Have you ever looked for an easy bone broth recipe or one for meat stock? My recipes are always nutrient dense. You can turn my meat stock recipe into bone broth with two easy changes. I can’t wait for you to try them!
Bone broth and meat stock are staples in many ancestral, paleo kitchens.
My easy bone broth and meat stock recipes may suit a wide array of special diets: GAPS, AIP, Paleo, Keto, Carnivore Diet, Candida, DASH, Feingold, Diabetes, Weston A. Price, Whole30 and Low-Carb.
What is the difference between bone broth and stock?
Simply put, the difference between bone broth and meat stock is COOKING TIME! Bone broths cook for days while meat stocks cook for only a couple hours. Cooking times vary for culinary and therapeutic purposes.
Sometimes mistakenly called a bone broth recipe, meat stock recipes use lots of meaty, fatty, cartilage-ey pieces of animal carcass instead of mostly bones and takes about 3 hours from start to finish. Remember, meat stock is short cook!
Although it’s fine to use a few bones in your stock, the focus is less on bones and more on soft tissue. Pure, lean muscle meat (chicken breast, chicken tenders, steak, white fish like cod or haddock) is unsuitable and not recommended for meat stock. Save your steak for the grill!
Chewy, fatty, gristly tissues from animal or fish parts are truly the best for making a flavorful, “Chicken Soup for the Soul” type meat stock or easy bone broth.
Ever wondered how to make meat stock or wondered how stock is used in cooking?
Meat stock is a staple in my traditional kitchen and is used for soups, skillet cooking ground meats, sautéing vegetables, making gelatin gummies or drinking from a mug.
My recipes below are so easily modified that you could call them many similar names, as each one depicts a nuance in the cooking technique: chicken stock recipe, chicken stock slow cooker recipe, easy beef broth, or beef stock substitute (meaning you can use any type animal bones!).
Side note: Don’t get bogged down with details! There are 3,487 variations for delicious stock. It’s true, I counted every single one! Have fun and understand that it’s really difficult to mess up making bone broth and meat stock!
So, what is my meat stock made of? As long as certain ingredients are used – meaty pieces with skin on – you’re free to experiment with any GAPS approved vegetable or herb for flavor! A full list of approved veggies and herbs is in Dr. Natasha’s famous yellow book! Grab your copy here. Gut and Psychology Syndrome
Meat Stock Recipe that’s Easy, Healthy and is not Bone Broth
Ingredients:
- 2-4 pounds of animal carcass
- One whole chicken (or any other bird like duck, goose, pheasant), chicken legs or thighs (skin on), chicken back or feet, beef knuckle, beef ankle, lamb/beef/venison shoulder or shank, head, ox tail, spine, etc.
- I include the giblets, organs and brain whenever possible.
- Adding 4-5 chicken feet per batch adds more jiggly gelatin!
- To make fish stock, I use the whole fish with the head, skin, fins and skin intact.
- 6-8 quarts purified water, or enough to cover your ingredients with one inch of water.
- I use my trusty Berkey water purifier. Why make a therapeutic stock with dirty tap water?
- 1-2 onions, rough chopped
- 1 whole head garlic, rough chopped
- 3-4 celery stalks, rough chopped
- 3-4 carrots, rough chopped
- 1-1.5 tablespoons Redmond’s Real Salt or Baja Salt
- 1 tablespoon black peppercorns (NOT ground pepper)
- 1-2 tablespoons (a healthy sized glug) of Bragg’s Apple Cider Vinegar
Directions:
- In a 6-8 quart stock pot, layer your ingredients and cover with enough water to fully submerge them.
- Cover with a lid, but tilt the lid on your pot so steam can escape.
- On medium-high heat, bring your pot to a low rolling boil.
- Boil for 10-15 minutes.
- Fully cover pot with lid and reduce heat to LOW simmer. You want your water to stop boiling, but remain hot enough for the occasional bubbling up of an almost boil. 🙂
- Simmer for appropriate time:
- Poultry: 2 hours – Beef/Lamb/Game: 3 hours – Fish: 1.5 hours
- Remove from heat and let cool.
- Strain ALL the tiny bits and pieces through a stainless steel (not plastic) colander.
- Once fully cooled, debone the meat and set aside for using in soups or salads.
- At this point, you will notice whether your stock is gelatinous and jiggly, or more liquid in substance. If more liquid, you may want to add more collagenous items next batch (eg, more chicken feet).
- Transfer liquid stock into shatter proof glass jars and store in the fridge.
- You can refrigerate stock and use within 3 days or freeze for up to six months.
Easy Bone Broth Recipe
To make Bone Broth instead of Meat Stock:
- Use basically the same recipe above but make two easy changes: use more bones and modify the length of cooking.
- Follow the above steps, but bring ingredients to a low boil for one hour. Reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for 24-48 hours, adding water as necessary to keep liquid line level in the stock pot.
- Alternatively, cook the entire batch in a crock pot set to high for 2 hours, then reduce to low for 24-48 hours. Add water as needed.
Modifications:
- Use any animal bones, flesh, soft meaty pieces you desire!
- I freeze leftover chicken drumsticks, ribeye steak bones.
- Season your chicken stock or beef bone broth for your intended dish. You may use Italian seasonings like oregano, basil, thyme or Traditional such as Herbs de Provence or my favorite, Tex Mex using cumin, chili powder or chipotle powder.
The Easiest Way to Make Bone Broth
The easiest way to make bone broth is not to make it at all. If you don’t want to be stuck in a hot kitchen, I have the perfect solution. It’s called Perfect Supplements Bone Broth. It’s chicken bone broth powder, perfectly Paleo, non GMO, organic, no MSG, gluten free with 1 simple ingredient: chicken bones. Buy it here –> Perfect Supplements Bone Broth. Use promocode WELLMADE10 to save 10%.
How is meat stock used in cooking?
During GAPS Intro, I made and drank at least two quarts of stock daily. I cannot even begin to explain how thoroughly healing this was for me. Actually, I can and probably will on a future blog post. On Full GAPS and in regular life, I consume one quart per day.
Leftover chicken broth or stock (beef broth or stock, lamb broth or stock, fish broth or stock, etc.) can be used for leftover chicken soup, slow cooker chicken soup with veggies or making Meat Stock Lemon Gummies. It even makes the delicious base for homemade chili or whole grains such as Mexican rice, quinoa or intact wheat berries!
There are many recipes using chicken stock and I hope you find Well Made Wellness has the best meat stock recipe for your kitchen!
If you try my ideas – bone broth vs meat stock – share in the comments below!
Leave a Reply