How to Make Instant Pot Bone Broth With Real Bones

You can make bone broth that properly gels and has all the nutrients of slow simmered version in 1/10th the time.

I’ll show you exactly how to make it in two hours.

This is undoubtedly the easiest way for you to make it at home. Pressure cookers work with beef, chicken, lamb, pork, veal bones or any other one you wish to make. 

Let me mention that if you're frustrated making it yourself, Bluebird Provisions makes an authentic Chicken Bone Broth powder. They make it using a traditional low and slow simmer, just like you would at home.

If you are ever desperate and cant find bones to make it yourself, try my brand, Bluebird Provisions and you'll be amazed at the taste and nutrition it provides.

Click HERE to jump to the recipe.

Bone Broth Recipe in Instant Pot

A quality bone broth recipe is worth its weight in gold. You use it to add flavor and protein to anything you are cooking. 

Drinking bone broth on its own in place of your afternoon coffee or tea is how most people use it.

The great thing about bone broth is that you don’t need exact ratios of ingredients. Think of bone broth as a blank canvas that you can create a nourishing beverage with.

For example, I always save any vegetable trimmings or scraps and any bones in a bag in my freezer. Then when I feel like making it, I have all my vegetables ready to go for a batch. No cutting or extra trips to the market.

How to Use Instant Pot Bone Broth

It is the perfect base to any soups, like butternut squash or chili. It’s also fantastic for cooking your grains, even your morning bowl of oatmeal.

Simply swap water for bone broth and you’ll add protein, collagen and electrolytes to your rice or grain dishes. Not to mention a delicious savoury taste. 

Bone broth also works great to thicken up your salad dressings. My personal favourite is this lemon tahini bone broth dressing. 

Health Benefits of Bone Broth

By consuming bone broth, you get collagen protein in its whole food form, along with electrolytes and amino acids like gylcine, glucosamine and chondroitin that we lack in our western diet. 

You need these amino acids in order to delay collagen decline as you age.

Here’s how the collagen and electrolytes in bone broth benefit you:

Heal Your Damaged Gut

Amino acids (glycine and proline) decrease gut inflammation to ensure you have proper digestion.

Build Skin, Hair, Teeth, Nails

Electrolytes and natural collagen in bone broth hydrates your cells to help build and maintain your skin, hair, teeth and nails.

Joint Health

The amino acids (glycine and proline) in bone broth help build connective tissue around your joint cartilage. 

Many people care about weight loss, so I wrote all about bone broth for weight loss for you to read.

Bone Broth vs. Stock, What’s the Difference?

Bone broth simmers for 12-48 hours (2 hours under pressure), while stocks will cook in much less time. 2-5 hours or however long the chef feels like cooking it.  

Bone broth uses bones with adhering meat and connective tissue. This is needed because we are basically harvesting collagen from the bones and meat in order to make a bone broth that gels.

Stocks, on the other hand, use scraps and bones without adhering meat. For more details, read my guide on the difference between stock and broth.

Broth falls somewhere between the two. It uses meat and bones but is cooked much less time. Sometimes less than stocks.

Read all the key differences between stock, broth and bone broth.

"I also want to share one of my secret weapons that I think has helped me defy my age and look and feel younger than my years," she wrote. "The secret is Bone Broth!"

-Halle Berry

What Are the Best Bones For Pressure Cooker Bone Broth?

Sourcing quality bones for pressure cooker bone broth is no easy task. Especially when there are brands like mine buying up all the Organic bones. 

Beef bones should be grass fed and pasture raised.  I also recommend Organic because it provides 3rd party validation you can’t get with grass fed / pasture raised claims. 

Certified organic beef will be pasture raised and grass fed for 95% of their life. Go here for specific types of bones to use.

Grass finished is really the gold standard. But there is no certification for it, so you must be confident your source can back up their claims.

You can use leftover rotisserie chicken bones, but they don't work as well as feet, wings, necks or drumsticks. Look for Non-GMO and chickens that have access to pasture.

Why not free range/run birds that frolic around all day?

Because this does not exist in reality. I’ve visited a ton of chicken farms to vet our suppliers and I continue to learn a lot about the chicken industry.

If given the choice, chickens choose to be warm and undercover indoors in a barn vs. outdoors where there is poor weather (heat or cold) and risk of predators. 

You need 3rd party validation when sourcing chicken

Organic of Non-GMO. This is an important step. Look for the certification on the label. The chicken industry is a mess. It’s rife with large companies treating farmers and chickens like trash. 

Because of popular media, beef gets a bad rep. But I would argue chickens are treated much more poorly than beef.

