Instant Pot Compost Chicken Stock
Homemade chicken stock has always been a bit of a pain to make, if you ask me. It has to be cooked for hours and babied a little bit with skimming the surface, controlling the temperature of the water, etc and I just don’t have the patience. Then there is the Barefoot Contessa recipe that frankly, makes me cringe. Don’t get me wrong, I have been a follower and a big fan of hers for years ever since my mother gave me her first cookbook, and I have used her recipes countless times and have watched every episode of her show multiple times. But her chicken stock recipe, which she puts in every cookbook, requires you to cook three THREE! whole organic, free range chickens (at least, that’s what she uses) and then toss them in the trash. I even wrote her an email about it (I couldn’t help myself), suggesting that she poach the chicken, cool/shred/reserve the meat and then toss the skin and bones back in the pot, but I just got a courtesy reply that they received my email. I’m waiting to hear back from her any day now…
So, when I came across this recipe in Bon Appetit magazine https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/instant-pot-chicken-stock I was excited to give it a try. Although I mainly just follow their cooking time and changed up what I add to the pot, and do a natural release after cooking. I have recently started to save onion/carrot/chicken scraps and either keep them in the fridge or freezer in a ziplock bag to use for this stock. Any time I cook a whole chicken or buy a rotisserie chicken I save the carcass. I also have my butcher butterfly my whole chickens most of the time, and I save the chicken backs in a bag in the freezer as well. After trying this, I rarely poach whole chickens unless I need the meat for say chicken pot pies or enchiladas. The stock is just as delicious as if I had used whole chickens, in my opinion.
Recipe:
1 chicken carcass or 3-4 chicken backs (or 3lbs. bones)
Peeled garlic cloves (maybe 8-10); cut in half or smashed with back of knife (in the picture shown I had about 1/2 a head of garlic so I cut it in half with a knife and added it)
1 tsp. whole black peppercorns
1-2 tbsp. of kosher salt (it needs a lot!)
1 carrot cut in half
Onion scraps or half of an onion (I leave skins on, it darkens the color of the stock)
Fresh herbs (I use a combo of 1 sprig rosemary, several sprigs thyme & dill or whatever I have)
*1 tbsp Chicken Better than Bouillon https://www.betterthanbouillon.com/products/roasted-chicken-base/ (optional, but it does add flavor)
Directions:
Add all of the ingredients to a 6 qt. Instant Pot and fill with cold water to the max fill line. Cook on high pressure for 40 minutes and allow to naturally release. You will definitely need to season at the end with more kosher salt. Strain broth, or if you’re lazy like me, just take a big soup ladle and then place a small strainer over a quart-sized takeout container and ladle broth into the container, rinsing out the strainer as needed and just continue until you have about 3 1/2 quarts of stock. I freeze until ready to use, or you can keep some in the fridge for about a week.
Love these takeout containers: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HBV4WO0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1