Easy Chicken Broth

Chicken Broth is one of the tastiest, filling meals or stock base you can make yourself. There’s no need to buy those too salty off the shelf, tin, cube or boxed broths when you can probably make one today with what you have in the fridge. How? Let me show you…

Unless you are a vegetarian or vegan this article is probably not for you but for the rest of us who like chicken, chicken soup and broths here’s my tip to stretch that chicken dinner a little further.

What You Need?

One whole cooked chicken
Two Stalks of Celery (chopped)
Two Large Carrots (chopped)
Half a large onion or one medium onion (roughly chopped)
Pepper, Salt, Herbs (for taste)

Preparation

Use what you need and then save the rest to make an easy and tasty broth.
Use what you need and then save the rest to make an easy and tasty chicken broth.

Take your leftover chicken carcass, which may include some of the meat, all the bones and some or all of the skin and place in a large saucepan.

Add the chopped celery, onions and carrots to the pot. Season with salt, pepper and your choice of herbs. You can add other vegetables for flavor but these are the ones I would recommend.

Remember, keep it simple at this stage as the vegetables you add now will be discarded along with the chicken bones, carcass and skin and any meat, as once cooked you will only be interested in the leftover broth.

Cover with cold water and bring to the boil.

Simmer on low for 1 hour. Stir occasionally. You can pretty much leave it to it’s own devices once the simmering has settled down nicely and you know it’s not going to boil but keep an eye on it.

Remove from heat and stir well.

Pour the liquid through a strainer into a separate container. Leave to cool.

Discard what is leftover.

Add your own ingredients to make a chicken vegetable noodle soup
Add your own ingredients to make a chicken vegetable noodle soup

If you do not wish to use straight away, place in fridge.

You now have Chicken Broth. You can drink this as it is or take it one step further and make Chicken Soup using the liquid you just made as the base. Don’t forget the meat you pulled off as you can then add that back into the soup. You can also use the broth to flavor rice. Do you have any other tips for using homemade broth?

Why not check out my easy
Chicken and Vegetable Soup
using the Slow Cooker.

Easy Slow Cooker Meal: Teriyaki Beef Strips with Mushrooms and Onions

Here’s a simple but tasty meal that is easy to prepare and even easier to cook. It only uses three main ingredients and a few sauces and spices that you probably already have in the cupboard.

What Do You Need:-

Beef – I used 1½ lbs of top round beef strips. Add a small amount of olive oil to a large frying pan. Lightly brown the beef over a medium heat.

Add 8 large teaspoons of Teriyaki sauce, 4 large teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce and cracked black pepper to the pan. After a minute turn the beef over until coated in the sauce. Cook for a few more minutes then remove from heat and set aside keeping the pan covered.

Cut Mushrooms in half once to keep them chunky.
Cut Mushrooms in half to keep them chunky.

The Veggies

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Easy Slow Cooker Meal: Chicken and Vegetable Soup

We had a leftover whole cooked BBQ chicken which still had half the breast meat, one leg and one wing left to eat. We could have had it cold with some potato salad or popped it in a sandwich but I decided to make an easy slow cooker meal combining all the leftover chicken and some vegetables.

What Do You Need:-

Easy Slow Cooker Meal
Soup is so easy to make in the slow cooker.

Chicken(any leftover cooked chicken) Remove all the chicken from the bone and discard any skin and bones. Set aside whilst you prepare the veggies.

The Veggies

Wash and chop the following:-

4 large stalks of fresh celery
1 large white onion
5 large white mushrooms
A large handful of baby carrots (leave whole)

Add the onions to a pan and lightly cook in a small amount of olive oil until soft. Add the mushrooms, stir and cover for a few minutes on a medium heat.

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Easy Slow Cooker Meal: Sausage

Today I decided to whip up a quick and easy slow cooker meal using some sausages that were in the fridge and a whole heap of veggies.

What Do You Need:-

One pack of your favorite sausages. I decided to use Johnsonville Brats

You can throw them on the BBQ but I thought it would be fun how they would turn out in the slow cooker.
You can throw them on the BBQ but I thought it would be fun to see how they would turn out in the slow cooker.

Take the Brats and brown them in the pan. If you use the same sausages you don’t need to add any extra oil, they will take care of that for you. Be careful they make smoke and it’s best to reduce the heat once they get going. Set aside and leave to cool so you can chop them up later.

Top Tip: save that oil in the pan after they have browned. You can use it to sauté the onions and mushrooms and get even more sausage flavor into the meal.

While the sausages are cooking you can prepare the vegetables whilst keeping a close on the sausages so that they don’t burn up too much.

Pick your favorite veggies. Wash thoroughly and chop.
Pick your favorite veggies. Wash thoroughly and chop.

The Veggies

Wash and chop the following:-

4 stalks of fresh celery
4 small red potatoes
6 medium white mushrooms
1 medium white onion
Large handful of baby carrots
Large handful of green beans
½ a large apple

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