I have been wanting to try making my own bone broth for a bit, and it seems winter was scheduled for this weekend here in Florida.  Happy winter everyone!  Winter calls for soup. Green Chicken Enchilada Soup from I Breathe I’m Hungry to be exact.  Well not exact, I can never follow see a recipe and not do at least some modifications.  Her recipe calls for shredded chicken and suggests you can use a rotisserie chicken.  Enter one of publix’s finest products.

I cut up and divided the chicken into meat and bones.  Most of the skin got snacked on with some set aside for the soup.  Does mojo chicken skin belong in soup?  It belongs in my soup!  You are supposed to roast the beef bones for a bit in the oven, and I figured why not do the chicken bones as well?!

For the beef broth you will need to acquire some bones.  As much as I love publix, here is where a local butcher can be really helpful.  Mine got me two pounds of cut up pipe bones (industry term, think long bones like femurs and such), and two pounds of cut up knuckles for cheap.  Sounds a little gross, but the connective tissue in those knuckles is part of the magic.  Everything got roasted for about 40 minutes in the oven with salt and pepper.

On second thought, including the chicken may not have been my best plan.  They look pretty burnt.  I guess that size difference matters.  I normally like the pan leftovers, but a lot of it was chicken fat, so instead of scraping it all into the crock pot I dumped it.  Once again, trying to get fancy has bit me in the bum.

The beef bones got dumped into the crock pot with a few splashes of apple cider vinegar and salt and set on high for an hour or two to get it bubbling.  Doesn’t look like much now, but hopefully in a day it will.  Patience.

The next day it was looking cloudier and smelling a bit more like something good.

I pulled the bones and strained the rest through a very coarse mesh strainer.  It has a silky kind of feel to it, but not tons of flavor.  I wonder if that is right?  Maybe I needed more knuckles and less pipe bone.  Maybe more salt?

At any rate it made a really freaking good soup.  I used 4 cups along with the shredded chicken to make a double batch.  The only minor addition I did was to add some small portabella mushrooms while it simmered for a while.  The recipe was good on its own, but the mushrooms really made it.  Next time I will cut up and add more mushrooms.