Healthy Whole Chicken & Broth

Whole Chicken and Broth Recipe

Have you ever heard, “An apple a day, keeps the doctor away?” Well, I don’t know about apples, but I do know that as a kid of the 80s, colds and flu went hand-in-hand with chicken noodle soup and 7-up!

It’s true, every time I had a runny nose, it seems the classic remedy was always chicken noodle soup!

It was pretty much VIX for the tummy and that’s just what we did.

The fact is, however, that there’s actually something to that!

Now, I’m not encouraging you to go buy a bunch of chicken noodle soup in the can right now. No, because any nutrients that existed in that stuff have long since lost their potency.

However, real, freshly cooked chicken broth is no joke!

It contains antibacterial properties and stimulates the white blood cells to enhance your ability to fight against colds and flu.

But it’s not just good when you’re sick.

In fact, the key to keeping yourself healthy is not to be REACTIVE. Don’t just respond AFTER you start getting the sniffles…but the key is to be PRO-ACTIVE!

A diet that frequently uses fresh chicken broth and chicken bone broth builds your terrain. Every time you eat healthy, you are creating an immune system fortress.

For instance, have you ever been very, very stressed and, suddenly, the minute the stress is over or maybe even right in the middle of whatever is going on, you catch the worst flu you’ve had in years?

That’s because the stress, and often the unhealthy eating that goes along with it, has diminished and weakened your immune system.

Now, I’m not saying that chicken broth or even bone broth is the ultimate defense…but it’s definitely part of it.

Along with proper rest, healthy eating, and proper life balance, I’m about to show you a great way to improve your health before cold and flu season even arrive!

It’s cost effective, easy, and healthy, which is the name of the game here at The Parson’s Pantry!

Hi, I’m Genessa and I’m here to show you how to stretch your budget, eat healthy, and do it in record time!

Health Benefits

Chicken broth is low in calories and fat, yet high in protein, vitamins, and minerals. The collagen and amino acids found in chicken broth can also promote healthy digestion, joint health, and immune function.

If you want to go a step deeper in your health, see our post for Chicken Bone Broth.

It is a wonderful NEXT STEP after you make your whole chicken and chicken broth for cooking.

Bone broth has been proven to heal the gut lining, promote healthy digestion, and improve your microbiome, and the collagen in it is great for your skin, making it more supple and more elastic. The collagen also relieves joint pain because it decreases inflammation.

See our post about bone broth if you’d like to take this a step farther, but for now, we’re going to focus on making chicken broth that is healthy, cost-effective, and easily stored for cooking along with making a delicious whole chicken!

In this recipe, we use turmeric and cloves to enhance the chicken broth’s healing qualities as well.

Turmeric also relieves inflammation that causes joint pain, decreases sinus pressure and sinusitis, and other issues. In fact, I have carpal tunnel in both wrists and I often drink turmeric milk with a pinch of pepper to activate the turmeric. You simply warm up a cup of milk, add a tsp of turmeric, a pinch of pepper, and it tastes like chai! And…your joints stop hurting within about 30 minutes.

We’re also using cloves today, which are antiviral. They also stimulate your white blood cells to increase your resistance against disease!

Now, I’m going to be honest, up until a couple years ago, the only WHOLE bird I cooked was a turkey at Thanksgiving.

It just seemed too easy to grab a package of chicken breasts at the grocery store and make whatever recipe I had in mind for the evening.

However, inflation has hit the ceiling and over the last few years, I’ve had my ear to the ground, trying to find ways to save a dollar here and there.

Not only that, but with random viruses running around and cold and flu season rearing its head even in summer time, I’ve been pretty particular about serving my family safer meals that help them build their immune system.

I’m talking about meats that are antibiotic and hormone free. Cage-free chicken and eggs. Organic produce.

But eating clean isn’t easy…and it sure isn’t cheap!

That’s why I’ve scoured the Internet, looking for ways to feed healthy, safe meals to my family without breaking the bank.

Making whole chicken is one way that I do this!

Of course, chicken broth can be used in soups, stews, but also when cooking rice or pasta to give it a more umami flavor.

There’s so much you can do with broth… and, of course, precooked chicken!

