If you want to make homemade bone broth that gels every time, this is the recipe for you. Furthermore, there’s no need to heat up your kitchen or cook broth all day when you can make Instant Pot bone broth in just two hours!
I’m an avid lover of making and canning bone broth. I also love to add a secret immune-boosting ingredient to our homemade chicken bone broth when our family is fighting illness. I’ve even shared my bone broth tips for fool-proof batches every single time.
But today I’m taking it one step further and sharing my super-simple homemade Instant Pot chicken bone broth recipe.
This tool is indispensable on our homestead. At any given time, you will find it humming along to make this bone broth, Instant Pot yogurt, hearty Instant Pot oatmeal, fail-proof Instant Pot hard-boiled eggs, quick and easy Instant Pot tomato soup, or even Instant Pot macaroni and cheese.
Watch Me Make This Recipe
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
In my journey to improve health through diet changes, there were three things that really helped: making cultured dairy, using fermentation to preserve food, and incorporating chicken bone broth into our recipes.
When you cook bone broth low and slow (or utilize the amazing power of the pressure cooker), you can extract the collagen and gelatin from the meat bones to benefit in the following ways:
- Gut Healing - Properly made bone broth is filled with collagen and gelatin, acting as a protective layer inside your gut and helps calm down inflammation. Did you know that 70% of our immune system lies within our gut? Taking care of our gut not only improves stomach and digestive health, but it will additionally improve our entire body and immune system health.
- Reduces Waste - Making homemade broth is so wonderful because you’re utilizing all parts of the chicken, along with vegetable scraps you may otherwise toss in the trash. To further reduce waste, you can use the spent bones from your broth to make homemade bonemeal, and you can add your spent vegetable scraps to your compost pile!
- Keeps the House Cool - Furthermore, this recipe won’t heat up the kitchen when it’s really hot outside, as it’s been here this summer and even into early fall.
It’s important to note that I am not a certified medical practitioner. This post is not intended to diagnose or treat, but is for informational purposes only. Please contact your healthcare professional before introducing new herbal and natural remedies into your wellness routine.
Ingredients Needed
A full ingredients list, including measurements, can be found in the recipe card below.
- Chicken Bones, Feet and Neck - It’s best to have at least two good-sized carcasses at a time. If you cook just one chicken at a time, you can save the bones in the freezer until you have enough for a nice, large batch of broth. If you don’t have access to chicken feet, you can buy them here!
- Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) – ACV helps to pull out the gelatin and minerals from within the bones.
- Water - Filtered water works best.
Optional Ingredients
- Vegetable Scraps - Carrot peels, onion skins and tops, celery leaves, or lovage work great. If you don’t have any scraps, just use a small carrot, half an onion and a stalk of celery.
- Garlic – I love adding a whole head of garlic, skins and all, to my broth for added flavor.
- Sea Salt – I like to season my broth at the time of use because sometimes I’m adding seasonings to a recipe where I don’t need to use salted broth. However, I do like to have salted broth if I’m going to just be sipping on it, as it adds great flavor and additional minerals when using Redmond Real Salt. Use that link to automatically get 15% off your order!
How to Make Instant Pot Bone Broth
Step 1: To be sure your broth gels every single time, you do not want to skip this first step! Add the chicken bones, feet and necks to your Instant Pot insert, add water to just below the max fill line, then add about ¼ cup of ACV. Cover the Instant Pot (I love this Instant Pot flexible silicone lid) and place it in the refrigerator overnight.
Step 2: The next day (or after a minimum of two hours), add in the vegetables, garlic, and optional salt and top the pot off with water if it’s not up to that max fill line. Place the insert into the Instant Pot, put on the lid, and flip the pressure vent to sealing.
Step 3: This is where my recipe differs from many that you’ll find online. Because we don’t want to destroy all those amazing benefits of collagen and gelatin, we don’t want to cook this broth under high pressure. Instead, we’ll use the soup setting and set the pressure to low. Then we’ll set the timer to two hours and let the Instant Pot do the rest. Allow the Instant Pot to naturally release the pressure and come down to zero pressure before straining. This can take a while, especially if your pot was full, so just be patient and give it time.
