How to Make Bone Broth Hot Chocolate: Unexpected Recipe

Bone broth hot chocolate is an unexpectedly delicious, warming recipe full of nutrient-rich broth flavored with sweet honey and rich cocoa. Hot chocolate has never been better tasting, or better for you!

What Is Bone Broth?

Bone broth is made by slowly cooking a decent amount of animal bones like chicken, turkey, beef, pork, or venison bones slowly in water to draw out the nutrients.

The meat on the bones, cartilage in the joints, and marrow, impart beneficial vitamins and health benefits when turned into delicious bone broth.

Homemade bone broth is easy to make, and using it to make bone broth hot chocolate is a great way to add it to your diet.

Why Should I Make Bone Broth Hot Chocolate?

Making recipes, like hot chocolate, from scratch often yields a less expensive product that has less questionable ingredients. This recipe has minimal ingredients, but still has the rich flavor you want in a good cup of hot chocolate.

To me, that’s the ultimate win-win.

Store-bought hot chocolate mix contains ingredients like:

• “Dairy product solids”- modified dairy products
• Carboxymethylcellulose Sodium – used to modify viscosity and as a thickener
• Corn Syrup Solids – made by taking corn syrup (100% glucose) and dehydrating until it’s only 10% water. Because it is pure, dehydrated glucose, it may enter the blood stream and raise blood sugar levels more quickly.
• Artificial flavors- Not found in nature, but created in a food lab. Often proprietary information not shared specifically.
• Sodium Caseinate- created by chemically extracting casein proteins from skim milk, then treated with sodium hydroxide and dehydrated to form powdered sodium caseinate.
• Silicon Dioxide – anti caking agent.
• Maltodextrin- highly processed derivative of plant starches used to improve consistency and texture in foods.
• Mono- and Diglycerides- emulsifiers used to extend shelf life.
• Dipotassium Phosphate- used as an emulsifier, protein stabilizer, and buffering agent
• Gum Arabic- used to bind and suspend sweeteners in beverages.

Not all of these ingredients are inherently “bad” or “dangerous” in a packet of hot chocolate mix, but THIS hot chocolate is far simpler than any store bought version.

Hot Chocolate Ingredients

Keep in mind that as long as you follow this standard hot chocolate recipe, it’s the perfect drink to customize to your liking especially during the winter season. With the right ratio of ingredients, you don’t even taste broth in this recipe!

You could substitute brown sugar and top with a flaky salt to make a “salted caramel” flavor.

You could also add a tsp cinnamon and pinch of chili to make warming Mexican Hot Chocolate!

Or, for the Christmas season, add peppermint extract and top with my Easy Homemade Whipped Cream for a peppermint mocha flavor.

The possibilities are endless, but even this basic recipe is delicious on its own.

What You’ll Need

• Plain bone broth – I like to use a high quality, pasture-raised bone broth the best. Chicken is often the least strong tasting, but you can use beef bone broth instead. A well-made bone broth for this would not be made with vegetable scraps or too much salt to avoid strong flavors coming through your hot chocolate. When I make mine for this, I use lots of bones, water, and that’s it! Making your own bone broth is a great way to save on extra cost. A more mild-flavored bone broth is the goal here. (note: I wouldn’t use bone broth powder for this)
• Whole cow’s milk – raw milk, containing the cream on top, makes the best, creamy hot chocolate! You can also substitute some of your milk for heavy cream for an extra creamy mug of hot chocolate.
• Unsweetened Cocoa powder – you can also use organic cacao powder instead for an extra rich chocolate flavor.
• Pure Maple syrup – you can substitute for honey or even sugar depending on what you have on hand and prefer to use.
• Salt – just a pinch to bring out the flavors! I use pink Himalayan or sea salt depending on what I have on hand.
• Vanilla extract
• (optional) Peppermint extract – this turns your hot cocoa into peppermint hot cocoa. Yum!

Not only are these ingredients delicious, but they also provide a boost in nutrition and added health benefits you wouldn’t likely be getting from a store-bought powdered option.

Ingredient Benefits

Bone broth is a highly concentrated liquid containing collagen, gelatin, glutamine, amino acids, high-quality protein, essential minerals, and electrolytes. Using homemade bone broth is a great way to get these essential nutrients without needing to use collagen powders or supplements.

Cocoa Powder- one of the richest sources of polyphenols (naturally occurring antioxidants) and flavanols.

Maple Syrup-high in antioxidants, and contains nutrients like riboflavin, zinc, magnesium, calcium, and potassium.

How to Make Bone Broth Hot Chocolate

The best part about this recipe is that it’s basically just warming up your ingredients in a tea kettle or small sauce pan! You can really make it your own from here.

In a tea kettle or small saucepan, heat your plain bone broth over medium low to medium heat.

Once steaming, whisk in your cocoa powder until dissolved to avoid clumps of cocoa powder.

After dissolving the cocoa powder, add the maple syrup.

Whisk to combine.

Add the milk. Pay attention to the temperature of the mixture to prevent it from scorching the milk. I usually take it off the heat once it’s hot enough to sip.

Add the salt.

Finish by adding the vanilla extract once the heat is turned off.

Taste and adjust sweetness to your liking.

Serve and enjoy!

Storing Bone Broth Hot Chocolate

Store in an airtight container like a half-gallon mason jar (or two quart jars) with a lid in the fridge for up to 5 days. Warm on the stove instead of the microwave to preserve the majority of the nutrients.