Artificial Food Coloring Free Italian Restorative Broth
There is something deeply comforting about a pot of golden broth simmering low and slow on the stove, filling the kitchen with the scent of fresh herbs and sweet root vegetables. This Italian-style restorative broth is built entirely from whole, recognizable ingredients — bone-in chicken, carrots, parsnips, turnip, celery, onion, and a handful of fresh herbs — so you know exactly what is going into every bowl. For anyone avoiding synthetic dyes, store-bought broths and bouillon cubes can be a minefield of unnecessary additives, but here every drop of color comes naturally from the vegetables and long, gentle simmering. The technique matters too: blanching the chicken first pulls away surface impurities, and a slow, lazy simmer rather than a hard boil keeps the broth clear, clean, and genuinely restorative in flavor. Once strained, the liquid is a beautiful amber gold that you earned honestly, with nothing artificial required. Serve it simply with shredded chicken and a scatter of fresh parsley, and it becomes the kind of meal that feels like it is actually doing you some good.
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Learn more →Ingredients
4 servings
- 3 lbs whole chicken pieces (bone-in, skin-on thighs and drumsticks), fresh — not previously frozen and thawed more than 24 hours ago
- 3 medium carrots, peeled and halved crosswise
- 2 medium parsnips, peeled and halved crosswise
- 1 medium turnip, peeled and quartered
- 1 medium onion, peeled and halved
- 3 stalks celery, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 4 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 10 cups cold water
- 1 tsp fine sea salt, plus more to taste
For serving
- 1 tbsp fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped (optional)
Instructions
- 1
Place the chicken pieces in a large 6–8 qt stockpot and cover with 10 cups of cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then immediately drain and rinse the chicken under cold running water. Wipe out the pot. This blanching step removes surface impurities and produces a clearer, cleaner-tasting broth.
- 2
Return the rinsed chicken to the clean pot. Add the carrots, parsnips, turnip, onion, celery, parsley sprigs, thyme sprigs, and rosemary sprigs. Pour in 10 cups of fresh cold water — the water should cover the chicken and vegetables by at least 1 inch.
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