Baked Whole Chicken (for bone broth)



Homemade bone broths are one of the most healing 'medicines' that God has given us and so important for everyone to learn how to make.  The quality of the chicken you use is extremely critical because the healing properties of the bone broth comes from the minerals and other nutrients such as collagen that are drawn out of the bones during the cooking process.  Find good quality chickens and meats.  The best are often from local ranchers and farmers so investigate the links at the end of this post, or purchase a free-range whole chicken from Whole Foods or a natural grocery store, or still acceptable are the organic chicken two packs available at Costco (though these are not truly free range).  The best free-range chickens will have access to green grass and sunshine.

 

Another very important aspect is having a good quality pot/dish to bake your chicken and then to slow cook the broth.  Never use non-stick cookware or aluminum cookware for anything.  Stainless steel is not a good choice either for slow cook acidic foods such as bone broths.  To bake the chicken use an oven proof ceramic baking dish or my preference is a glass pot with a tight fitting lid.  I love my glass pots (4.5 L size shown in photo above) but they are no longer being manufactured so you have to find them at garage sales or on Ebay (a good price including shipping is ~ $35 - $40 for one in excellent condition).  I use the 4.5 L size glass pot to bake my chicken and then to make my broth.  I used to recommend Le Crueset pots to make bone broths but they are easily scratched, hard to clean, and do not hold up well over time.  You can also bake your chicken in a ceramic baking dish and then make your broth in a ceramic crock pot.

Ingredients:

1 whole free-range chicken (do not use a conventional chicken from the grocery store)
cheap sea salt
1 - 2 Tbl extra virgin organic olive oil
1 tsp good quality sea salt
1/2 - 1 organic lemon, quartered
1/2 - 1 small yellow onion, quartered

2 sprigs (about 4" in length) of fresh rosemary

 



Remove chicken from packaging, and remove inner bag with neck and pieces (if it contains them).  Rinse the inside and outside of the chicken thoroughly with cold water.  Then sprinkle inside with cheap sea salt and let sit for about 5 minutes.  Next thoroughly rinse the inside and outside again.

  

 



 

Then dry the outside of the chicken with paper towels.  Place in ovenproof pot or dish.  Fill cavity with lemon and onion chunks and springs of rosemary.  Be sure to use at least 1/2 of the lemon.



In a small dish, mix the 1 tsp of good quality sea salt with 1 - 2 Tbl of olive oil (I use Celtic Sea Salt Vital Mineral Blend, which is a slightly course sea salt, pictured on the right in the photo in this post).  The amount of oil needed depends upon the size of the chicken.  A larger chicken is not better.  Look for a bird that is 3 to 4 pounds.  Anything larger than that is probably not the best quality chicken because it has been bred to grow too quickly and has not been able to free range.  Using your fingers, rub the oil/salt mixture all over the outside of the chicken, coating evenly. 

 

Place the lid tightly on the glass baking pot (if you don't have a lid, you will have to be much more careful watching the chicken to ensure it is cooked but not overcooked and thus dried out).  Bake at 350 °F for 1 hour and 45 minutes or until meat is done if using a covered glass pot.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.  When cool enough to touch, remove the meat from the bones and use for a meal or to make healing chicken soup.  Meat can be stored in the refrigerator for several days or frozen for several months.

Save all the juices, skin, and bones, everything but the meat, for making bone broth (tomorrow's post).