The Everyday Stock: An Instant Pot Method for Real Cooking

A jar of homemade chicken stock

The Everyday Stock: An Instant Pot Method for Real Cooking

Good stock is one of those quiet kitchen skills that pays dividends over and over again.

Once you’ve made it a few times, it stops feeling like a recipe and starts feeling like a tool. Something you can adapt based on what you have on hand, what you’re cooking next, and how rich or concentrated you want the final result to be.

This Instant Pot stock is built around that idea. Rather than locking you into fixed volumes, it uses a simple weight-based ratio of bones to water, anywhere from 1:1 for a deeply gelatinous, restaurant-style stock, up to 1:3 for something lighter and more versatile. You choose the direction based on how you plan to use it, whether that’s sipping, soups, sauces, or reductions.

Any meat bones work here. Turkey and chicken give you a clean, comforting stock with great body in relatively short order, while beef, pork, and lamb benefit from longer pressure cooking to fully extract flavour, collagen, and minerals. If you want even more depth, you can roast the bones first before pressure cooking, or reduce the finished stock afterward to concentrate it further.

Once it’s done, the process is simple. Strain, chill, remove the fat, then portion and freeze. Having homemade stock on hand makes everything downstream better, from simple weeknight soups to more involved weekend cooking, and it turns leftovers and bones that might otherwise be discarded into something genuinely useful.

This is foundational cooking. Nothing flashy, just a reliable, flexible method that earns its place in your freezer.

FWIW, the most common scenario where I end up making stock is with the carcass of a store-bought rotisserie chicken after removing the easily accessible meat. This usually nets somewhere between 333 - 500 grams of bones, cartilage, wing tips, etc. I use that to make 1 L of stock.

Ingredients By WEIGHT

  • Chicken, turkey, beef, pork or lamb bones (weigh these to determine the amounts for everything else)

  • Cold water (1-3x the weight of the bones; 1 L of water weighs 1 kg)

  • OPTIONAL BUT RECOMMENDED

    • Onions (10% the weight of the bones, with skins; rough diced)

    • Carrots (5% the weight of the bones, washed but not peeled; rough diced)

    • Celery (5% the weight of the bones, with greens and base; rough diced)

    • 1-2 bay leaves per 2 L of water

    • 1 sprig of parsley per 2 L of water (with stems)

    • 1/4 tsp of whole black peppercorns per 2 L of water

Ingredients Per Litre of Stock

  • 333 g to 1 kg of chicken, turkey, beef, pork or lamb bones (depending on how much you have leftover or how rich you want the stock to be)

  • 1 L cold water

  • OPTIONAL BUT RECOMMENDED

    • 1/3 to 1/2 medium onion (with skins; rough diced)

    • 1/2 to 1 medium carrot (washed but not peeled; rough diced)

    • 1/2 to 1 celery stalk (with greens; rough diced)

    • 1 bay leaf

    • 1/2 sprig of parsley (with stems)

    • 1/8 tsp whole black peppercorns

Quick Method

  1. Place all ingredients into the Instant Pot

  2. Pressure Cook on high for 45-90 minutes (for chicken or turkey stock), up to as long as 2-1/2 hours (for maximum extraction of a beef, pork or lamb stock)

  3. When the pressure cooking time is done, press Cancel on the Instant Pot to turn it off (or just unplug it)

  4. Allow the pressure to reduce naturally (I.E. DON’T open the valve) for at least 15 minutes. If you have the time, there is no downside to allowing it to fully naturally release, but if you’re in more of a hurry, you can manually release the pressure by opening the valve after 15 minutes have elapsed. I’d recommend covering the valve with a damp dishcloth or tea towel to reduce the possibility of making a mess.

  5. Remove any large bones, etc. with a slotted spoon, tongs, etc., then strain the stock through a fine mesh strainer.

  6. The stock can be used as-is immediately, or if you want to reduce the fat, chill it, then gently remove the fat layer from the top of the stock before use.

  7. If you’re planning to freeze it, chill it first, and then you can either include or remove the fat layer in your freezer container - up to you.

