the broth
Homemade broth improves every recipe that calls for it. Soups, risotto, braised chicken, rice cooked in broth instead of water, pan sauces, and gravy all benefit from the depth of flavor that commercial broth simply does not replicate. The gel that homemade broth produces also creates a richer mouthfeel in soups and sauces.
For using homemade broth in a soup the whole family will actually eat, see easy soup recipes for families and chicken soup with rotisserie chicken for the recipe that goes from broth to bowl in under 30 minutes.
For the broader strategy of using every part of what you buy to reduce food waste and grocery spending, see how to stop wasting food for the kitchen habits that add up to real savings. The Meal Prep Guide ($17) includes a section on zero-waste cooking strategies including broth-making as a weekly reset for scraps and bones.
