Instant Pot bone broth soup

So you've got yourself an Instant Pot or you're already an Instant Pot fanatic... Congrats and welcome to the party! Almost everyone I know who has an Instant Pot raves about it. I use mine predominantly to make hard boiled eggs, chicken, and soup.

I want to share my go-to bone broth recipe which I immediately turn into a soup rather than just broth that I store for later use. I've seen many recipes require a cooking time of 120 minutes but I get a very flavorful soup in just 90 minutes total.

Prep time: 15 mins
Total cooking time: 90 minutes

Ingredients:

• Bones (I use mainly chicken drumsticks)
• 1 onion, cut in slivers
• 5-6 carrots, coarsely chopped
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, smashed and coarsely chopped
• Salt

Instructions:

Step 1:

- Add bones to the Instant Pot
I stockpile chicken drumsticks and other bones (i.e., pork ribs) and make the soup when I have a gallon freezer bag worth of bones.

Step 2: 

Add enough water to cover the bones making sure it doesn't surpass the MAX line in the Instant Pot.

Step 3:

- Soup mode
- Increase time to 60 mins
- Quick release at the end of 60 mins

This is what the broth looks like after 60 mins of cooking time. I remove the large bones with tongs and strain everything else out.

We don't have a bunch of kitchen tools so we make do with what we have. I create a straining system by putting a metal colander over a tea strainer on top of a large saucepan. :o)

Step 4:

Strain the broth

Here's what the strained broth looked like. Notice the layer of oil on top.

Step 5:

Pour the broth back into the Instant Pot
As I pour it back in, I strain it again over a fine mesh

I add an onion, carrots, and garlic to finish out the soup.

Step 6:

Peel and do a large chop on the carrots

Step 7:

- Crush the garlic
- Cut the onions into thin slivers so they "melt" into the soup

Step 8:

Add all the veggies back into the Instant Pot

Step 9:

- Soup mode
- 30 mins
- Quick release after 30 mins

You can enjoy the soup after this step but if you want to remove any oil that's produced during the cooking process, move on to step 10.

Step 10 (optional):

- Refrigerate the soup so that the oil solidifies on top
- Skim off the layer of oil
- Skimming may be a little challenging because the broth below is all gelatin, not liquid
- I've had success putting a spoon on the oil and lifting it off. The oil gets stuck to the back of the spoon and I just wipe it off on a paper towel.
- Don't put the oil down the drain - it might clog up your pipes. Instead, put it in a plastic bag and throw it out in the trash.

Here's what the cold soup looks like once the oil is removed. It's like jell-o, sticky and full of collagen and minerals.

The soup will "melt" when you heat it up.

Sometimes we'll sauté a little spinach and add it to the heated up soup. Season with salt and that's it!

The soup is incredibly flavorful and just warms you up. Perfect for the winter, especially when you're battling a cold or flu.

A lot of people freeze the broth (without veggies) and use it just like they would a store-bought broth. We've done that on occasion as well but much prefer to have it as soup. Our kid really loves it too and there's nothing more satisfying than hearing your kid slurp down bowl after bowl.

Hope you enjoyed my bone broth soup recipe. Happy Instant Potting!