Pressure Cooker Chicken Broth - Chicken Noodle Soup

Why make chicken broth yourself when it is on the shelf at the grocery store? Why make it when there is no time to? Because it tastes far better and it is a way to use the bones from dinner. I make a lot of chicken broth. I made it for years in a good old pot on the stove. I would collect all the carcass bones from a meal and freeze them until I had a day I could just let it sit on the stove and bubble. I then discovered that a pressure cooker can make short work of it and still it garners a lovely golden broth, which brings me to my current method.

My dear friend, Anita Broenink from Shalom Engedi farms, lets me buy chicken, eggs, and lamb from her farm. Two years ago, I began to ask for the chicken feet whenever she harvests her summer birds. Trust me when I say they are so far above average for making broth it's a whole new universe of gelatinous, gorgeous health food.

I place the feet, bones, and chicken legs or thighs in my pressure cooker along with carrots, celery, onion, and thyme. I also add a bay leaf or two. I cover in water and pressure cook it for 40 minutes. Then strain and cool. The broth must be placed in the fridge so you can remove the fat the next day. Then I freeze it in two cup increments. As you can see in the picture above, it becomes a heavenly gelatinous broth. Thanks to Anita's birds, mind you, because store-bought chicken is nearly impossible to get to jell. You need a healthy farm-raised bird for that. I use the feet exclusively if I have them because they give the best jell, so see if you can find some and add them to the regular bones you use. Two or three feet make all the difference.

If you roast the bones first and then make the broth, the stock will look like the image below. The jars you see are cooling and then I will strain it again for impurities before I place it in the refrigerator overnight.

The chicken and noodle soup picture I added at the beginning of this post is made from two cups of this frozen broth. I made a mirepoix of onions, carrots, and celery in a nice soup pot and added herbs and simmered. Then I added the broth, some water, and a few noodles. It took literally minutes to place this bowl of comfort in front of my daughter. She loves her mum's chicken soup. The noodles are also frozen I buy them in the freezer section of my market. My daughter preferrers these noodles especially in miso soup so why not make it in chicken noodle? I work with what I see in the storage sections of Mum's kitchen.

I use this broth in everything I make that needs it. If I have enough, I use it in my rice as well.

Try it, your family will thank you!

~ Hugs from Mum