Homemade bone broth may be the best source of natural collagen, amino acids, and other nutrients that help keep our hair, skin, and nails healthy, improve gut health, and helps to support our immune function.
How to Make Bone Broth with your Instant Pot
As the weather cools we will spend more time indoors with heaters on and windows closed. The perfect environment to spread germs! As we approach flu season I thought it would be fun to share how to make bone broth with your instant pot. Bone broth on it’s own can be flavorful or you can try adding it to your soup and stew recipes. My mom, my Gramma, and my Great Grandma all had the right idea. They prepared chicken soup when we weren’t feeling well. The steam and the nutrient rich broth always seemed to help ease the flu and cold symptoms, helping to make us feel better.
The collagen in bone broth (found only in animal vertebrae) helps keep our skin, hair, and nails healthy, support healthy immune function, relieve joint discomfort, and can help athletic performance. We rotate bone broth in to our diets, particularly at this time of year when flu season is approaching.
You can read more about the health benefits of bone broth here. Today I am going to share how to make bone broth in my instant pot.
Beef Broth, Chicken Broth, or both.
What I like about the instant pot is I don’t need to be home monitoring the process. In order to receive all the nutritional benefits of bone broth, the bones need to simmer 16 -24 hours. If you purchase bone broth, make sure the bones are grass-fed, ethically raised, etc. and that the bones have been simmered properly. Store bought bone broth will cost $7 or $8 dollars for a box or bottle so it’s much more economical to make your own.
Here’s what you’ll need to get started:
Beef and/or chicken bones
Vegetables and herbs: bay leaf, garlic, onion, carrot, celery etc..
Salt and pepper
Filtered water
Process:
Always start with roasted, cooked bones. Today I’ve roasted a package of oxtail bones for about 40 minutes at 400 degrees that will be used for beef broth. I’ve also saved bones from my roasted chicken (re-use, less waste!) and will make bone broth from those as well.
Add the bones to your Instant Pot and add just enough water to cover the bones.
These are my favorite veggies to add to my instant pot:
- One leek, washed well and then do a rough chop
- Cut a small onion into quarters
- 2 carrots
- 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 2 sprigs of rosemary
- a few sprigs of thyme
- 1 tbsp fish sauce is optional
Add 2 TB apple cider vinegar to your pot. This helps to pull the collagen, amino acids, and nutrients from the bones.
Press the Soup/Broth button, low pressure, and set the cooking time to 200 minutes on your Instant Pot.
The Instant Pot will beep when it’s reached the desired temperature to begin the 200 minute simmer process. When it’s finished, the Instant Pot will keep your bones on warm until you are ready to reset the time. I usually set the time 2 or 3 times over the course of about 24 hours. The extended simmer/warm is necessary to receive the maximum nutritional benefits.
Strain the finished broth using a strainer. I pour the broth into a large bowl with a pour spout so I can easily get it into the jars.
Bone broth will have a gelatinous consistency when refrigerated.
Store bought versions are usually made with MSG and flavored water, offering little to no health benefits. Natural collagen and gelatin give homemade broth its thick consistency. During the fall and winter months it’s easy to add bone broth to soups and stews to create a cozy, nourishing, one-pot meal. We rotate, chicken soup, minestrone, and beef stew. So delicious and always makes yummy left overs.
When you remove your broth from the refrigerator it’s easy to lift the saturated fat off the top if you’d rather avoid that.
Enjoy
I store my bone broth in BALL® or WECK jars. Bone broth will last a week in the refrigerator or freeze it.
4 Responses