Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken Broth. Homemade broth is pressure cooking’s secret weapon, and it’s quick and easy if you start with a store-bought rotisserie chicken.
I’ve made a lot of chicken broth. Because I love it. It’s the reason my first pressure cooker didn’t wind up on a back shelf, gathering dust. But pressure cooker chicken broth was too good, too useful, and too easy. Thanks to it, my pressure cooker stayed out, stayed useful, and slowly took over more and more jobs in my kitchen.
I like the flavor of a browned chicken broth, the extra flavor that a roasted chicken adds to the broth. (Not that there’s anything wrong with a blonde chicken broth - sometimes I just buy a pack of frozen chicken backs when I need a cheap broth fix.) But the rotisserie chickens are always waiting for me, lined up and waiting by the entrance to the grocery store. (And, if you have a Costco membership, you already know about their rotisserie chickens. Unfortunately, my nearest Costco is a 45 minute drive, so a membership does not make sense for me.)
Pressure cooking makes - dare I say it - a better broth than traditional stovetop cooking. It forces the flavors and gelatin out of the chicken bones and in to the liquid, and it does it in an hour under pressure, instead of having to simmer all afternoon. The other advantage is the sealed environment - instead of the flavor escaping into the air as it simmers, the pressure cooker traps the flavor molecules in the pot, where they condense and drop back into the broth as the cooker cools down. (That’s why I recommend a natural pressure release with broth. It keeps more of the flavor in the broth.)
Recipe: Rotisserie Chicken Broth
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Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken Broth
- Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes
- Yield: 8 cups chicken broth 1x
Description
Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken Broth. Homemade broth is pressure cooking’s secret weapon, and it’s quick and easy if you start with a store-bought rotisserie chicken.
Ingredients
- 1 (2- to 4-pound) rotisserie chicken, breast meat removed and saved for later
- Juices from the rotisserie chicken container
- 1 onion, peeled and halved
- 1 carrot, scrubbed and cut in half (or 4oz baby carrots)
- 1 stalk celery, cut in half
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 8 cups water
Instructions
- Everything in the pot: Cut the chicken breast meat off of the rotisserie chicken and save for another use. Put the rotisserie chicken carcass, onion, carrot, celery, bay leaves, and salt in the Instant Pot or pressure cooker, then pour in 8 cups of water. (The water should just cover the rotisserie chicken – it’s OK if the knobs of the drumsticks are poking out.)
- Pressure cook the broth for 60 minutes with a Natural Release: Lock the lid and pressure cook on high pressure for 60 minutes in an Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker (Manual or Pressure Cook mode in an Instant Pot) or for 50 minutes in a stovetop pressure cooker. Let the pressure come down naturally – about 30 minutes. (It takes a long time for all that water to cool off.) If you’re in a hurry, let the pressure come down naturally for 20 minutes, then quick release the remaining pressure.
- Strain and save: Unlock the lid and open it away from you to avoid any hot steam. With a slotted spoon, scoop the chicken carcass and vegetables out of the pot and discard; they gave their all to the broth. Strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer. Refrigerate the broth for a couple of days, or portion into 2-cup containers and freeze for up to 6 months.
Notes
- Defatting the broth (quickly): If you want to reduce the fat in the broth, after straining, pour the broth into a fat separator and let it rest for 5 minutes for the fat to rise to the top. (I have a 1 quart fat separator, so I do this in 2 batches).
- Defatting the broth (overnight): Refrigerate the broth overnight. The fat will float to the top and congeal into a fat cap. Gently scoop the fat cap from the broth and discard. (If you refrigerate the broth overnight, it will have the consistency of Jell-o, thanks to all the gelatin in chicken bones)
- For an even simpler broth, skip all the ingredients except for the chicken carcass, onion, salt, and water. It won’t be as complex as the regular broth, but it’s still quite good.
- You can halve this recipe for a 3-quart Instant Pot, or double it for an 8-quart Instant Pot. Just scale the ingredients up or down. I usually buy two chickens, pull out my 8-quart pot, and double the recipe; if I’m going to make broth, I might as well make a big batch. And I always like to have extra broth in the freezer.
- You don’t have to buy the chicken specifically for this recipe. Have the bones of a leftover roast chicken lying around? Or even just some back and neck bones? Perfect!
Tools
- 6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I love my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker)
- Fine Mesh Strainer
- A spare Inner Pot is convenient for straining the broth
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 90 minutes
- Category: Building Block
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
What do you think?
Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
Related Posts
Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup
Pressure Cooker Browned Chicken Broth
Pressure Cooker Browned Beef Stock
My other Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Recipes
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Alicia says
I've made this recipe exactly as written countless times, and every time it has been delicious. I use the $5 chickens from Costco or Sam's Club and an Instant Pot. The broth turns out so rich and flavorful, and is an excellent base for ramen or any soups. It's a great way to get another use out of the chicken carcass that would have otherwise been thrown out. Thank you for such an easy and delicious recipe!
★★★★★
Mike Vrobel says
You're welcome!
Kay Cee says
For some reason, prepared chicken broth hasn't been available in my area for the last few weeks. So I picked up a cajun rotisserie bird, picked off all the meat and threw the carcass in my 3qt IP with water & let it go 60 minutes with a NPR. Problem solved! And the flavor was concentrated. My chicken casserole was delish. Thanks for posting!
★★★★★
Mike Vrobel says
You're welcome, glad it worked so well for you!
Linea Young says
I’ve made your recipe a couple of times exactly as written and it’s great. I use the broth often for homemade ramen and it is so good.
★★★★★
Mike Vrobel says
Thank you!
Judy says
My husband loves the chicken legs s and wings would it change the flavor to leave out?
Mike Vrobel says
Yes, it will change the flavor. The bones in the wings and legs are where a lot of the flavor is. If you can convince him to pull the meat off of the legs and wings and give you the bones back, though, that would work.
Bill Fleet says
Too bad! I was hoping to see if I could use the recipe to leverage some long-term investments, or even lottery winnings. 😉
Another note: I use a fairly standard (read: not fine) strainer when filling containers, which leads to a cloudier broth with some fine sediment. It seems to have more flavor that way. We aren’t really into clear soups anyway, we do thicker stews and risottos in the cold months.
Cheers!
Bill Fleet says
I love 'saving' the last bits of a rotiss chicken this way!
I usually strip the major dark meat as well, but up the carcasses (two chickens' skin, bones and all other tissue and juices) with four quarts water, several halved onions, whatever other aromatics are on hand, etc. and it turns out fine. I'm using the 8-quart IP-DUO.
Note about chickens: Sam's Club also sells 4-pound chickens at the $5 price point, and may be closer to where you live. My wife also picks up smaller Wal-mart chickens when they go reduced at ~$3.50, this is also a good value.
Note about timing: Your initially stated time of -26203244.35 minutes may be problematic, as it would result in broth completion somewhere in late 1969 or 1970, well before the Instant Pot was invented. For that reason, I would recommend doing this recipe outside.
As always, your website rocks. Thanks!
★★★★★
Mike Vrobel says
Whoops - looks like my recipe plugin was a little confused. Fixed, and thanks for the heads-up!
★★★★★
Aaron Friedman says
A while ago I purchased a nut milk bag for the specific purpose of straining pressure cooker chicken broth. It works just like cheesecloth but is reusable. If you make stock often, it's totally worth it.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KLT6X9W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Mike Vrobel says
Interesting! How do you clean it after you use it?
Bobbie says
Toss it in the wash!
Diane says
I apologize for this question, however I need to ask. Do you leave the skin, thighs, and drumsticks intact. Thank you
Mike Vrobel says
Yes