Creative Ways to Use Chicken Broth (& How to Make it!)

We had several birds in our freezer that needed to be used (that we had raised & had butchered.)

I used our instant pots to cook 2 birds. Took a fraction of the time it would have on the stove or crock pots!!

I boiled them for several hours with salt, enough water to cover the bird & onions. Then we shredded the meat and made chicken noodle soup (and added carrots, noodles, salt, & herbs.)

Next I took all the bones & put them back in the instant pot with bay leaves, celery, onion, carrots & salt (you can add pepper, but Lexa & I can’t have it, so we leave it out. It can be added to taste.) I let it go in the instant pot on high pressure for another several hours, then strained everything & voila – Bone Broth! You could definitely see the difference in color between the first batch of chicken broth (pale yellow color) & the 2nd batch of what I would consider bone broth (very dark brown). (Again I failed to take pictures! 🤦‍♀️)

Now I had about 2 gallons of good broth I needed to use. Of course, I had used some in the chicken noodle soup.

Then I made a huge batch of Refried beans (again in the instant pot, I really love it!) 😊 I used 4 pounds of dried beans & about 10 Cups of broth (along with an onion, salt & cumin). Yum!

I also cooked 5 Cups of rice to make a huge batch (with some olive oil, salt, minced onion & 6 1/4 Cups of chicken broth). Several of the kids enjoy eating it just as is, but I made it for some upcoming meals (stuffed peppers & stir fry). And a big batch of tri-color quinoa. Both in the instant pot (my awesome husband bought me a 2nd, bigger instant pot a couple years ago since we use them so much!)

Next was a huge batch of Spanish Rice for our weekly burrito meals (I put most of it in the freezer, along with the refried beans, in appropriate portions for one meal). It’s so nice to have most of the ingredients prepped in the freezer, it makes an easy & quick meal and doesn’t really take much more time to make a HUGE batch than it does for one meal.

I also made a large batch of butternut squash soup with just oven roasted, then cubed butternut squash, chicken broth, salt & an onion (of course the recipe I use calls for more ingredients, but I made it this way so Lexa & I could eat it & dairy or coconut milk could be added individually.)

I am left with about 1 1/2 quarts (that I’m going to make a cauliflower soup with today) & a lot of prep done for future meals! I’m very happy. 😊