
Gut Healthy Bone Broth Recipe! My bone broth slow cooks for 40 hours to give you incredibly nutrient dense gut healing bone broth! If you're tired of buying bone broth at the store, you can make this easy and healthy bone broth recipe in no time!
I absolutely love bone broth. People have been making bone broth for thousands of years, and for a good reason! It is one of the healthiest things you can eat for your gut health.
I add my gut healthy bone broth to everything that I can in place of water. From rice, to couscous, soups and more! Try my popular Bone Broth Roasted Tomato Soup, Red Lentil Soup with Bone Broth, or Purple Sweet Potato Soup with Bone Broth.
A quick NOTE, this bone broth recipe is using bones that I have saved from meals in the freezer. I'm not using raw bones. If you are using raw bones, you will have to roast them first. I highly recommend saving bones from your meals in a freezer bag to make bone broth making way easier on yourself!
GUT HEALTHY BONE BROTH INGREDIENTS
- Bones- any kind works! I use a mix of chicken, lamb, and beef bones that I save from meals.
- Filtered water.
That is it! Gut healing bone broth is so incredibly easy to make at home! The bone broth method I do is using leftover bones that I save up in freezer over the months until I have enough to make bone broth. If you're not saving leftover bones from meals, you should start! It is such a waste to throw bones away in the trash. They are still filled with so many nutrients you can extract when you make bone broth with them!
After every meal that has bones, simply add them to a freezer bag. When you do this, you don't have to worry about buying raw bones, adding different flavorings, and roasting raw bones before slow cooking. All you do is toss leftover bones into a pot, add water, and slow cook!
I like to make everything as easy and simple as possible!
TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT NEEDED TO MAKE BONE BROTH
There is nothing fancy needed to make gut healthy bone broth! I prefer to make my bone broth recipe in the instant pot, but if you have a slow cooker, just use that instead!
And if you don't have an instant pot or a slow cooker, then simply make your gut healthy bone broth over the stove instead! I'll include directions below for the stovetop version.
Here's literally all you need to make the best bone broth at home:
- Instant pot or Slow cooker
- Or a large pot on the stove
That is IT! Easy simple bone broth!
GUT HEALING BENEFITS OF BONE BROTH
Bone broth is soothing to the digestive system and easy to digest, making it ideal for gut health and those with inflammation in the gut. Bone broth is packed with nutrients that can help gut health including:
- Collagen: Nourishes the intestinal lining and reduces inflammation
- Gelatin: Heals and seals the gut, and absorbs water to maintain the mucus layer that keeps microbes away from the intestinal barrier
- Glutamine: Helps maintain the integrity of the gut lining
- Glycine: Helps reduce inflammation and protects against ulcers
- Magnesium: Helps increase the amount of water in your intestines, which can keep you regular and alleviate constipation
- Calcium: May help digestive enzymes and act as a prebiotic to feed good bacteria in your gut
Drinking bone broth can be beneficial for people who suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease, leaky gut, and ulcerative colitis.
Always check with your doctor first if bone broth is right for you!
HOW TO MAKE GUT HEALTHY BONE BROTH
My gut healing bone broth recipe is for people who have saved leftover bones in the freezer!
If you don't have leftover bones, you can purchase raw bones and roast them before adding them to your pot like I do with the leftover bones below. If you need more directions on roasting bones for bone broth, there are a ton of long articles written about this topic!
STEP 1: GATHER YOUR BONES
Over the course of a month or two, I save all of the bones from dinner in a freezer bag. I usually keep one bag in the small freezer upstairs where I can easily fill it up after dinner. Then, once it is full, I bring it to the large freezer that has a bit more of a deep freeze and more space.
For this recipe, I used about 3 gallon sized bags of leftover already cooked bones that I add to my instant pot. Making gut healthy bone broth doesn't have to be an exact science. I found that basically, whether you fill your pot all the way, or half way, you just need enough water to cover the bones.
Your bones for bone broth shouldn't be swimming in the water. There should be a lot of bones in your bone broth pot so you can have a collagen and gelatin rich bone broth with the thick layer on the top and becomes like Jell-O when you refrigerate it.
In our house, I cook a variety of meats (except pork). I make chicken legs, thighs, whole chickens, lamb chops, lamb leg, and pretty much every cut of beef!
Another benefit of using leftover bones is that they have so much delicious flavor already and you don't have to add anything else to flavor your broth!
STEP 2: SLOW COOK
Thaw the bones a bit before adding them to the slow cooker or instant pot. I thaw my frozen cooked bones for about 1 hour before hand. They don't have to be completely thawed, but just enough so you can break them apart a bit to get into your pot.
In your pot add:
- 3-4 pounds roasted bones (3 gallon sized bags of leftover bones)
- Filtered water to cover the bones
You can guess a bit, just make sure your pot is full of the bones, and the water covers them completely. Or, half full of bones and half full of water. Don't add too much water, just enough to cover the bones!
