This easy chop & go slow cooker recipe is the perfect way to use up a left over roast chicken. In fact, these days, I’ll do a roast chicken for the main purpose of making chicken broth (or stock, the two are basically the same thing!) with the leftovers. Guests at my dinner table know to keep all their bones on their plate when helping clear the table, as you really want to make sure you’ve got every last morsel from the leftover carcass.

Then it’s as simple as roughly chopping up a few choice veggies, adding in some herbs and spices (oh don’t forget to try and get ALL the leftover juices from the oven tray!) and then popping it on low and slow for 12 - 18 hours.

The secret to my chicken broth recipe is to add chicken feet (bear with me here!). These extra additions are what will make your broth even more jelly like…it’s the jelly, (as in gelatine) that’s an indication of how much collagen is in your broth.

There are SO many reasons why bone broth is good for you…here are a few:

highly nutritious (and yummy too!)
full of collagen & minerals (hello youthful glow & happy strong muscles)
helps repairs your gut flora (yay for a better functioning immune system)
soothing & the perfect hot beverage when you’re not feeling great

What you need:

Full Chicken (all bones included!) A left over roast is ideal as it will already have been roasted which will add to the flavour)
All the roast juices/drippings
Chicken feet (ask for clean feet from your butcher/you can buy these at your local PicknPay/Spar etc)
Onion
2 - 3 garlic cloves
2 - 3 carrots
2 - 3 sticks of celery (keep the leaves!)
2 - 3 leaks
10 - 12 black peppercorns
5 - 6 cloves
bay leaf
salt & pepper
1 - 1.5 litres of water (to cover everything)

Method

Put your slow cooker on low & add the chicken carcass
Pour boiling water into your leftover roasting pan with all the leftover drippings and juices
Roughly chop all your veggies (no need to peel…keep all the veggie skins) and add to the pot
Add the herbs and spices
Add the chicken feet
Cover with boiling water (I use a 7L slow cooker and use about 5L of water to cover) and leave on low for +-12 - 18 hours
Strain the broth (discard the bones and veggies) and put into glass jars.
Use within 3 days (if kept in the fridge) otherwise pop into the freezer

Ways to use your homemade broth:

Use it in place of store bought stock cubes
Drink it as a health tonic
serve cold to your kiddies as a tasty & jelly-like snack (pictured above!)
use in place of water when cooking quinoa or cous-cous (or rice/barley/any grain you like)

And there you go! A super easy way to use up a left over chicken, in a way to produces something that’s only only super delicious but it’s incredibly good for you.