Cheap and Healthy Chicken Broth

This post may contain affiliate links.  Please see my disclosure for more details.

Chicken Broth=Health?

When I first started doing serious research to try to find answers to my health issues, one thing that kept jumping out at me was chicken broth.  It seemed too humble and simple to be something that could really benefit me health wise.  How could broth make a difference in serious health problems like mine?

I had already used chicken soup before to help me overcome the common cold.  So, I knew it had helped me to feel better in the past.  But, I didn’t realize that it was an all around immune strengthener-broth can strengthen your body against sickness!

I also learned that it was extremely helpful for healing the gut.  The more I learned about digestion and the gut, the more I realized that it was paramount to have healthy digestion if I really wanted to be all around healthy.  Chicken broth contains gelatin which is a powerful healing agent for the gut.

Broth also contains minerals and amino acids that are super important for detox.  Although vegetables are usually used for detox (for good reason), amino acids and minerals are also super important.  I made sure to have enough of both when I was detoxing mercury.

The Problem with Store Bought Chicken Broth

Since I was sick at the time, I really wanted to buy chicken broth at the grocery store.  But store bought chicken broth has a big problem.  Even organic chicken broth almost always contains some type of msg.  With the type of health problems that I had, I knew that I did not need msg.

The msg may be called mono sodium glutamate, yeast extract, natural flavors, or some other name, but it is still msg.  Also, canned broth can have toxic problems (bpa etc).

After I learned all this, I realized that the truly healing broth was going to have to come from my kitchen!   Even though it was going to take a little more work than buying it from the store-there was some serious good news-

Homemade Chicken Broth is Almost Free!

The up side to all this is that chicken broth can be made for almost nothing!  The ingredients are mostly “kitchen scraps”.   Not only that but when you use chicken broth in a recipe, you can use less meat and still get the nutrition necessary for a healthy body.  Using less meat can make your meal super cheap.  (And super cheap meals can add up to some serious savings!)

One cheap meal you can make from broth is this Savory Italian Pot Roast.  The base of this meal can be either chicken broth or beef broth.  Serve the pot roast with rice and a frozen vegetable and you will have a super cheap and healthy meal.

If you want truly organic chicken broth, obviously the chicken carcass needs to be from an organic chicken.  (If you are wondering how I buy healthy chicken for cheap-I wrote about the type of chicken I buy here).

Cheap and Healthy Chicken Broth Recipe (and DIY Cubes!)

Want to make your own chicken broth?  Or even better make the broth into concentrated frozen cubes that you can easily pull out of your freezer when you need some broth?   My friend Jamie from The Herbal Spoon has a chicken broth recipe, and she also explains how to make the broth into frozen cubes.

These cubes can help so much when you need a quick meal-Simply add the cubes, some water, leftover meat and veggies to make a quick soup.  The cubes can also be used for any recipe that calls for broth or stock.

The only ingredients needed for the healthy chicken broth and cubes (besides kitchen scraps) is a little thyme, rosemary, bay leaves, salt, and apple cider vinegar.  The total cost is probably less than 40 cents.  Especially if you use cheap spices.

Many of of my spices are from the Starwest Botanicals company.  They are super economical (I often order them from Amazon) and this company does not irradiate their spices-yes many companies do treat their spices with radiation!  (Side note-this makes me sad because herbs and spices are so good for you, but not once they are treated with radiation.)

Here is what I would buy for this recipe (some of these are large amounts-you could split them with a friend, but I use my spices for medicinal purposes also.  So, I often use all of mine!)

Starwest Botanicals Thyme

                                 

Want some more frugal healthy ideas?  Check out my Super Quick Healthy Cheap Meal Plan.

Disclaimer: This post is not medical advice.  I am not a doctor or medical professional.  I share only from my own experiences and research.  Consult your own practitioner before making changes in your diet or supplements.