Recipe

This homemade chicken broth is an easy recipe that will make your meals healthier and tastier. You need to try it!

I'm going step by step to show you how you can make your homemade chicken broth with simple ingredients and store it for future use.

Easy Chicken Broth

Laura fuentes holding a skillet of food standing in front of a blue door

Today we're making the homemade version of one of the most beloved pantry staples: chicken broth, a widely used ingredient in many recipes, such as soups, stews, pasta, and rice dishes.

While store-bought broth is convenient, nothing beats the taste of homemade broth; plus, you can control how much salt goes into it. Store-bought chicken broth is renowned for its sodium content and additives, which is why homemade will win every time.

Ingredients

Any skin-on, bone-in chicken pieces, or even a rotisserie chicken, work for this recipe. For extra flavor, I add celery, carrots, onion, dried rosemary, thyme, peppercorn, and, optionally, bay leaves. To turn them all into a broth, you’ll need cold water.

chicken pieces, carrots, celery, onion, bay leaves, dried rosemary, dried thyme, peppercorns, and water

Can You Make Chicken Broth from a Rotisserie Chicken?

If you’re reading this and have a half-eaten rotisserie chicken in the fridge, by all means, use that instead. Simply prepare the broth with a chicken carcass, veggies, seasonings, and water. Cook for 4 to 6 hours. Instead of broth, it will be stock but still full of flavor and ready to use in any recipe that calls for broth.

How to Make Chicken Broth

As I’ll show you in the video below, there's nothing fancy about making homemade chicken broth:

Simmer for 3 to 4 hours
Combine chicken, veggies, seasonings, and water in a large soup pot; and simmer. Occasionally skim off any foam that comes to the surface.

left: top view of a large pot with chicken, onion, bay leaves, carrots to make broth; right: the same pot with the ingredients simmering

Remove the chicken pieces and vegetables.
Once the broth is slightly thickened and golden in color.
Strain the broth into large broth jars.
Use a fine-mesh strainer. Allow to cool down to room temperature before sealing and storing.

Side-by-side comparison of homemade chicken broth with cooked chicken removed from the pot and broth strained through a fine-mesh sieve

How Long to Cook Chicken Broth

A good rule of thumb is 3 to 4 hours; by this time, the broth will be full-flavored, the veggies will be super tender, so you can toss them or blend them into a pureed tomato soup, and the chicken will be perfectly cooked for a recipe like my favorite Southern chicken salad.

How to Store Homemade Chicken Broth

Allow the chicken broth to cool down at room temperature before storing in lidded jars or airtight containers for up to a week in the fridge. To freeze it, use a freezer-safe container or a heavy-duty zip bag, making sure not to overfill them, as liquids expand when frozen. Store it in your freezer for up to 3 months.

Laura’s tip: When freezing broth in zip bags, I recommend placing them flat on a baking sheet, so once the broth is frozen, you can stack them on the freezer, saving a lot of room.

Recipes Using Chicken Broth

Some of my favorite chicken dinner ideas with broth are paleo chicken and veggie chili, this easy chicken stew, and my Chicken with Prunes and Sage Recipe. Of course, this homemade pho and this rotisserie chicken noodle soup also taste like a million bucks when you make them with this chicken broth.

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How to Make Chicken Broth

top view of a large pot with chicken, onion, bay leaves, carrots to make broth

Servings: 6 cups

Prep Time: 5

Cook Time: 4

Total Time: 4 5

This homemade chicken broth is an easy recipe that will make your meals healthier and tastier. You need to try it!

5 from 16 votes

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Watch how it’s made:

Ingredients

2 ½ lbs skin-on bone-in chicken pieces, (legs quarters, breasts, wings)
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 medium carrots, quartered
1 large yellow onion, quartered
2 bay leaves
½ teaspoon dried rosemary
½ teaspoon dried thyme
8 to 10 peppercorns
12 cups cold water

Instructions

Simmer:

Place all the ingredients in a large soup pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer for 3 to 4 hours, occasionally skimming off any foam that comes to the surface.