Let’s dive in!

Recipe Time

This recipe calls for onions, celery, carrots, whole chicken, turmeric, 12 whole cloves, salt, bay leaves, and spice mix by The Parson’s Pantry!

Cover with filtered water so that the chicken is covered by at least an inch or two of water.

Bring to a boil. Once boiling, leave the pot uncovered and adjust the heat down to medium-low and simmer for 2 hours.

NOTE You may need to add a bit of water to keep the level at an inch about the chicken at about the one hour mark.

As the chicken cooks, you’ll find foam that floats to the top. That’s perfectly normal. Just skim it off the top with a skimmer (affiliate link). This usually occurs within the first half hour and then you should be good to work on other things while your chicken cooks!

During the last 15 minutes, add about ¼ cup parsley.

Once simmering time is complete, doublecheck the meatiest portion of the chicken to ensure that the meat is at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit. If it isn’t quite there yet, you can increase the temperature and bring the water to boiling again and then let it cook for another 15 minutes, and check the temperature again.

Remove the chicken to cool. Be careful because the chicken will literally fall off the bone. In fact, the spine fell apart on a chicken I cooked last week and, as homeschoolers, that meant an impromptu science lesson on the structure of vertebrae with our 8 year old!

Set the chicken to the side in a pan to cool down. You can debone and shred the meat in a minute and use it for so many different recipes! (link to precooked chicken recipes)

Let’s focus on the broth.

I like to use a large strainer over a bowl. I simply pour the broth into the bowl, allowing the strainer to capture any floating solid fats, meat, and veggies. Those items can be added to your compost bin or fed to chickens or other farm animals.

Once you have the broth in the bowl, set it in the fridge to cool for about half an hour. You never want to place hot broths or soups directly into the freezer because that is going to cause freezer burn or condensation.

After the broth has cooled, it’s time to store it. Now, if you’re planning to use the broth within the next 3-5 days, it will keep in the fridge just fine. You might see a layer of fat rise to the top and that’s perfectly ok. In fact, it will keep oxygen from coming into contact with the broth and prevents spoilage.

To extend the life of your broth, however, I like to freeze mine in one-cup increments. I use these silicone containers to portion out my chicken broth for storage, but you can use ice cube trays or other types of cups. The one-cup portion is about here (show) in these silicone tubs. I’ll include the link in the description if you’d like to check these out. They work really well.

I like the silicone because after the broth is frozen, I then run a bit of warm water over the outside to loosen it and can store the frozen broth in gallon freezer baggies. That frees up my silicone containers where I can make broth again.

Chicken broth can safely be stored in the freezer for 3 months!

Great Tip/Hack

Here’s a great tip. If you’re going to embrace making your own chicken broth, this recipe makes quite a bit and you’re going to find quite of bit of these broth cubes in your freezer.

To make sure you’re using the freshest ingredients and also not letting anything go to waste, it’s a good idea to rotate your broth.

Here’s how I do it:

Once I’ve moved the broth into gallon freezer bags, I label the bags with the date.

Then, I place the newly-made broth at the BACK of the stash in the freezer.

Then, whenever I am cooking and need to use broth, I pull from the front of the stack.

It allows me to keep my broth rotated so that none goes to waste… and we don’t accidentally eat anything that is out of date.

This is a great technique to use with canned goods, meats, or any other produce you stock up on.

Back to the chicken

Back to the chicken, you can simply hand-shred the chicken. I’ve found that a 2-3 lb chicken makes about 3 meals’ worth of shredded chicken I can bag and use over the course of the next 3 days.

It’s great for making chicken salad sandwiches, curry chicken, chicken pastas, or just seasoning up on the side of some veggies.

Financial: Why make it when I can buy it?

Cost Analysis

Why do it this way? Why not just purchase chicken breasts for your meals? Why not just buy chicken broth for your recipes?

1 to 1 ½ lb of chicken breast runs about $13 this week. This is the no hormone, cage free chicken.

A 3 lb whole chicken—hormone and antibiotic free—however, costs $8.98.

While you’d think you would lose some of that weight because of the bones and the neck and innards that are stored inside, that is not the case. That single whole chicken, once boiled and deboned, provides enough meat for 3 dinner meals.

