I was so excited to finally find locally sourced chicken bones last weekend. Normally, I get beef knuckle (aka soup) bones from my farmers market. While, that works on a regular basis, I love the chicken soup flavor and buying a whole chicken locally (which I have done) gets pricey. The chicken at my farmer’s market where I get my eggs is around $18, crazy I know, but they have grass-fed eggs with orange yolks there that are amazing. I found an easy recipe for roasting a whole chicken on epicurious. Just dry the chicken inside and out for a crispy skin and roast it for an hour at 350 degrees with salt and pepper. That’s it.
Anyway, I was looking for local chicken feet for the connective tissue which yields more gelatin and I finally found a butcher shop in West Hollywood called Lindy & Grundy, which is basically a paleo lover’s dream shop. They source all their animals from local farms, fed healthy diets. Plus, they make use of the whole animal not just the popular bits. I just stopped by without pre-ordering chicken feet and possibly the necks, which I plan on doing in the future. In the picture is a mix of chicken bones, which they sell ready to go in a sealed package. I got this package because I saw some feet, but it also includes heads, necks, and other mystery bones. I asked the woman behind the register and she said the heads and necks are great for flavor so I decided to give it a shot. Luckily, I’m a pretty adventurous offal eater.
I also bought two breakfast sausages, which had some liver in them. I’m always trying to get more liver into my diet, it’s incredibly nutritious, and a piece of their homemade scrapple. Scrapple is basically boiled down pig parts which they later use corn meal to make solid. It taste like a mix between foie gras and bacon…yeah I know what your thinking… how come I haven’t heard about this before? I have no idea, but it was a delicious way of eating more offal. Plus, I’ve missed bacon. They don’t sell pig at the farmer’s market.
Finally, I wanted to tell you what I normally put in my bone broth besides bones:
- chicken or beef bones (chicken feet and beef knuckle bones has the most connective tissue)
- 1 carrot
- 1 onion (white or yellow, include skin for additional nutrition)
- 1 sprig of dried rosemary (I get a ton from my farmer's market, and dehydrate it regularly for broth)
- sea salt
- 1 or 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar (for drawing out minerals from bones)
- I add the bones frozen, they defrost in the warm water in the slow cooker.
- Then I add the rest of the ingredients, and slow cook it on high until it starts to simmer.
- Then I put on low for the rest of the time which is usually 24 - 48 hours for beef bones. For chicken bones, 20 to 24 hours should be more than enough.
- I prefer to add pepper to the finished broth when I am finally ready to drink it.