How to Make Bone Broth in the Instant Pot
I’m going to show you how to make delicious bone broth in the Instant Pot. Follow this process and make the perfectly gelled broth every time!
What are the benefits of making bone broth?
Making bone broth is a great way to use up all the bone scraps that you have after eating chicken. It feels good to know you are making the most of your good quality chicken. Another benefit of bone broth, and my favorite, is that it is packed full of nutrients that can boost your gut health and immune system.
How to use bone broth?
Bone broth can be used in any soup recipe that calls for broth or stock. I will often cook my rice in bone broth during the summer months when we make less soups. A lot of the time you can replace water in a recipe with bone broth, as long as it is a savory type recipe.
How do you store the bone broth after you have made it?
If I am going to use my bone broth made in the Instant Pot within two weeks or so, I will just store it in a mason jar in the fridge. If I will be needing to store the broth for longer than that I will put it in the freezer, also in a mason jar. Bone broth can last in the freezer for up to six months.
Honestly my bone broth doesn’t make it in the freezer often. We usually use it up within a week. Once you get in the habit of putting your homemade broth in your regular recipes it will go fast and you will be benefiting from the extra nutrients!
How to make bone broth in the Instant Pot
First, you will need to have bones. Chicken bone broth is the one I make most often. I generally will cook up a whole chicken, shred the meat from the bones and then put the bones right back into the Instant Pot. This way I don’t have to dirty two dishes! Click here to see how I use the rest of my whole chicken.
You can save bones from several meals of eating chicken. After your meal, put your bones in a freezer bag and stick them in the freezer. Add to the bag and once it is over half full you should have enough bones to make broth.
Here are the chicken bones that I have put back into the pot. There is already some water in there from cooking the chicken, but you will want to add enough water to come to the top level of bones. There may be some bones that stick out of the top, but I usually just try to press them down into the water.
Make sure you don’t add too much water or your broth wont gel properly. After you have added the water, add a tablespoon or so of apple cider vinegar. This will help draw the nutrients from the bones during the cooking process.
How long do you cook bone broth in the Instant Pot?
After I have added the water and vinegar I put the lid on the pot and turn the nob to to seal it and prevent the steam from coming out. I will then push the soup/broth button that I have on my Instant Pot and set the timer for four hours. The Instant Pot will take about ten minutes to come to pressure. It will beep and the timer will start.
Once the timer goes off and the four hours are up, wait until the instant pot naturally releases pressure before working with the broth. Because I usually do my broth after dinner from cooking the whole chicken, my broth doesn’t finish until about ten o’ clock at night. By this time I am done with the day and ready for bed!
Thankfully the Instant Pot has a keep warm function that I always keep turned on. This will kick in and the broth will stay warm until the morning when I have time to strain it. The Instant Pot is a very safe way to make broth as you don’t need to be simmering a pot on the stove. I feel very comfortable leaving it out all night. However, leaving it overnight is not a necessary step to make the bone broth.
How to strain the bone broth
The supplies:
- Two or more mason jars with lids
- Tea towel
- Funnel
- Oven mitts if your pot is still hot. You can wait until it has cooled off and is more easy to handle.
Place the funnel into the jar and then put the tea towel inside the funnel. This will give you a finely strained bone broth. I prefer this way over using a mesh strainer. Once I am done pouring the broth, I put the lids on and place them in the fridge. The broth will look more gelled after sitting the fridge for a bit so don’t worry if it doesn’t look very thick right when it is done.
I will then put the used up bones into a garbage sack and throw them away outside. The smell is pretty strong and the bones are very hot. I don’t like them sitting in my kitchen garbage. This could be because I am pregnant and any strong smell gets me feeling sick. Maybe you wont mind it at all!
Now you’re ready to jump into making bone broth! Pin this for later and check out my blog for other homemaking and homesteading ideas! Leave a comment below with ways you like to use your bone broth.
