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How To Make Easy Instant Pot Bone Broth: Simple & Delicious!

Making bone broth in your insta pot is an easy and delicious way to make nutrient dense broth in just a couple of hours! Packed with health benefits and requiring just a fraction of the time it takes with traditional methods, this insta pot bone broth recipe is a game-changer. In this post, I’ll show you a step by step recipe to make bone broth in your instant pot or pressure cooker. 

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Top view of homemade bone broth in mason jars

The Benefits of Homemade Bone Broth:

Bone Broth is Packed with Nutrients:

Homemade bone broth is a nutritional powerhouse. It’s rich in amino acids, collagen, and other valuable nutrients that support joint health, improve digestion, and boost your immune system. Learn more about the benefits of bone broth here. 

Making Bone Broth in the Insta Pot is Incredibly Time-Efficient:

Thanks to the high-pressure magic of the Instant Pot, you can enjoy the benefits of a slow-cooked broth in a fraction of the time. No more simmering for hours on the stove – the Instant Pot does the work for you. This insta pot bone broth recipe will save you so much time!

homemade bone broth simmering in an instant pot

Making Your Own Bone Broth is Economical:

Making your own bone broth is an economical way to utilize leftover bones and veggie scraps. It’s a sustainable practice that reduces food waste while providing you with a kitchen staple. Bone broth is delicious in soups, in hot chocolate, or plain by itself. It’s a win win, because you are using food you might otherwise throw away, and creating a cheap and nutrient dense food for your family!

Bone Broth is Versatile:

This insta pot bone broth recipe is incredibly versatile. A few ways to use your homemade broth:

  • As a base for soup recipes or stews
  • Sip on a warm cup of broth for a snack
  • Homemade gravy
  • Add it to mashed potatoes
  • Bone broth hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows (my personal favorite)
  • Replace water when making quinoa, rice or pastas or grains

Homemade Bone Broth Has More Gelatin:

The gelatinous texture of well-made bone broth is a sign of its high collagen content. This is excellent for supporting connective tissues, promoting skin health, and giving your broth that rich depth of flavor. Homemade bone broth is much more gelatinous than broth you can find in your local grocery store. 

mason jars filled with homemade bone broth

How is Bone Broth Different from Regular Broth or Stock?

There are a few differences between bone broth, regular broth, and stock:

Bone Broth: Made from cooking animal bones, usually for a long period of time to pull out all the minerals and nutrients. Bone broth can be more orange in color, and once cooled it will often firm up to a gel-like consistency due to it’s high gelatin content. It has a rich depth of flavor. 

Broth: Usually made from simmering meat (sometimes bones, but not always) in water for a few hours. It is usually lighter in color and has a more mild flavor. 

Stock: Falls somewhere in-between the two. It usually is made from more bones, and simmered for a longer period. It does usually have higher traces of gelatin than regular broth. 

The Best Bones For Bone Broth

You can use any animal bones to make bone broth, but you will get the best batch of bone broth when you use knuckles, joints, feet, and marrow bones. Chicken feet contain tons of gelatin and are generally less expensive than other marrow bones. You can probably even ask a local farmer for their leftover chicken feet. The younger the animal, the higher the amount of cartilage. 

While the collagen content is not as high as in marrow bones, I find chicken carcasses to be the easiest and most practical. For this insta pot bone broth recipe, I used a whole chicken carcass that was leftover from dinner earlier in the week.

Nutrition Facts of Bone Broth

Bone broth truly is a superfood. A serving of bone broth has:

  • over 19 essential amino acids (that are easy to absorb!)
  • collagen / gelatin
  • nutrients that support digestive functions, immunity and brain health (source)

Bone broth is a superfood because it literally benefits every part of your body. It is also relatively low in calories when you consider the nutrient density. 

Ingredients for Homemade Bone Broth

  • Cooked animal bones/carcass (you can use a whole chicken, chicken bones / carcass, or rotisserie chicken leftovers). Other great options are beef bones, or fish bones/carcasses. 
  • Apple cider vinegar (aids in extracting valuable nutrients)
  • Mineral salt (to taste)
  • 1-2 large carrots
  • 1 medium onion
  • 2-3 stalks of celery
  • 1 head of garlic 
  • Water to cover the bones

Optional Ingredients: Chicken feet (for extra collagen & connective tissues), fresh herbs (such as fresh thyme or a bay leaf) add extra flavor. 

Supplies You Need to Make Insta Pot Bone Broth

Instant Pot Bone Broth Recipe

Step 1: Prepare Your Ingredients

Roughly cut your veggies. If you are using a chicken carcass, you may need to pull it apart a little bit to make sure it will fit in your instant pot. Peel the garlic cloves and smash them just a little bit.

onion, cellery, garlic and carrots on a wooden cutting board

Step 2: Combine Your Ingredients:

Place your carcass or bones in the instant pot, and add all the veggies, garlic, herbs, and chicken feet if using. Sprinkle in some salt, and add the apple cider vinegar.

