How to Make Chicken Broth
By Mia Hartwell
Chicken broth is the most useful two hours you can spend in a kitchen, and the thing almost nobody mentions is that you do not just get broth out of it. Poach a whole chicken properly and you come away with three quarts of broth and four cups of tender cooked chicken, which is dinner for the next two nights. One bird, two results.
The catch is that most people ruin the second half without realising. They put a whole chicken in a pot, simmer it for three or four hours because that is what you do with stock, and end up with decent broth and several cups of dry, stringy meat that gets quietly thrown away. The meat was done after fifty minutes.
This guide covers the timing that gets you both, the difference between broth and stock and why it changes how you season it, the leftover rotisserie carcass version, and how to cool and store it safely.
Broth or Stock?
These get used interchangeably on supermarket cartons, but in a kitchen they are two different things, and knowing which you are making changes both the cooking time and the seasoning.
Broth is made mostly from meat, simmered for one to two hours, and seasoned. It is lighter, more directly chicken flavoured, and you can drink it from a mug. This is what you want for chicken noodle soup, for cooking rice, or for sipping when someone is unwell.
Stock is made mostly from bones, simmered three to four hours or longer, and left unsalted because it gets reduced into sauces later. It carries far more collagen, so it has real body and sets to a soft jelly in the fridge. If that is what you are after, our guide on how to make soup stock covers it properly, including beef, vegetable, and fish.
Four Ways to Make It
| Method | Simmer | Yield | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole chicken | 2 hours | 3 qt broth + 4 cups meat | Best value, you get dinner too |
| Rotisserie carcass | 2 to 3 hours | 2 to 3 qt broth | Cheapest, deeper roasted flavour |
| Wings and thighs | 1.5 to 2 hours | 2 qt rich broth | Most flavour per pound, lots of collagen |
| Backs and necks | 2 hours | 2 to 3 qt broth | Very cheap if your butcher has them |
The method below uses a whole chicken because it is the best value. If you are working from a leftover roast or rotisserie carcass, skip step five entirely and simmer for two to three hours, since there is no meat left to protect.
How to Make Chicken Broth
Cover the chicken with cold water
Put a 3 to 4 pound whole chicken in a stockpot and add cold water to cover it by only 1 to 2 inches. Starting cold rather than hot lets the proteins come out slowly and rise where you can skim them, which gives a clearer broth. Resist filling the pot, since extra water only dilutes the flavour.
Bring it to a bare simmer
Heat it slowly until the surface is barely moving, around 180 to 190F, with a lazy bubble every second or two. Do not let it boil. Boiling emulsifies the fat into the liquid and clouds the broth permanently, and it is the mistake that spoils more homemade broth than anything else.
Skim the foam
For the first twenty minutes a grey-brown foam will rise. Lift it off with a ladle as it collects. This is coagulated protein, and leaving it to break up and disperse is what makes broth murky and slightly livery. After twenty minutes it mostly stops.
Add the vegetables and aromatics
Once the foam has stopped, add a quartered onion, a couple of carrots, two celery sticks, a bay leaf, a teaspoon of peppercorns, and some parsley stems. No need to peel anything, just wash it well. They only need about an hour and a half.
Pull the chicken out at 50 to 60 minutes
This is the step that matters. Check the thigh with a thermometer, and once it reads 165F, lift the whole bird out with tongs. Let it cool enough to handle, then strip all the meat off and set it aside. You should get around four cups. Put the bones and skin straight back into the pot.
Simmer the bones for another hour
Keep the bones going at the same gentle simmer for another 45 to 60 minutes. This is where the broth gains its depth, and because the meat is already out and safe, there is no cost to it. Top up with a little water if the level drops below the bones.
Season, strain, and cool it fast
Now salt it, starting with about a teaspoon per quart and tasting as you go. Strain through a fine mesh strainer without pressing the solids. Then cool it quickly: divide it between shallow containers or sit the pot in an ice bath, aiming to get below 70F within 2 hours and into the fridge within 4 more.
The Chicken You Just Got Free
Four cups of poached, shredded chicken is the quiet bonus of this whole exercise, and it is worth planning for rather than treating as leftovers. It is already cooked and mild, so it slots into anything that calls for cooked or rotisserie chicken.
It is exactly what you want for a chicken pot pie or a crockpot white chicken chili, both of which also want broth, so one pot covers the entire recipe. It works just as well stirred into a chicken and rice casserole or a creamy chicken casserole, where the broth can replace some of the milk or stock as well.
Storage and the Fat Cap
Chilled broth keeps for 3 to 4 days in the fridge and 4 to 6 months in the freezer. Portion it before freezing: a couple of large containers for soups, and an ice cube tray for the small amounts you need to deglaze a pan or loosen a sauce. Leave headroom, since it expands.
A layer of golden fat will set on top in the fridge. Leave it there while it is stored, because it seals the surface, then lift it off in one piece when you use the broth and keep it. That is schmaltz, and it is superb for roasting potatoes, frying eggs, or starting the next soup. It keeps in a jar in the fridge for weeks.
If your broth sets to a soft jelly when chilled, that is collagen and a sign you did well. It melts back to liquid the moment it is warmed.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Broth is difficult to ruin outright, but these are the mistakes that make it cloudy, watery, or waste the chicken you cooked in it.
Letting it boil instead of simmer
A rolling boil churns the rendered chicken fat and fine protein particles back into the liquid and emulsifies them, which clouds the broth permanently and leaves it tasting greasy rather than clean. Boiling also agitates the bird enough to break it apart and release sediment, which no amount of straining afterwards will fully remove.
