Slow Cooker Spicy Chicken Broth….. Easy, cheap, and tasty.
Sometimes I like something a little spicy….. Nope, let me correct myself, I like a little something spicy all the time. So I make homemade slow cooker spicy chicken broth for my spicy dishes. I make this to add to soups, chili, stews, sauteed vegetables, and Cajun dishes (such as Jambalaya) just to name a few.
But the most important thing about this chicken broth is that it’s homemade with no cans involved, it’s freezer friendly, and it’s cheap!
How is this broth budget friendly? If you look at the picture above you will see an array of frozen items on my kitchen counter. I am all about buying produce while it’s super cheap on sale. Plus, I also purchase a weekly produce basket from a local food co-op that provides us with an abundance of different fruits and vegetables.
After purchasing all of this yummy produce, I create a meal plan for some of the produce. The rest of the produce is chopped, bagged, and placed in the freezer. (Read my Food Freezing Tip Article For Fruit to help you get tips for freezing produce.)
I also like to save my chicken parts that I remove from fresh chicken as I prep my chicken for meals. I bag these chicken pieces and place them in the freezer.
And I as I get a sufficient amount of chicken pieces, and vegetables that need to be rotated out of the freezer to ensure quality of the frozen foods, I make chicken broths.
I make this process even more easier by dumping all of these ingredients in a slow cooker thus decreasing my manual labor……..
So, the only thing I really have to do is take about 15 to 20 minutes to bag produce to place in the freezer for later use, dump all the ingredients in a slow cooker when I am ready to make my broth, strain the broth once it’s cooked, then place the broth in freezer containers to freeze for later use.
The latter part of this cooking & prep process requires about 10 minutes of manual labor for me, resulting in this delicious, healthy, budget friendly spicy chicken broth.. I don’t know about you, but that’s right up my alley….
Meal Planning/Freezer Prepping Tip: I measure out my broth and place the broth in small freezer friendly containers with lids. Each container is labeled with the amount of broth (i.e. 1 cup of spicy chicken broth), so that I can have the right measurements for my recipes I add the broth to.
Slow Cooker Spicy Chicken Broth
Ingredients
- 4 to 5 cups of raw chicken pieces or a whole raw chicken
- 1/4 cup roughly chopped parsley
- 10 garlic cloves roughly chopped
- 2 whole large carrots cut in half or roughly chopped
- 1 whole large onion roughly chopped or cut in half
- 5 hatch peppers cut in half or roughly chopped
- 5 whole jalapeno peppers roughly chopped or cut in half
- 4 cups celery roughly chopped
- 4 bay leaves
- 15 peppercorns
- 2 to 3 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 to 2 teaspoons cayenne red pepper
Instructions
- Place all of the ingredients in a slow cooker.
- Add water to the slow cooker, making sure that you have covered the ingredients with water.
- Cover the slow cooker with a lid.
- Cook the broth mixture for 8 to 10 hours.
- Stir the broth, taste, and salt/spice to taste.
- Strain broth using a strainer/colander as pictured in the blog post.
- Refrigerate the broth overnight. Then, skim the fat off the top of the broth.
Notes
I place 2 to 3 teaspoons of salt in the recipe. You can start with less, and salt to taste at the end of the cooking process or use a minimal amount of salt, because you will be adding salt to whatever dish you add your broth to, so you don't want to over salt your broth.
I place 1 to 2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper. If you are hesitant about how spicy your broth will be, start with a small amount.
With slow cooker recipes I add the frozen broth right into the slow cooker.
Or you can place the frozen broth in the refrigerator to thaw before you have to use the broth for cooking.
If you didn't do freezer prep with produce/chicken, you can still make this with frozen produce and fresh or frozen chicken from the grocery store.
You can also make this with all fresh ingredients because it is not REQUIRED to just use frozen ingredients!
Thanks for stopping by! Welcome to the Savory Spicerack! The place where I share recipes that fulfill my never ending cravings, and inspirations. If you want to get into more of the details of how this all started and who I am, just click the link for all the gossip!