Bone broth is all the rage nowadays with health professionals proclaiming the benefits and people (and companies looking to profit from this health craze) hopping on the bandwagon left, right, and center. But it’s for good reason, let me tell ya! First off, it’s nutrient-rich and packed with gelatin, which the body breaks down into collagen. This can help protect bones and joints and provides a natural source of energy (as opposed to your morning coffee). It also has gut healing properties (which is why I started using bone broth) and generally helps reduce inflammation in the body. It can even aid in weight loss efforts! You can drink a mug of it hot on its own or use it in cooking (think soups, sauces, and so on), even subbing bone broth into any recipe that just calls for regular stock for added protein and nutrition. Some people even give it to their pets who have digestive issues or arthritis (my dog loves it)!
Our recipe for bone broth is simple, but it’s made in an Instant Pot. It’s a recipe that I’ve made many times in my home before putting it up here to share with the Forkly community. The biggest hack here is that it takes between 1 and 2 hours to make in the Instant Pot, as opposed to the 24 to 48 it takes on the stovetop or in a slow cooker! Anything that saves me time is a win in my (recipe) books.
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There is one major must-have ingredient for a good bone broth: high-quality bones. I’m not here to judge where you get your meat from, whether it’s a low-end grocery store or you’ve got your own farm! However, you won’t get the benefits of bone broth if you use low-quality bones. End of story. If you do, you’re essentially making soup stock. So head to your local butcher and get some good mixed bones, which should include large nutrient-rich bones (such as marrow bones or femurs), knuckle, neck, and even a couple small meaty bones for flavor. There’s a good chance that if you tell your butcher what you’re using the bones for, they’ll give you the perfect mixed bag for only a few dollars.
You can choose what type you want to use, with beef and pork being the most common. If you don’t tolerate beef, lamb, duck, and chicken are all other excellent choices for broth. Whatever bones you choose, simply drop them in your Instant Pot along with some other simple ingredients (keep reading for our full recipe!), cover with water, and lock on that lid.
I’ll let you in on another little secret. Bone broth is an incredible way to use up your normally discarded veggie scraps! Keep a large Ziploc bag or airtight container in your freezer and add your carrot tops, onion skins, and whoops-I-forgot-about-these herbs instead of throwing them out. You can actually do the same with bones as well! If I’ve got chicken bones leftover from meal prepping or lamb bones that I stripped most of the meat off to dehydrate dog treats (yes, I’m that kind of crazy dog mom), I either make Instant Pot bone broth right away or throw them in the freezer bag for when I’m ready. This makes this nutrient-rich recipe super inexpensive to make and a cheap alternative to buying boxes of stock at the grocery store.
The best part of this recipe is that it’s made in the Instant Pot, so it doesn’t take very long (yeah, I know I’ve mentioned that a few times). Prior to this kitchen gadget, I never would have made my own bone broth. It’s too time intensive to do on the stove since I refuse to spend my entire weekend in the kitchen and moreover, at the risk of sounding cheap, I don’t like the idea of running my stove or crockpot for 48 hours straight – for the sake of both safety and my hydro bill! Plus, both of those methods result in a stinky house for a few days since cooking bone broth has a very distinct odor.
Bone broth generally gets better the longer you cook it. There are some seriously complicated bone broth recipes out there that tell you to roast your bones, then pressure cook them with water, then add vegetables and spices and pressure cook again. I’m sorry, WHAT?! Busy people need this stuff too! Even many of the less intense recipes out there say to cook it in your Instant Pot for 2 hours, which is far more doable. But our recipe turned out beautifully with only 90 minutes of cook time and I must confess that when I’ve made this recipe at home, I’ve actually still pulled off a good bone broth with only an hour of cook time (with an extra glug of apple cider vinegar added).
Once the cook time has elapsed and the pressure is released, drain the broth into a large glass bowl and let it cool completely, setting it aside to allow the fat to rise to the top and the broth to gel. A good broth will look like under-set Jell-O when it’s cooled off but will liquify again when heated up. Once cooled, skim off the fat and prepare the broth for storage. If you’ll use or drink it all within a week, you can simply store it in the fridge in an airtight container. However, if you won’t use it up within that time, freezing is best. Two of my favorite ways to store it are in large mason jars (if I’m going to be using it for soups) or frozen in ice cube trays, then transferred into a large Ziploc bag (for sauces, recipes that require only small amounts of broth, or my dog to eat). I often split a batch and store the broth both ways! Now with these tips and tricks in mind, I hope you enjoy this easy Instant Pot Bone Broth recipe!
There are a number of swaps you can technically make to this recipe. For example, you can use whatever fresh (or already wilting) herbs you want or even use dried herbs in a pinch. However, do not skip the apple cider vinegar. It’s a key ingredient that helps break down the collagen in the bones and it won’t leave it’s normally distinct flavor in the broth, we promise.
It took our 6 Quart Instant Pot Duo 30 minutes to come to pressure but this will vary depending on the model and size of your Instant Pot.
Many professionals will tell you to cook the bone broth for 2 full hours in your Instant Pot, however, I’ve made bone broth in my Instant Pot and only cooked it for 60 minutes when in a pinch.
