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Vegetables and chicken bones in an instant pot
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Instant Pot Bone Broth + 3 Hacks

Bone broth is a pain to make, but with Instant pot and easy prepping hacks, you'll enjoy making bone broth without spending hours and hours buying, prepping, and cooking bone broth!
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Heating up and cooling down 45 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 10 minutes
Author Bessie Bakes

Ingredients

  • 3-5 pound whole chicken
  • 1-2 pounds bone-in chicken drumsticks or wings
  • 1-2 pounds bone -in chicken thighs
  • 1-2 whole carrots chopped in large chunks
  • 1/2 large onion cut in half
  • 1-2 celery stalks chopped in large stalks
  • 1 tsp whole peppercorns
  • 1 large sprig fresh rosemary
  • a few sprigs fresh rosemary
  • handful fresh parsley
  • 1 glug apple cider vinegar

Instructions

  • For ease of prepping, pick out your meat at the store and have the butcher separate the meat from the bones for you while you shop.  (You may need to call your butcher ahead of time for this and go during off-peak times)
  • Place the bones from the whole chicken, drumsticks, and thighs inside the Instant Pot strainer, including neck bones from the carcass.
  • Add the onion, celery, carrots, whole peppercorns, fresh herbs to the strainer.
  • Fill the Instant Pot below the fill line with water.  Place the strainer inside the pot and check to make sure the water hasn't risen over the fill line.  Add apple cider vinegar.
  • Do not add salt to your broth.  You can add salt to your broth once you drink it or cook with it.
  • Make sure the Instant Pot lid is sealed.  Flip the knob towards "sealing" to seal in the pressure.
  • Plug in the Instant Pot and press "pressure cook".  Turn the time to 2 hours or 120 minutes.  The instant pot should say "on" at this point.  This means that the pot is heating up and pressurizing.  This should take about 30 minutes.  Once the instant pot is up to temperature, it will start timing the 2-hour pressure cooking, so you will know how long this will take.
  • Once the instant pot is done with the cooking process, the heat will turn off.  At this point, you will need to release the pressure from the pot.  However, I do NOT recommend releasing the pressure manually from the pressure knob.  Instead, allow the pressure to release naturally, which takes 10-25 minutes, but will keep steam/broth from shooting all over your ceiling!
  • When the silver knob drops next to the knob, the pressure has released.  Please watch the quick 2-minute video linked for this in the post to see exactly what I mean.
  • Remove the lid and remove the strainer with all of the ingredients.  Pour the liquid broth into a large vessel and ladle or funnel the broth into mason jars.  Place the lid on, but not too tight.
  • The broth will keep for about three days in the fridge, or up to one month in the freezer.

Notes

For safety, please watch this 1-minute video on quick release or natural release method for the instant pot.
Pro-tips:
  1. Pick out your meat at the grocery store and ask the butcher if they can remove the meat from the bones for you while you shop.
  2. Use an Instant Pot-compatible strainer to instantly strain out all of the veggies, spices, and bones all at once!  I cut off the rubber cover on the handle so it wouldn't leach chemicals in the pot.

What if my bone broth doesn't gel?

If I've used at least 2 pounds of bones per 6-8 quart pot of broth, I've never had an issue with my broth not gelling.  However, if you make a pot and it doesn't gel that much it could just be the ratio of bones to water.
Adding bones with a lot of collagen, like chicken feet and beef marrow bones, will really make your broth gel nicely.  However, they can be hard to find and I honestly don't like looking at those toenails! 
But don't worry, your broth is plenty nutritious and good for you even if it doesn't gel like you want it to.

How long will my broth last in the fridge?

I would use the broth within three days of it being in the fridge.  

Can I freeze bone broth?

You can do this a couple of ways.  I recommend freezing small amounts per container so that when you need to thaw it, you aren't having to thaw 4 cups at once if you don't need that much.
Option 1:
Freeze in mason jars but make sure to let the broth cool down before freezing.  Also leave an inch of empty space at the top of the jar to allow for expansion, otherwise the glass jar could crack in the freezer.
Option 2:
Freeze your broth into ice cubes so you'll have smaller servings to thaw when you need it.