Homemade Bone Broth: Gut-Healing & Anti-Inflammatory

Homemade bone broth has been a game-changer in my healing journey. Not only is it deeply nourishing for the gut, but it’s also packed with collagen, minerals, and anti-inflammatory ingredients like turmeric and ginger. The best part? With an Instant Pot, you can let it cook while you sleep— though you can easily make it on the stovetop or in a slow cooker, too. Whether you sip it daily or use it in your favorite recipes, this homemade bone broth is affordable, simple, and so healing.

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I’ve started drinking this everyday for the gut healing and anti-inflammatory benefits. I am working really hard to care for my body and help put my ankylosing spondylitis back into remission! I know my gut-health plays a huge role in calming inflammation and my autoimmune symptoms.

Benefits of Homemade Bone Broth:

• Gut-Healing: Supports the digestive tract and can soothe inflammation. Amino acids like glutamine helps with repairing our gut-lining.
• Collagen-Rich: Helps promote healthy joints, skin, and hair.
• Anti-Inflammatory: Ginger and turmeric root provide a powerful, natural support. The amino acids and collagen-rich gelatin in bone broth are also anti-inflammatory.
• Nutrient-Dense: Packed with minerals like calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous.

Ingredients You’ll need:

The secret to a rich, healing homemade bone broth is using high-quality bones and simple, fresh ingredients. Whenever we cook a whole chicken or turkey, I save the bones in the freezer until I have enough to make a batch of this gut-healing, anti-inflammatory broth.

• Chicken or Turkey Bones:
  • This can include the poultry bones, carcass, giblets, and cartilage. You’ll want enough bones to fill your instant pot about 3/4 of the way to the ‘max fill’ line. This leaves enough room at the top for the other ingredients and water.
• 3 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar:
  • This is a really important ingredient, the apple cider vinegar helps to pull the minerals out from the bones and into the broth. Make sure to use raw unpasteurized apple cider vinegar to get the most benefits. It contains probiotics that can help with digestion and nutrient absorption. It is also an antimicrobial and this can help to detox harmful bacteria from our bodies.
• 5 cloves Garlic:
  • Garlic contains allicin which is anti-inflammatory and anti-viral. This will help support your immune system and decrease inflammation. Garlic can also act as a prebiotic to help feed beneficial bacteria that balance your gut microbiome. Make sure to crush your garlic cloves as this will release the allicin.
• 1 inch Ginger Root:
  • Ginger is wonderful at helping to reduce painful inflammation and boost our immune systems.
• 1/2 inch Turmeric Root:
  • Turmeric has strong anti-inflammatory properties.
• 1/2 a Sweet Onion:
• 1 stalk of Celery:
• Small bundle of Parsley, (Thyme, or Cilantro):
• 1-2 tsp Sea Salt:
  • You can add a little more salt if you prefer, however my preference is to keep it light on the salt so that I have more flexibility when using the bone broth in other recipes of mine.
• 1 tsp Black Peppercorns
• Filtered Water

Whenever possible, choose organic, pasture-raised poultry and organic ingredients. Quality bones make a huge difference in flavor and nutrients. You can read more about why I prioritize organic foods in my anti-inflammatory diet here.

Best Equipment for making homemade bone broth:

You can make bone broth on a stove top or in a slow cooker but I have found the Instant Pot to be the quickest and simplest way to prepare our homemade broth.

For a less messy process when transferring your finished bone broth to storage containers, it can be helpful to have a funnel and sieve. I also like to place a cheesecloth in the sieve to make sure little bits don’t get through and to squeeze every last drop of healing bone broth out.

I always freeze some of my broth in Souper Cubes—life changing! They make it so easy to pop out a cube of broth for quick recipes.

I also like to store our bone broth in glass jars. Be sure to leave room at the top of the jar for expansion as the broth freezes.

How to Make Gut-Healing Bone Broth Step By Step:

1. Place enough poultry bones in your instant pot to fill it about 3/4 below the max fill line. (This leaves room for the other ingredients and water).
2. Add in the apple cider vinegar, garlic, ginger, turmeric, onion, celery, parsley (or other herbs), sea salt, and peppercorns. Don’t forget to crush your garlic to release the allicin.
3. Fill with enough filtered water to cover above the poultry bones and other ingredients but not past the max fill line. You may have to push the bones and ingredients down a little so they are all submerged in the water.
4. Set your Instant Pot on Manual-High for 240 minutes.
   • I like to allow it to keep warm and naturally slow release the pressure after the 240 minutes are up. I often will set the bone broth to cook in the instant pot before bed and then let it do it’s thing overnight. The next morning I will have finished bone broth ready to transfer to containers.
5. When the bone broth is finished you can transfer it to storage containers. *See my tips below for storing.

