Rotisserie Chicken Bone Broth

What’s the deal with collagen?

You may have heard that bone broth is good for your gut, or immunity, or a number of different ailments. These claims may or may not be actually true, but what is true is that bone broth is a great source of collagen - a type of protein found all over the human body, mostly in bones, joints, and other connective tissues.

You might be thinking, “Ooh! Collagen! I’ll drink this for my hair, skin, and nails!”

I hate to break it to you, but the only times that the collagen you eat actually turns into collagen in your body is during pregnancy, and when you’re healing from a major surgery or injury (like birth - especially via C-section). The reason for this is that all types of proteins are made up of building blocks called amino acids. When you digest protein, it gets broken down into these amino acids, and then your body will put them wherever needed - probably somewhere unexciting like your liver.

Collagen for pregnancy and postpartum

But… collagen contains one specific type of amino acid - glycine. We know from the research that your needs for glycine are higher during pregnancy, and while healing from a surgery or injury. This is likely because during pregnancy your body is building baby’s bones and joints, and in the healing process, we need glycine to rebuild damaged connective tissues. So, eating sources of collagen during pregnancy or while healing can give your body the specific amino acids it needs to make more collagen. Cool, right? I recommend that my clients start incorporating sources of collagen in the 3rd trimester when baby is growing rapidly, and continue a month or two postpartum to promote healing.

Sources of collagen

While you can purchase collagen peptides (we recommend Vital Proteins or Orgain), collagen can also be found in certain foods including tougher cuts of meat like chuck roast or Boston butt, as well as slow-cooked, bone-in meats like ribs and rotisserie chicken. Interstingly, gelatin is actually made from collagen, and can be used to make collagen rich sweet treats like juice-based gummy candies. Bone broth is also a very good source of collagen. Bone broth can now be purchased fairly affordably at almost any grocery store, and can also be made at home or purchased in bulk from restaurants (one of my patients used to pick it up weekly from her favorite Pho restaurant).

My easy bone broth recipe

Many of the homemade bone broth recipes you see online are a bit complicated. They involve sourcing and purchasing soup bones or chicken feet from a butcher, slow roasting the bones, and THEN making the broth. I looked at these and immediately thought, “You know what already has slowly roasted bones? Rotisserie chicken.” I decided to try out using the carcass of a rotisserie chicken to make my own bone broth at home, and it worked! By taking off the meat and setting that aside for other meals, and picking out the gristly bits, bones, joints, and skin, I had my own set of collagen-rich parts ready to be made into delicious broth.

The trick with bone broth that’s different than just a standard broth is the time. You can get a deliciously flavored chicken broth with just 1-2 hours of simmering on the stove, but to get the collagen out of the carcass and into your liquid, you need that full 8 hr simmer. One indicator that your bone broth is ready is that the bones or joints will crumble when you try to squash them with a spoon. Once strained and cooled, your bone broth will solidify a bit and be pretty jiggly - the more jiggly, the more collagen you got in there!

The recipe below is well-seasoned so that you can use it immediately for drinking or to use in easy recipes, but you can absolutely omit some of the extra spices to make it more plain if you plan to add other spices in whatever recipe you’re planning.

Yield: 6-8 cups

Author: McKenzie Caldwell, MPH, RDN

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Rotisserie Chicken Bone Broth

Collagen rich bone broth with warming spices - perfect for postpartum!

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 16 oz pre-chopped mirepoix (or 2/3 cup each chopped celery, onion, carrot)
• 1 Tbsp garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning
• 2 tsp turmeric
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 rotisserie chicken carcass (bones, cartilage, skin)
• 8 cups water

Instructions

1. Heat a Dutch oven or large stock pot over medium heat. Sauté mirepoix and garlic for 3-5 minutes until fragrant.
2. Stir in spices and rotisserie chicken carcass; cook for 1-2 minutes.
3. Cover with 8 cups water and increase heat to high to bring to a boil.
4. Once boiling, reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 8 hrs, stirring occasionally. Add additional salt and pepper as needed.
5. Remove from heat to let cool slightly. Strain out solids with a fine mesh strainer.
6. Let cool to room temperature before transferring to food-safe storage containers.
7. Store refrigerated for 1 week, or frozen for up to 3 months.

Notes

This may also be made in a crockpot. To do so, sauté veggies with spices in a pan on the stove first, then transfer to crockpot with the rotisserie chicken carcass. Then follow the rest of the directions as listed.

How to use bone broth

You may have the notion that bone broth must be drank straight, in a mug. I have a few friends and clients who do actually enjoy this, but most people don’t! Think about bone broth as simply a higher protein chicken broth - use it in soup, chili, and sauces, or use it to cook your rice or quinoa for some extra flavor and protein. On average, bone broth has about 8 grams of collagen protein per cup! Let me know in the comments how you enjoy this rotisserie chicken bone broth recipe :)