Do this instead: Keep it at a bare simmer around 180 to 190F, where a lazy bubble breaks the surface every second or two. If it starts rolling, slide the pot half off the burner.
Leaving the whole chicken in for hours
The single biggest waste in home broth making. Chicken meat is cooked through at around 50 to 60 minutes, and everything after that is drying it out. Simmer a whole bird for three hours and you get broth plus several cups of stringy, flavourless meat that nobody wants to eat, when you could have had both.
Do this instead: Pull the bird out once it hits 165F in the thigh, strip the meat, and return the bones to the pot for another hour. You get good broth and good chicken.
Not seasoning it
People carry the rule over from stock, where salt is deliberately left out because stock gets reduced into sauces later. Broth is different: it is meant to be a finished thing you can sip or ladle straight over noodles. Unsalted broth tastes thin, watery, and strangely empty, and gets written off as a failed batch.
Do this instead: Salt it at the end of cooking, starting with about 1 teaspoon per quart and tasting as you go. Season at the end, not the start, since it concentrates as it reduces.
Adding the vegetables at the very beginning
Onion, carrot, and celery give up everything they have within about an hour. Beyond that they break down and start contributing a dull, stewed, faintly sweet flavour instead of a fresh aromatic one. In a two hour broth this matters more than it does in a long stock, because there is less time for anything else to balance it out.
Do this instead: Add them once the foam has stopped rising, roughly 20 minutes in, so they get about an hour and a half rather than the full cook.
Covering the bird in too much water
Filling the pot feels generous and it simply dilutes the fixed amount of flavour a chicken can give. The result is pale, watery broth that tastes of very little, and people then blame the chicken or add stock cubes to compensate, which defeats the purpose of making it from scratch.
Do this instead: Cover by only 1 to 2 inches. If the level drops below the bones during the simmer, top it up, but only just enough to cover them again.
Skipping the skimming
In the first twenty minutes a grey-brown foam rises to the surface. That is coagulated protein and impurities coming out of the meat and bones, and if you leave it there it breaks apart and disperses back through the broth, leaving it murky with a faintly livery taste that straining will not fix.
Do this instead: Stay near the pot for the first twenty minutes and lift the foam off with a ladle as it collects. After that it largely stops and you can leave it alone.
Cooling the pot on the counter overnight
A large pot of broth holds heat for hours and cools straight through the temperature range where bacteria multiply fastest, spending far too long in it. This is a genuine food safety issue rather than a preference, and a big stockpot left out after dinner can still be dangerously warm the next morning.
Do this instead: Cool it fast: divide it between shallow containers or sit the pot in an ice bath, getting below 70F within 2 hours and into the fridge within 4 more.
Throwing away the fat
Once chilled, a layer of golden fat sets on top of the broth. Most people scrape it off and bin it, which discards schmaltz, rendered chicken fat that is genuinely excellent for roasting potatoes, frying eggs, or starting a soup. It is also doing a job in the fridge, sealing the surface of the broth.
Do this instead: Leave the fat cap on while it is stored, then lift it off in one piece and keep it in a jar in the fridge for cooking. It will keep for weeks.
The short version
Cover a whole chicken with cold water by 1 to 2 inches. Bring to a bare simmer, never a boil, and skim the foam for twenty minutes. Add mirepoix and aromatics. Pull the bird at 165F, around 50 to 60 minutes, strip the meat, and return the bones for another hour. Salt to taste at the end, about 1 teaspoon per quart. Strain, cool fast, refrigerate 3 to 4 days or freeze.
Do it once with the thermometer and the timing becomes automatic. A chicken, two hours, and you have broth for the week plus the base of two dinners, for less than the price of a few cartons.
For places to use both halves, browse our chicken recipes, or see the rest of our kitchen guides.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between chicken broth and chicken stock?+
Broth is made mostly from meat, simmered for one to two hours, and seasoned so you can drink it on its own. Stock is made mostly from bones, simmered for three to four hours or more, left unsalted, and used as an ingredient. Stock has more collagen so it has body and sets to a jelly when chilled, while broth is lighter and more directly chicken flavoured.
How long do you simmer chicken broth?+
One and a half to two hours for a whole chicken or chicken pieces. That is long enough to draw the flavour out of the meat without overcooking it into something stringy. A leftover roast carcass can go two to three hours since there is no meat left to protect. Simmering broth for six hours does not improve it, it just makes the meat worthless.
Can you make chicken broth from a rotisserie chicken carcass?+
Yes, and it is the cheapest and easiest way to do it. Once you have picked the meat off, put the whole carcass in a pot with vegetables and aromatics, cover with cold water, and simmer for two to three hours. The bones are already roasted, so the broth comes out deeper and more savoury than one made from a raw bird.
Should you salt chicken broth?+
Yes, unlike stock. Broth is meant to be a finished thing you can drink or use straight, so season it at the end of cooking, starting with about a teaspoon of salt per quart and adjusting from there. Salt it at the end rather than the beginning, because the liquid reduces as it simmers and concentrates whatever you added early.
How long does homemade chicken broth last?+
Three to four days in the fridge in a sealed container, or four to six months in the freezer. Cool it quickly before it goes in, and leave the layer of fat that sets on top undisturbed until you use it, since it seals the surface. Freeze some in an ice cube tray for small amounts to deglaze a pan.
Why is my chicken broth cloudy?+
You let it boil rather than simmer. A rolling boil churns fat and fine protein particles into the liquid and emulsifies them, which clouds it permanently and can leave it tasting greasy. Not skimming the foam in the first twenty minutes has the same effect. Cloudy broth is still perfectly good to eat, it just will not be clear.