Walk down any supermarket aisle and "high protein" is printed on things that have no business claiming it. So it's a fair question to ask of bone broth too: is the protein in a cup of broth real protein, or is it a number on a label? The short answer is yes, it's real, our Chicken Bone Broth carries 21g of protein per 250ml cup, and 42g per 500ml bottle, measured in a lab, not estimated. The longer and more useful answer is that it's a particular kind of protein, which is exactly what makes it worth drinking and also why it shouldn't be the only protein you get. Here's the honest version.
First, Where the Protein Comes From
Protein in broth isn't added. It's extracted. When whole chicken bones, joints, skin, and connective tissue is simmered gently for 16 hours, the collagen locked inside that tissue breaks down into gelatin, and gelatin breaks down further into collagen peptides: short amino acid chains small enough for your body to absorb and put to work immediately.
That's it. No isolate, no concentrate, no powder stirred back into water. The reason a good broth sets to a wobble in the fridge is the same reason it reads 8.45g of protein per 100ml on a lab report: the protein came out of the bones and stayed in the liquid.
The Comparison, Without the Marketing
Whey, collagen powder, and bone broth get lumped together on the same shelf and they are not doing the same job. Here is what each one is genuinely good at.
Whey Protein: The Muscle-Building Specialist
A 30g scoop of whey gives you roughly 24g of protein, and it is a complete protein: all nine essential amino acids, in good proportions, with an unusually high dose of leucine: the amino acid that most directly triggers muscle protein synthesis. If your single goal is hypertrophy, whey is the most efficient tool there is, and nothing here changes that.
What it isn't: whey is almost entirely devoid of glycine, proline, and hydroxyproline: the connective-tissue amino acids. It's a dairy derivative, so it's off the table for anyone avoiding dairy, and for plenty of people it's the thing that causes the bloating they blame on something else. It is also, unavoidably, a processed powder.
Collagen Powder: The Right Amino Acids, Stripped of Everything Else
Hydrolysed collagen powder delivers around 10g of protein per scoop, with the glycine-and-proline-heavy profile that makes collagen interesting. It's convenient, flavourless, and it stirs into coffee.
What it isn't: collagen powder is an isolated ingredient. The minerals, the gelatin structure, the fat-soluble compounds, and the actual food matrix that surrounds collagen in a real broth have all been removed before it reaches the tub. You get the amino acids and nothing accompanying them — and you get about half the protein per serving that a cup of our chicken broth delivers.
Bone Broth: Collagen Protein, in Its Original Form
A 250ml cup of our Chicken Bone Broth gives you 21g of protein, around 1.3g of carbohydrate, and roughly 173 calories, alongside naturally occurring potassium, magnesium, and phosphorus — minerals that came out of the bones with the collagen rather than being added back in afterwards.
It is the only one of the three that is also a meal-adjacent food: warm, savoury, drinkable with no preparation, and gentle enough to take first thing in the morning or straight after training when solid food is unappealing. It's dairy-free, low-carb, and keto-friendly. And per cup, it out-proteins a scoop of collagen powder by roughly two to one.
What Collagen Protein Actually Does
The amino acid profile is the whole point, so it's worth being specific about it.
Glycine
Roughly a third of collagen protein is glycine, a proportion you'll find in almost no other food. Glycine supports the body's own collagen production, contributes to the synthesis of glutathione, and plays a role in sleep quality and nervous-system calm. Modern diets built on muscle meat are notably short of it — because we stopped eating the parts of the animal where it lives.
Proline & Hydroxyproline
These two are the structural backbone of collagen itself. Supplying them directly gives your body the raw material for skin, tendons, cartilage, and the gut wall — the tissues that get harder to maintain from your mid-twenties onward, as natural collagen production declines.
Glutamine
The preferred fuel of the cells lining your intestines. When the gut is working hard, those cells get through glutamine quickly. Broth delivers it in a form that's ready to use.
The Honest Part: Collagen Isn't a Complete Protein
Collagen is low in tryptophan and light on a few other essential amino acids, and it carries very little leucine. That means bone broth is not a replacement for the protein in your meals, and anyone telling you it is has stopped being useful.
But that isn't a flaw — it's a job description. Bone broth is a complement. It supplies precisely the amino acids that chicken breast, eggs, dairy, and whey leave out, while those foods supply what collagen lacks. Eat both and you cover the full spectrum, which is how humans ate for most of history: the muscle and the bones.
The practical version: if you train hard and you're chasing muscle, keep your whey or your meat and add broth. If you're not training and you simply want more protein in a day that already feels full, a cup of broth is the easiest 21g you'll get, and it brings the connective-tissue amino acids with it.
Why We Make the Chicken One for Protein
We make two broths and they are built for different things. Beef is the collagen one : richer, deeper, more umami, drawn from Galician grass-fed bones, aimed at skin, joints, and gut lining.
Chicken is the protein one. It's our highest-protein broth at 21g per cup and 42g per bottle, made from whole chicken with onion, garlic, carrots, celery, leek, miso paste, and anchovy oil — bright with young ginger and wild turmeric, bold enough to drink straight from the cup. No powders, no concentrates, no additives, no stock cubes. Sixteen hours, and then it goes into glass.
Allergens, stated plainly: celery, soy, and fish.
How to Actually Use It
A 250ml cup, three to seven times a week. Where you put it matters less than whether you keep doing it, but these are the four moments it earns the most:
- Pre-workout: 21g of protein and electrolytes without the weight of a meal sitting in your stomach.
- Post-workout: alongside your usual protein, not instead of it — the collagen amino acids support the connective tissue your training also loads.
- On waking, before coffee: on an empty stomach, 30 seconds of effort, and the day starts with protein instead of caffeine.
- Light or fasting-adjacent days: a genuinely nourishing 173 calories when you don't want to eat but shouldn't skip.
Where to Start
If you want to get a real sense of it, a week is the shortest honest trial — one cup a day, same time each day. The Chicken 4-pack (4 × 500ml) covers eight cups and is the one most people start with. If you already know you'll keep going, the Chicken 6-pack works out cheaper per cup. And if you'd rather alternate protein and collagen, the Beef & Chicken 4-pack gives you both and saves you choosing.
No powder, no shaker, no counting. Just 21g of protein in a cup of something you'll actually look forward to.
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