Stove top or slow cooker variation:

1. Using a large stock pot or slow cooker, you can follow the above instructions for adding the ingredients and water. *Make sure to not fill your stock pot all the way to the top as it will boil over, leave room at the top.
2. Simmer and cook the bone broth for 24 to 48 hours in a stock pot or slow cooker.
3. Transfer to storage containers (see tips below).

How to Store Homemade Bone Broth (Fridge + Freezer Tips):

Storing homemade bone broth is simple. It lasts 5-7 days in the fridge and up to 12 months in the freezer, which means I can always have gut-healing broth ready to go for sipping or recipes.

To transfer into mason jars, I use a funnel, sieve, and cheescloth. I slowly pour and strain the liquid through the funnel, sieve, and cheesecloth. I leave about 2 inches of space at the top of the jar to allow for expansion while freezing. If you don’t plan to freeze the broth you can fill your jar to the top. Allow your broth to cool completely before placing the jars into the freezer, I will often put them in the fridge overnight and move them to the freezer the next day.

For the ‘Souper cubes’ I like to first pour and strain the liquid into a glass measuring cup (like the image below) this makes it easier to pour into the cubes. After filling the souper cubes, I place them directly into the freezer. Once they are fully frozen I like to transfer the cubes to a reusable freezer bag.

FAQ:

Can I use beef bones?

Beef bones can definitely be used to make homemade bone broth however this recipe is specific to poultry bones. I think beef bones would need a longer cooking time.

Do I need to cook the bones first?

This recipe is written with already cooked bones in mind however I have made this with raw poultry bones too. For raw poultry bones I just double the cooking time to make sure they have enough time to fully release all the good minerals.

Can I use homemade bone broth in recipes instead of store-bought?

Yes! I’ve created this recipe with subtle flavors to pair wonderfully in other recipes that call for bone broth!

The only thing to keep in mind is when you are using the carcass from your ‘stuffed’ thanksgiving turkey. We have noticed that it sometimes has stuffing still stuck to the inside of the carcass and those flavors from can come out in the broth. It creates a rich and delicious flavor that I love but one that may stand out more in other recipes. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just something to be mindful of depending on the recipe you want to use it in.

How often should I drink homemade bone broth?

Enjoy a cup or two of homemade bone broth everyday, if you are trying to heal and repair your gut-autoimmune health and decrease inflammation. Otherwise enjoy it as you desire or feel inflammatory symptoms coming on. It is also super beneficial when your body just feels under the weather, stressed, or fatigued.

Why is homemade bone broth better than store-bought?

• Homemade bone broth is a fraction of the cost of quality store-bought bone broth!
• I also love that it allows us to utilize the entirety of the poultry we purchase, we are not wasting parts of the animal.
• We can use high-quality anti-inflammatory ingredients to increase the benefits of this bone broth.

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5 from 5 votes

Homemade Bone Broth

This homemade bone broth has been a game-changer in my own healing journey. It’s gut-healing, collagen-rich, and anti-inflammatory—made with simple ingredients like garlic, ginger, and turmeric. Whether you sip it daily or add it to recipes, this broth is affordable, nourishing, and such a gift for your health.

Author thispurelyjoyfullife.com – Kimberley

Ingredients

• Chicken or Turkey Bones cartilage, giblets, and carcass are great too
• 3 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• 5 Cloves Garlic Crushed
• 1 inch Ginger Root Sliced
• 1/2 inch Turmeric Root Sliced
• 1/2 a Sweet Onion Cut into large chunks
• 1 Stalk Celery Cut into large chunks
• 1 small bundle Parsley or cilantro, or thyme
• 1-2 tsp Sea Salt
• 1 tsp Black Peppercorns
• Filtered Water

Instructions

• Place enough poultry bones in your instant pot to fill it about 3/4 below the max fill line. (This leaves room for the other ingredients and water).
• Add in the apple cider vinegar, garlic, ginger, turmeric, onion, celery, parsley (or other herbs), sea salt, and peppercorns. Don’t forget to crush your garlic to release the allicin.
• Fill with enough filtered water to cover above the poultry bones and other ingredients but not past the max fill line. You may have to push the bones and ingredients down a little so they are all submerged in the water.
• Set your Instant Pot on Manual-High for 240 minutes.
• I like to allow it to keep warm and naturally slow release the pressure after the 240 minutes are up. I often will set the bone broth to cook in the instant pot before bed and then let it do it’s thing overnight. The next morning I will have finished bone broth ready to transfer to containers.
• When the bone broth is finished you can transfer it to storage containers. *See my tips above in the blog post for storing.

Caring for our bodies is such a gift, and I’m reminded daily that God designed our food to bring healing. I pray this recipe blesses your health as much as it has mine!

If you try making this homemade bone broth, I’d love to hear from you! Tag me @thispurelyjoyfullife so I can see your creations. And if you’re looking for more gluten-free, dairy-free, anti-inflammatory recipes, be sure to sign up for my email list below.

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