Chicken Stock Under Pressure – the best!

While I opt to poach boneless skinless chicken breasts on the stove top,* I always use a pressure cooker when I have a whole chicken to work with. Just follow my directions and you will end up with close to two quarts of delicious chicken stock and enough chicken meat for at least 2-3 meals.

The following recipe is for a four to five-pound chicken. A four-and-a-half-pound chicken will give you at least 7 cups of stock and 20 ounces of succulent meat.

Use a 6-quart or larger pressure cooker or Instant Pot. For the latter, follow the manufacturer’s instructions and set for high pressure.

Note: You can use more water for more stock, especially if you go with a chicken over 5 pounds, but for 5 pounds or under, 6 cups works with no risk of needing to cook it down to increase the flavor.

Here is the recipe:

• 4-5 pound chicken
• 1 stalk celery, sliced very thin
• 1 carrot sliced very thin
• 1 small onion sliced very thin
• 1-2 bay leave depending on size of bay leaves
• A few or more sprigs of thyme and/or other fresh herbs 
  OR
• A teaspoon or so of one or more dried herbs such as thyme, marjoram, or oregano – and parsley is always good.
• ¼ tsp whole peppercorns
• 1/8 tsp or so cumin power, if desired. It adds just a little “something.”
• 1 tsp salt unless you want salt free.
• 6 cups water cups

Drain out any fluids from your whole chicken and place in the pressure cooker, including neck and offal if included, but not the liver – it can impart a bitter flavor and will get too tough to eat.  

(If you like liver, reserve it and coat it in a bit of flour with salt and pepper and fry it up for yourself while your pressure cooker does its thing.)

Put everything in the pressure cooker, be sure it is properly sealed, and put on a medium/high burner until it comes to pressure. This takes 15-20 minutes.

 Reduced heat to medium-low or just enough to keep at pressure and let it cook for 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and let the pressure release naturally. This takes about 15-20 minutes.

Open the pressure cooker and use tongs to lift the meat out into a big bowl or dish and let cool a bit before picking the meat off the bones for later use.

Don’t worry if you don’t get all the meat if you are going to do round two, below. I just do what is easy the first round since any meat left on the bones will give flavor to the second bout of pressure cooking; and after that, will come off the bones more easily.

Strain all the stocks through a fine sieve strainer, including the juices that settle in the bowl where you cool and pick the meat off the bones. Reserve for later use.

Note: You could be done here, but there’s more to do if you want more stock. You need to do the next step if you want 7 cups of stock, otherwise you’ll only get about 3 1/2 cups.

Also, you can put it in the fridge or freezer to pressure cook up at a later time.

NEXT: Take ALL the bones, veggies, and herb scraps, and any meat still left on the bone – leave as much as you want!) and run it through the pressure cooker again with 4 cups of water for 20 minutes.

Natural release again, strain, and discard the twice-used scraps.

You can use this second batch of stock separately – maybe add more seasonings the second time round, or just add it to the first batch of stock.

You will end up with lovely tender meat and lots of tasty homemade stock.

Enjoy!

* If you want to poach boneless skinless chicken breast, I recommend Poached Chicken – Juicy, guaranteed! by Nagi of RecipeTin Eats.