Cover the instant pot with the lid and place on venting (not sealing). Set the timer to the max your machine allows. Mine was 20 hours, so after 20 hours, I added 20 more hours so it would slow cook for 40 hours.
For the slow cooker, or crock pot, cover with the lid and set heat to low heat. Cook for 40 hours.
Slow cook your gut healthy bone broth recipe for 40 hours to get the most delicious and nutrient rich bone broth!
STOVETOP METHOD
If you want to cook your gut healthy bone broth on the stove, I would recommend planning to make it on a weekend, or when you are home. Cook your broth on the lowest heat possible, with a lid on. Make sure to check the pot and top off any water that has evaporated.
STEP 3: STRAIN & CAN
After 40 hours of slow cooking and your house smells so cozy and amazing, your broth is ready to strain! I usually let my slow cooked bone broth cool for 1-2 hours before straining it because I don't like if the hot broth splashes on me. But, you can strain it right away if you're in a hurry.
Place a fine mesh strainer over the top of a large pot to strain the bone broth into.
Pour the bone broth through the strainer to collect the bones. Discard the bones. And you have perfect golden bone broth!
Scoop the bone broth into jars for storage. Make sure to use glass jars so no plastic is leaching into your gut healthy bone broth!
BONE BROTH STORAGE
Gut healthy bone broth can be stored in your fridge for up to 5 days in an airtight jar.
Or, fill up your jars ¾ of the way and place them in the freezer where they will last up to 6 months!
If you are savvy at canning, we need to be friends as I would absolutely love to learn how to can bone broth!
BONE BROTH FLAVOR VARIATIONS
If you did not have leftover bones that are already filled with flavors from your cooking, this is the section for you! You can add so many different things to your bone broth while it's slow cooking that will add flavor.
- Chopped carrots, celery, onions, and other vegetables
- Garlic
- Ginger root
- Spices like turmeric, black pepper, paprika, and even curry powder
Gut Healthy Bone Broth Soup Recipes to try today!
- Healthy Broccoli Cheddar Soup with Bone Broth
- Golden Red Lentil Soup with Bone Broth
- Middle Eastern Red Lentil Soup with Bone Broth
- 13 Bean Soup with Bone Broth
- Purple Sweet Potato Soup with Bone Broth
- Roasted Tomato Soup with Bone Broth
- Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Bone Broth
- Roasted Acorn Squash Soup with Bone Broth
- Ramen Noodle Soup with Bone Broth
- Beef and Vegetable Stew with Bone Broth
FAQ'S
Frequently asked questions about my gut healing bone broth recipe.
WHAT BONE BROTH IS BEST FOR GUT HEALTH?
As a registered dietitian who specializes in gut health and epigenetics, in general, any kind of bone broth is good for gut health! But beef bones are the most nutrient dense bones you can add to bone broth and will give you the most collagen per serving.
I like to do a mix of bones in my bone broth because each bone is unique and by mixing different bones, I can get a good variety! Try to choose organic, or at least grass fed meat so that you aren't cooking any nasty hormones or additives into your healthy beautiful bone broth.
HOW MUCH BONE BROTH SHOULD I DRINK FOR GUT HEALTH?
Aim for 1-2 cups of bone broth per day. You might even start to see a benefit after just a couple of days!
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF DRINKING BONE BROTH EVERY DAY?
Bone broth is incredible for gut health and reducing inflammation, and you can see a benefit in your digestion, immunity, skin, hair, nails, mood, and even sleep!
If you try my Gut Healthy Bone Broth Recipe, please let me know your thoughts by leaving a rating and comment below! Ready for more? Subscribe to my newsletter or follow along on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube!
Gut Healthy Bone Broth (40 Hours Slow Cooked!)
Equipment
- slow cooker
Ingredients
- 3-4 pounds Beef, chicken, and lamb bones about 3 gallon sized freezer bags full of mixed bones
- 16 cups filtered water
Instructions
- Fill your instant pot or slow cooker pot with leftover beef, chicken, or lamb bones. If you don't have leftover already cooked bones, roast your raw bones in the oven until they are starting to brown before adding to your pot.You can also use just 1 type of bone like all beef, chicken, or lamb.3-4 pounds Beef, chicken, and lamb bones, 16 cups filtered water
- Cover the bones completely with water. I filled my instant pot with bones to the max fill line and then filled with water. It fit about 16 cups of water.
- Cover the instant pot with the lid and place on venting (not sealing). Set the timer to the max your machine allows. Mine was 20 hours, so after 20 hours, I added 20 more hours so it would slow cook for 40 hours.For the slow cooker, or crock pot, cover with the lid and set heat to low heat. Cook for 40 hours.
- After your broth has cooked 40 hours, strain it through a fine mesh strainer into a pot. Discard the bones.
- Divide your strained bone broth between glass jars. And enjoy this incredibly gut healthy bone broth!
Annie
This is sooo perfect because I’ve been saving my bones in the freezer this winter and really wanted to make them into bone broth!
Rosemary
I can't wait to hear how it turns out for you!