As a child, one of my favorite stories was the story of Baba Yaga: a witch and predator of children whose house stood on a pair of chicken legs.
As an adult who eats chicken hearts with collard greens for lunch and is always on the look out for good chicken feet, I must confess that I feel more like Baba Yaga than I care to admit, especially with my latest bone broth fascination. To my credit, however, this bone broth recipe is sans children’s bones.
Sopa de Huesos: An Introduction
Now then, onto the subject of boiling bones!! I have used online recipes for bone broth (or sopa de huesos) in the past. They were ok, but my mother’s bone broth is my favorite!
There is so much I love about this bone broth.
First, wonderful smells fill my house as it slow-cooks for forty-eight hours.
Second, it makes my body feel good and is a key ingredient to my recovery when I’m feeling under the weather.
Third, I find that I use it in much of my meal planning (ha!), including a very simple soup (my daughter’s favorite): bone broth, a little bit of pasta (Jovial’s casarecce noodles or any other kind you like) and tatsoi from Plato Dale Farm when the farmer’s market is in season, or baby bok choy when it’s not.
Sopa de Huesos: The Process
Step 1: Selecting the Right Bones
The type of bones you use is important. You can use beef bones–this is what was used in one of the earlier recipes I tried. What I didn’t like about using them is that they tend to be extremely greasy.
For my mother’s recipe, I’ve mostly used chicken bones, but, again, it’s not enough to use just any bones. Here are some combinations that I’ve found work best.
- If you’re in the habit of making whole chickens, you can save two of the leftover carcasses (you can save the one in the freezer while you wait for the availability of another); or
- About a half bag of chicken feet (ten or so) and one chicken back. You can find chicken backs in a chicken soup-in-a-bag type product like this one from Erba Verde Farms.
Chicken necks, even when using four of them, are passable but not a great option; the stock isn’t as hearty.
A Note on Turkey
Out of bone broth and unable to get chicken feet (bummer, I know), I recently asked my mother for some recommendations. She directed me to the Wegman’s on Alberta Dr. (yes, I do need to be this specific–you can’t just find turkey wings just anywhere). Once there I was to get some turkey wings and combine them with a small pack of chicken wings.
Unfortunately, Wegman’s was out of the turkey wings, but they did have two big fat turkey necks. So, I decided to use those. I was a little hesitant after my experience with chicken necks, but, in the end, two turkey necks along with a small pack of chicken wings worked out beautifully.
Other Ingredients
Aside from the bones you’ll want the following:
Pictured above: Turmeric, ginger, rosemary, thyme, sage, celery root, celery leaves (if you don’t have celery leaves, just use celery stalks), red onion, yellow onion, and fennel root.
While not pictured, you will also want a bulb of garlic and apple cider vinegar (about two to three capfuls).
Step 2: Browning
Whatever bones you choose, you’ll want to brown them first.
I use my beloved Dutch Oven (from Our Place–I really can’t even express how much I love this thing) to brown the bones. Before placing the bones in the Dutch Oven, I add Graza cooking oil and the onions (red and yellow).
Step 3: Combine Ingredients & Boil
I slow-cook my bone broth in my Instant Pot, so for this step, I add water (about twelve cups) and the browned bones (and browned onions) to the Instant Pot along with the other ingredients. Then I use the sauté function to boil everything within the Instant Pot. Because the maximum time for the sauté function times out after thirty minutes, I usually have to set the sauté function for another thirty minutes to get a decent boil going.
Side note: The nice thing about this recipe is that there isn’t a lot of preparation required. For example, instead of chopping garlic, you simply drop the whole bulb in the pot. The same goes for everything else really, with the exception of the chopped onion. I also like to add in vegetable scraps, like the onion skins, etc.
Step 4: Slow Cook for Forty-Eight Hours
After a boil time of about thirty minutes, if using an Instant Pot, you can cover the Instant Pot and switch to the slow cooker setting. If not, then you will need transfer the contents of your pot to some kind of slow cooker.
Slow-cook everything for forty-eight hours. With the Instant Pot, you’ll have to do two 24 hour periods.
Step 5: Strain the Broth & Refrigerate
After two days, you’ll have a deliciously rich, albeit slightly repugnant, bone broth waiting for you.
To avoid losing any bone broth while straining out the bones, etc., I put a strainer over a large pasta pot and pour all the liquid into the pot. Once the bone broth is in the pot, I take a large liquid measuring cup, and I fill the measuring cup. I then take the measuring cup and pour the broth into freezer safe containers (I use takeout soup containers like these).
Refill the measuring cup until you have transferred all the broth into the containers. Then transfer the containers to the fridge to cool.
I usually let the containers cool for about 12 hours. Following that, I keep the containers I plan to use in the refrigerator and freeze the rest.
All Done
Hooray! You can now confidently boil bones until your heart is content. I’m sure Baba would be proud.