We’re talking a cost savings for a 3-day dinner plan of $30. Do the math! 13+13+13=$39 versus $9!! You just saved $30!

And we’ve not even started talking about the broth!

Broth Cost and Health Analysis

The cost of a 32 oz carton of chicken broth varies from about $1.98 for Great Value Organic Chicken Broth to $4.28 for pricier brands such as Pacific.

Now, that doesn’t seem too expensive when you consider that you have to buy a few carrots, celery, and an onion to make your broth. The problem, however, with most of these processed, grab-off-the-shelf brands of chicken broth, is that they contain chemical additives.

Some of these are to extend the viability of the product—make it last longer on the shelf.

Others of these additives—usually labeled “chicken flavor,” “natural flavorings,” or just “spices”—are added to enhance the taste.

The problem is that most of these additives are chemical-based, may contain MSG, or even food dyes.

My father’s family used to have a joke about Mystery Meat Nights. He always knew if he asked his mom what was for dinner and she said, It’s a Surprise! that is was liver, which he hated.

Sadly, today, mystery meat or mystery ingredients aren’t as healthy as that liver was!

Honestly, if you can’t pronounce an ingredient or can’t track it down because it is being masked by a term like “natural flavors” or the like, in this day and age, I’d steer clear!

There’s also the option to use chicken bullion. The problem with this product—which I used for many, many years in ignorance—is that every brand I’ve seen includes maltodextrin, silicon dioxide, natural flavorings, unnamed spices, and sunflower oil and canola oil, which are a seed oils.

Seed oils are now being found to cause heart issues, weight gain, and a host of other health issues. They rapidly increase inflammation. This is why we are so unhealthy as a country because just about EVERY fast food joint you go to, uses canola oil.

Bullion, which like I said, I used for years, is a veritable chemical cocktail and we put it into soups, chowders, stews, noodles…you name it!

The fact is, however, not only is it less expensive to render your own chicken broth, but it is infinitely healthier!

I love being able to provide my family with meals that I KNOW are safe, clean, and healthy!

And you can too!

Healthy Whole Chicken and Broth Recipe

Servings:

3 portions of shredded chicken

10 cups chicken broth

Healthy Whole Chicken & Broth Ingredients

1 4-5 lb. whole chicken, innards removed

1 med. onion, diced

12 cups water

1 large carrot, coarsely chopped

3 celery ribs, coarsely chopped

1 tbs salt

6 parsley stems (or 6 tbs dry parsley)

2 sprig thyme (or 2 tsp ground thyme)

2 cloves garlic, minced (or 2 tbs minced garlic)

1 bay leaf (or 1 tsp ground bay leaf)

1 tsp whole peppercorns

1-2 tsp turmeric

2-8 cloves

Healthy Whole Chicken & Broth Directions

Clean the chicken and remove the neck, gizzard, and innards.
Place the whole chicken into a deep stock pot and cover with 12 cups of water.
Add the vegetables and spices to the water.
Bring to a boil.
Once the pot is boiling, continue to cook on medium-high for roughly 90 minutes or about 18 minutes per pound of chicken.
Once the time has elapsed, check the internal temperature of the chicken with a food thermometer. If the meatiest portion of the chicken reads as 165 degrees F, carefully pull the chicken out of the stock pot and onto a plate to cool. If it is not to temp, cook another 10 minutes and check again. Repeat this step until the chicken reaches 165 degrees.
Now that the chicken is removed from the pot, use a strainer over a bowl to draw off the broth. The strainer will prevent the vegetables or thicker fat content from entering the bowl.
To save the broth for later cooking, parse it out into 1-2 cup silicone containers and allow to cool. Once cooled, apply the lids and place them into the freezer. Later, once frozen, you can remove the broth cubes from the silicone by rubbing warm water over the outer tub, and store the broth cubes in freezer-safe baggies for later use. The broth is good for 3 months frozen or one week in the fridge.
Once the chicken is cooled, hand-shred it into 3 equal portions. Place portions into freezer-safe baggies for storage. If stored in the freezer, this meat is good for up to 3-6 months. If stored in the fridge, use within 3 days.