Step 4: Open the lid to the Instant Pot and carefully strain your broth into a large Mason jar (I use a gallon-size jar). This is best done over a large bowl in the sink, just in case you spill, you won’t lose all that precious broth.
Step 5: Place the broth in the refrigerator to cool overnight and gel. This will also allow the fat to rise to the surface, and you can skim it off to use in cooking. (Definitely don’t throw it out! Use it as you would lard or even butter in savory dishes.)
Storage Instructions
When stored in an airtight container, bone broth will last in the fridge for 3-5 days.
If you need to store bone broth for a longer period, allow it to cool completely before transferring it to an airtight container and freezing it for up to 3 months.
For longer shelf-stable storage, you can also follow my tutorial on canning bone broth or this chicken bouillon recipe (dehydrator or freeze dryer).
Ways to Use Bone Broth
There are so many incredible ways to use bone broth; some of the obvious ways are in stews and soups (like Greek chicken soup, Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana, and my chicken chili with black beans). But here are a few of the more creative ways I like to get bone broth into my family’s diet:
- Use homemade bone broth when making gravies and sauces.
- Cook your grains in broth by substituting the cooking water for bone broth. This is fantastic for rice, barley and even savory oats.
- Boil veggies, pasta, and even potatoes in broth instead of water for added flavor.
- Add salt and nutmeg, and sip it like a tea.
- Add to home-canned potatoes to enhance the flavor and nutrition
FAQ’s
Yes! The Instant Pot is great for making bone broth. However, the high-pressure setting will kill many of its benefits, so use the soup setting at low pressure instead.
The key to making your bone broth gel is soaking the bones in water and ACV the night before you cook your broth.
Use the soup setting and set the pressure to low. Set the timer to two hours and let the Instant Pot naturally release the pressure and come down to zero pressure before straining.
No! Pressure canning is a wonderful way to preserve your bone broth. There is some debate on whether you need to skim the fat off your broth before canning. If you’re not going to use your broth within six months, go ahead and skim the fat so that it doesn’t have the potential to go rancid.
Did you make this Instant Pot bone broth recipe? If so, we’d love for you to leave a star rating on the recipe card below. Then snap a photo and tag us on social media @homesteadingfamily so we can see!
Instant Pot Chicken Bone Broth
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker Use an Instant Pot or any other brand of electric pressure cooker.
- Strainer I love this stainless steel strainer.
- Funnel This canning funnel has a strainer included.
- Mason Jar Or another glass storage jar with an airtight lid.
Ingredients
- 2 Whole Chicken Carcasses I used the bones from 3 small chickens
- 8 Cups Water filtered
- ¼ Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 Carrot or carrot scraps
- 1 Onion or onion skins and peels
- 1 Head Garlic the whole head, skins and all
- 1 Tablespoon Sea Salt optional (I omit this and season my broth later)
Instructions
Soak Bones
- Add the chicken bones, feet and necks into the inner pot of the Instant Pot.
- Pour in water and ACV, cover the pot and let soak in the refrigerator overnight.
Cook
- Add in the vegetables, garlic, and optional salt, top off water to the max fill line and place the inner pot into the Instant Pot.
- Add lid, flip the pressure vent to sealing, and push the "soup" button, then adjust to low pressure.
- Set the timer for two hours.
- Allow the Instant Pot to do a natural pressure release.
Strain and Store
- Remove the lid to the Instant Pot and carefully strain your broth into a large Mason jar.
- Add a lid and place it in the refrigerator to cool completely and gel overnight.
- The next day, skim off the fat and reserve, then use your broth in soups, stews, gravies and more!
Notes
- Nutrition facts do not include the optional salt.
- If you don’t have access to chicken feet, you can buy them here!
- Don't skip the soaking step, as this increases the gelatin and minerals in the finished broth.
- Use homemade bone broth when making gravies and sauces.
- Cook your grains in broth by substituting the cooking water for bone broth. This is fantastic for rice, barley and even savory oats.
- Boil veggies, pasta, and even potatoes in broth instead of water for added flavor.
- Add salt and nutmeg and sip it like a tea.
- Add to home-canned potatoes to enhance the flavor and nutrition
