Chicken soup is a classic comfort food, and this humble clear chicken broth for colonoscopy is a good choice if you’re looking for nutritious meal options for breakfast, lunch or dinner during your clear liquid diet.
Can I drink chicken broth before colonoscopy?
Yes, you certainly can. In fact, clear chicken broth, including chicken bone broth, is one of the few recommended meals during your clear liquid diet as Dr Akintomiwa explains in his article on What You Can Eat in a Clear Liquid Diet. As long as it is strained to remove the solids and excess fats, clear chicken broth for colonoscopy preparation is an excellent choice.
Many people swear by the health benefits of drinking bone broth, so why not make the most of your clear liquid diet time and give it a try yourself. This broth is strained to remove all solids, so you can safely have it on a clear liquid diet.
The beauty of this chicken bone broth is that it is easy to dress up, since it has a fairly delicate flavor that pairs with lots of other flavors. If you want to turn it into a chicken and vegetable soup, simply toss in the vegetables of your choice before cooking. If there are particular herbs you like, such as tarragon, feel free to add those too. Just make sure you strain out any vegetables and herbs before serving… you know the rule – no solids allowed.
This recipe uses a pressure cooker to cut the cooking time, but you could just as easily do it over a stove top in a regular stock pot. If doing this, you will need to cook it a couple of hours longer, however.
I recommend making it a day or two before you go on the clear liquid diet, and keep it in a jug in the fridge, so it is ready to go on the big day.
Clear Chicken Broth for Colonoscopy Prep
Chicken Bone Broth
Cooking Time: 3 hours 40 minutes
Servings: 2 quarts (1.8 litres)
Ingredients for Clear Chicken Bone Broth
- 3 lb (1.36kg) chicken or turkey offcuts (no offal)*
- 3 qts (2.8L) water
- 4 cups (500g) chopped onions and celery
- 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ tsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp sea salt
Method
- Place chicken/turkey, vinegar, onions, celery, bay leaves, peppercorns and salt in a pressure cooker or instant pot.
- Add water until it reaches the level of the bones.
- Allow the mixture to rest for 30 minutes.
- Close the lid and turn the knob to seal the cooker, then set the timer to 3 hours on low pressure (refer to your appliance instructions).
- When the timer sounds, allow the pressure to release naturally.
- Strain the broth through a fine-mesh sieve to remove bones, bay leaves, peppercorns, onions, celery and any fat, skin or meat pieces from the bones. Discard or compost solids.
- Optional: Strain the broth again through cheesecloth or coffee filter paper, to remove any remaining residue**.
- Serve immediately or transfer to containers for storage.
Cooking Notes
*Offcuts may include carcasses with the meat removed, feet, bones, necks. Do not use offal such as hearts, livers etc as these are very strong flavored and will change the flavor of the broth.
**Whether you need to do this step largely depends on how meaty or fatty the chicken or turkey offcuts were to start with, and how fine the mesh on your strainer was.
Colonoscopy chicken broth not clear or excessively fatty?
If the strainer was not very fine, or if the offcuts you used were quite fatty or meaty, the more likely it will contain residue that should be strained out. If this is the case, line a strainer with some cheesecloth or coffee filter paper, and run the soup through this to pick off any solids. Remember to avoid using any cloudy vegetables such as pumpkin and potato if you’re customizing your recipe, otherwise this will ruin your clear chicken broth for colonoscopy preparation purposes.
You may find as it cools, a layer of fat rises to the surface of the broth. Whether this happens will depend on how fatty the offcuts were to start with. If this happens, simply skim off the fat with a spoon and discard, then blot the surface of the soup with some paper towel to remove any remaining fat.
Nutritional Info | Calories: 97cal | Proteins: 10g | Carbohydrates: 5g | Fat: 3g