Step 3: Add Water

Cover with water, enough to cover the bones. I usually end up filling to the max fill line on my insta pot. Make sure you don’t overfill the pot! 

Step 4: Soak for 30 minutes

Leave the broth to soak for about 30 minutes without heat. This will help the aplpe cider vinegar to pull minerals from the bones. 

Step 5: Cook

Put the lid on the insta pot, close it to sealed, and make sure that the vent valve is closed. Turn your insta pot on, and set it to manual / high pressure for 120 minutes. *If you have an older insta pot and don’t have a manual setting, set it to “soup” mode. 

Step 6: Pressure Release

Once the 2 hours is up, allow the pressure to release using the natural-release method. 

homemade chicken bone broth inside of an instant pot

Step 7: Strain and Enjoy! 

Once the pressure has naturally released, turn the instant pot off and remove the lid. Use a slotted spoon to remove the carcass and veggies. Pour broth through a fine mesh strainer to remove bones and other large pieces. Use a large bowl to catch the broth. Pour the strained broth into glass mason jars, and allow it to cool completely on the countertop. 

homemade bone broth in large mason jars on a concrete countertop

Step 8: Store

Once the broth is cool, cover the jars in lids and put them in the refrigerator for up to a week. For longer storage, you can freeze or pressure can your bone broth. 

How To Store Homemade Bone Broth

Homemade bone broth can be stored in sealed containers in the fridge for about a week. If you want to store it for longer, you can also freeze it or pressure can. If you choose to store it in the freezer, you can freeze it in a silicone molds or ice cube trays, then move it to a plastic bag or sealed container. 

What if I Don’t Have An Instant Pot?

If you don’t have an insta pot, you can still make bone broth. You can make bone broth in a slow cooker or on the stove top, but keep in mind it will take much longer this way. More like 24-36 hours, as opposed to the 2 hours it takes in the insta pot! 

instant pot turned on

Tips For Making Homemade Bone Broth

Don’t Throw Away Scraps

Keep extra bones, fat, ends of veggies and scraps. Put them in a ziplock bag in the freezer, so that the next time you want to make bone broth you can just throw everything in the insta pot! 

Don’t Skip the Fresh Herbs

Fresh herbs add such a delicious depth of flavor to homemade bone broth. 

Straining the Broth is Important!

If you don’t strain the broth, you are going to end up with a lot of small chunks of bone and gristle. If you don’t have a fine mesh strainer you can also use a cheese cloth. 

Easy Homemade Bone Broth In The Instant Pot

This Instant Pot Bone Broth Recipe is a quick and easy way to make nutrient dense bone broth at home!
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Resting Time 30 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 45 minutes
Course Soup
Cuisine American
Servings 3 Quarts

Equipment

  • 1 Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker
  • 1 Fine mesh strainer
  • 1 knife
  • 3 Quart Mason Jars
  • 1 Slotted Spoon

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Cooked animal bones/carcass you can use a whole chicken, animal bones / carcass etc
  • 3 Carrots, roughly chopped
  • 3 Stalks Celery, roughly chopped
  • 1 Medium onion, roughly chopped
  • 1 Head Garlic, peeled and lightly smashed
  • 2 TB Apple Cider Vinegar
  • Water to cover the bones

Instructions
 

  • Roughly chop all veggies, and prepare the garlic
  • Place the bones/carcass in the instant pot
  • Add all of the veggies / garlic / herbs to the instant pot
  • Add the apple cider vinegar
  • Add enough filtered water to cover the bones. Make sure not to overfill past the max fill line.
  • Let the mixture sit for about 30 minutes, to allow the apple cider vinegar to pull minerals from the bones
  • Put the lid on the instant pot, and make sure that the lid is sealed and the pressure valve is sealed
  • Set the instant pot to manual / high mode for 120 minutes
  • When the 2 hours is up, let the pressure naturally release.
  • Once the pressure has released, open the instant pot. Use a slotted spoon to remove the large pieces of bones / carcass from the broth
  • Strain the broth using a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl
  • Put the broth into glass mason jars, and allow them to cool completely
  • Put lids on the jars, and store in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Notes

Optional Ingredients: Chicken feet (for extra collagen & connective tissues), fresh herbs (such as fresh thyme or a bay leaf) add extra flavor. Fresh herbs, such as thyme, bay leaves, or rosemary. 
Keyword bone broth, instant pot, soup
four pictures of bone broth made in the instant pot

Conclusion

Bone broth is an incredibly nutrient dense superfood that should be incorporated into one’s daily diet as much as possible. This delicious and nutritious broth is incredibly easy to make at home, especially in an instant pot cooker. Have you tried making homemade bone broth? I’d love to hear what you think, and your favorite way to use your bone broth! 

If you tried this recipe, I’d love if you could leave me a review. 

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