Richer Flavour Method

  1. Place bones and veg (not herbs) on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and convection roast at 375 degrees for 30-90 minutes. Just enough to see some good browning, but be careful not to burn / get too much char on anything as that can make the stock bitter. Alternatively, you can just brown the veg in a pan with a little oil on the stovetop.

  2. Place all ingredients into the Instant Pot

  3. Pressure Cook on high for 45-90 minutes (for chicken or turkey stock), up to as long as 2-1/2 hours (for maximum extraction of a beef, pork or lamb stock)

  4. When the pressure cooking time is done, press Cancel on the Instant Pot to turn it off (or just unplug it)

  5. Allow the pressure to reduce naturally (I.E. DON’T open the valve) for at least 15 minutes. If you have the time, there is no downside to allowing it to fully naturally release, but if you’re in more of a hurry, you can manually release the pressure by opening the valve after 15 minutes have elapsed. I’d recommend covering the valve with a damp dishcloth or tea towel to reduce the possibility of making a mess.

  6. Remove any large bones, etc. with a slotted spoon, tongs, etc., then strain the stock through a fine mesh strainer.

  7. The stock can be used as-is immediately, or if you want to reduce the fat, chill it, then gently remove the fat layer from the top of the stock before use.

  8. If you’re planning to freeze it, chill it first, and then you can either include or remove the fat layer in your freezer container - up to you.

Nutritional Info For 2L Chicken Stock

For the Full Recipe (with optional veg and herbs, after chilling and removing the fat layer)

  • Calories: 245 kcal (excluding fibre)

  • Protein (primarily gelatin/collagen-derived amino acids):

    • 55g

    • 220 kcal

    • 89.8% of total calories

  • Fat (residual fat after chilling and skimming):

    • 1 g

    • 9 kcal

    • 3.7% of total calories

  • Total Carbohydrate: 6 g

    • Fiber: 2 g

  • Net Carbohydrate:

    • 4 g

    • 16 kcal

    • 6.5% of total calories

This nutritional analysis is an estimate only, based on available knowledge regarding the nutritional content of the individual ingredients. Nutritional content of foods is HIGHLY variable, so you should always base your dietary intake on whether it meets your needs and progresses you towards your goals rather than any theoretical numbers on paper.

Notes and Options

  • The ingredients list here will make a pretty neutral, all-purpose stock. You can make it even more basic by using just bones and water and omitting the aromatics, or you can add other aromatics if you’re after a specific flavour profile for the dishes you plan to use it in - E.G. garlic, fennel, lemongrass, citrus, etc.

  • Pressure cooking times can vary depending on how much extraction of gelatin, collagen and flavour you want from the bones in your finished stock. The longer suggested times in the recipe are what I tend to use and like, but play around with it until you find what works for you.

  • Releasing pressure too quickly can make the stock boil rapidly in the pot, pulverizing the ingredients and making your stock cloudier. At least 15 minutes of natural release (with the Instant Pot off or unplugged) is what I use to mostly avoid that issue, but if you’re in a rush, go for it (carefully!) - the flavour is pretty much unaffected either way.

  • I usually don’t bother roasting the bones and veg or browning the veg in a pan because I’m impatient…LOL. We did do it both ways when I was in culinary school, and there is definitely a difference in flavour. Whether it’s worth the extra time, dishes, and electricity is up to you.

  • If you want the increase the flavour intensity of the stock before using it, strain it directly into another saucepan or stockpot, bring it up to a rapid simmer (NOT a rolling boil) and cook it off, uncovered, until the volume is reduced by 1/2 or more.

  • A handy way to portion the stock for later is to freeze it in 1L amounts in Ziploc bags or freezer-safe containers, or alternatively use silicone muffin pans or ice cube trays to freeze into smaller blocks, and then store those in a large Ziploc bag or freezer-safe container. The latter works really well if you’ve reduced the stock and it’s really intense, so you’ll only use smaller amounts each time in cooking a dish.