How to Store Instant Pot Bone Broth in Containers in Fridge or Freezer

Store your bone in the fridge for 5 days or in the freezer for up to one year. Leave a bit of room in your container lids for the broth to expand when frozen.

Instant Pot Bone Broth Nutrition Information

This image below explains the nutrition information and calories for a typical 1 cup serving of homemade bone broth.

Sick of making it yourself?

Got to the Bluebird Provisions website and try ours. We've made 250,000L of it in the past 7 years, so we know exactly how to make it.

FAQs

Is Instant Pot bone broth as healthy?

Instant pot bone broth can be as healthy as regular made versions. You can achieve the same gel consistency as you can with a traditional long simmer in a stock pot. This is the hallmark of a high protein and quality bone broth with natural collagen.

However, it may lack some additional electrolytes, nutrients and minerals which require long simmer times to harvest from the bones and meat.

Can you cook bone broth too long?

There’s no real upper limit to how long you can cook bone broth for. The longer you cook it, the more concentrated it will be and more likely to gel. The bones continue to break down the longer you cook it. Poultry bones do not require to be cooked longer than 24 hours. Beef does not require to be cooked longer than 48 hours. 

If you do decide on long simmer times, consider adding your vegetables and herbs only for the last three hours of the simmer. This ensures they don’t turn to mush and risk adding a bitter, starchy flavor to your bone broth. 

Is it better to slow cook or pressure cook bone broth?

It is better to choose a technique that suits your life and goals. A pressure cooker will save you batch time and get you 75% of the nutrition benefits of bone broth. That being said, it will lack the additional nutrients and minerals which require long and slow simmer times to harvest from the bones and animal parts.

Should you drink bone broth every day?

Yes you can drink bone broth every day. There is no upper limit to the amount of bone broth you should drink. It is safe in large or small quantities. I recommend starting with one cup or bowl full per day for 5 days. Then see how you look and feel. Adjust from there.

Why do you add apple cider vinegar to bone broth?

Popular media and books think that adding apple cider vinegar helps bring out additional nutrients in your bone broth. We have proven that false here. You do not need to add apple cider vinegar to your bone broth. 

Which bone broth is healthiest?

Beef and chicken are the most common bone broth. They share similarities but have many differences. They have different tastes, nutrition profiles, cooking techniques and uses for each. Chicken has more ascetic benefits (skin health) while beef is better for gut health and mood. Learn which is best here.

Baking removes what from bones?

Baking removes nothing you care about from the bones. Baking imparts a delicious roasted brown and caramelized flavor to your finished broth. A flavor that is impossible to achieve without baking. If you have the time, I recommend baking some of your bones in a tray before you simmer them.

Bone Broth Recipes Pressure Cooker

There are many bone broth recipes you can use in your pressure cooker. Try these two:

Nourishing Pho Simmer

A quick interpretation of pho broth that you can make in 5 minutes. Cook the following ingredients along with your bone broth in a pot or bowl for 5 minutes, then enjoy.

• 1-2 Cups beef bone broth
• ¼ Tsp ginger, dried (or 2 tsp root grated)
• ¼ Tsp coriander, dried
• ¼ Tsp cloves, dried
• 1 Sprig fresh cilantro, chopped fine
• ¼ Tsp cinnamon, dried
• Green onion to garnish, chopped fine
• Black pepper

Creamy Thai 

Thick and creamy. You can add in some cayenne or chili powder for a bit of a kick.

• 1-2 Cups Broth
• 1/4 Cup coconut milk
• Juice of 1/2 lime / 1 teaspoon
• 1 Sprig fresh cilantro, chopped fine
• Black pepper to taste

Can you use Beef soup bones instant pot?

You can use beef soup bones in your instant pot. Simply place them in the pot and add water until bones are covered. Leave 1 inch below the max fill line in your pot.

1. Close the lid and turn the steam release valve to the sealing position.
2. Press the ‘manual button’ and set on high pressure for 120 minutes. 
3. After 2 hours, allow the pressure to release naturally. It will take about 15-30 minutes, then the float valve will drop.

How long to cook bone broth in instant pot?

You should cook your bone broth in an instant pot on high pressure for 120 minutes. This will be enough to develop a rich and gelatinous product that taste delicious!

Important Instant pot Soup/Broth Setting

When making soup / broth, it is important to use the correct setting on your instant pot. Each button will make each item exactly how it is designed to be, cooking soup at a very high temperature of 230 degrees so it never burns.

• Normal mode – 30 minutes at High pressure – recommended for soups with meat.
• Less mode – 20 minutes at High pressure – recommended for soups without meat.