Instant Pot Turkey Bone Broth (Rich Turkey Stock) (2024)

Instant Pot turkey bone broth is an ideal way to use up Thanksgiving or Christmas leftovers. Our flavorful golden version gels beautifully due to its high levels of collagen/gelatin, which is touted for all sorts of health and beauty benefits. Most importantly, it tastes incredibly good. Use it in soups and other recipes or for sipping. You can use this exact method with chicken bones, too!

Instant Pot turkey bone broth benefits

At the risk of being a little awkwardly enthusiastic, Instant Pot turkey bone broth is a dream come true for so many reasons.

First of all, it gives you a clear and present plan for what to do with that leftover turkey carcass after Thanksgiving or Christmas. I am good at cooking for crowds, and recipe development is a big part of my job. Even so, when I open up the fridge a few days after Thanksgiving and see a turkey carcass staring me in the face, it's like, DUDE. Leave me ALONE. It's empowering to know exactly what the plan is, and how easy it will be.

It's SO easy, and relatively quick. As with all of our Instant Pot recipes, this is a set it and forget it situation.

It's incredibly delicious and incredibly versatile. This bone broth is richly flavored and golden-hued. You can use it in soups, sip it by the mugful, or cook with it in any recipe that calls for chicken broth.

And then there's all the hype about the possible health and beauty benefits of bone broth. Bone broth is high in amino acids. Our version gels, which means it's packed with collagen/gelatin, which may support joint health, gut health, immunity, and skin elasticity.

So what is bone broth, anyway?

Good question, with a surprisingly simple and timeless answer. Bone broth is a trendy term for what the culinary world has traditionally called stock. Stock (or bone broth) differs from broth in that it is cooked for a very long time. Long cooking deepens flavors and draws more nutrients (including the much-hyped collagen) out of the bones and into the broth itself.

Bone broth is gelatinous at room temperature and liquid when heated.

The Instant Pot dramatically shortens the cooking time for bone broth while preserving all the benefits. We love to use the Instant Pot for this purpose. Instant Pot bone broth is when two trends make a right. It just makes so much sense.

How to make bone broth in the Instant Pot

To make bone broth, you'll need:

• An organic (or other high-quality) turkey carcass
• Onion
• Carrots
• Celery
• Parsley (and other fresh herbs if you like)
• Bay leaves
• A little bit of apple cider vinegar
• Sea salt
• A few peppercorns
• Water

Here are the steps you'll follow:

• Place all the ingredients into a 6- or 8-quart Instant Pot.
• Close the lid and set the vent to sealing.
• Cook at high pressure for 2 hours, with natural pressure release.
• Strain the broth, and it's ready to use!

Instant Pot chicken bone broth

You can also make Instant Pot bone broth with chicken bones, which is what we tend to do during the rest of the year. Use the carcass from a whole roasted chicken, or about 2 ½ to 3 pounds of bones.

You can get soup bones from your local butcher. Whole Foods often sells frozen chicken necks and backs for just over $1/pound, right next to the other frozen meat. These contain lots of connective tissue and are great for making bone broth.

If you're not starting with the carcass from a roasted chicken, roast the bones as your first step.

Preheat the oven to 425°F with a rack in the center. Arrange bones in a heavy-duty roasting pan or on a lined, rimmed baking sheet. Roast for about 30 minutes, until bones have darkened in color a bit but not burned. Proceed with the recipe as written!

How to use Instant Pot bone broth

You can use bone broth as the liquid in almost any soup, including all of our top 20 soup recipes. You'll especially appreciate its deep flavor and hefty character in brothy soups like stracciatella alla Romana, avgolemono soup, and minestrone.

Bone broth is also great for sipping straight out of a mug on cold days.

Or use it in place of chicken broth in any recipe, from risotto to brown butter white bean puree to braised chicken thighs.

Bone Broth FAQs

Q: Why is there vinegar in this recipe?

A: The acid in the vinegar helps to extract nutrients from the bones. You won't taste it.

Q: Why does the recipe say organic turkey?

A: Really always, but especially when you're purposely drawing out and concentrating the nutrients like we do with bone broth, it's a very good idea to use the best-quality ingredients you can source. You can read all about good meat and where to get it in this post.

Q: Can you use beef bones for bone broth? Can you use pork bones?

A: Absolutely. But for the best-tasting bone broth made from beef or pork bones, you need to blanch them first. To blanch bones, place them in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and then simmer briskly for 20 minutes. Discard the blanching water and proceed with the recipe, roasting bones as indicated in the recipe notes below.

Q: Can you freeze bone broth?

A: Sure can. I like to freeze it in ice cube trays or in reusable pint-sized takeout containers (usually from miso soup, because #sushi). Bone broth will keep well for six months to a year in the freezer.