Shortcut Homemade Chicken Broth

Make super fast homemade broth with this Instant Pot Shortcut Chicken Broth recipe that starts with a rotisserie chicken!

❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Everyone loves the rich, warming flavors of homemade broth, and when you start with a rotisserie chicken carcass, you can get all of that goodness in a fraction of the time.

We love buying rotisserie chicken from the store when we need an easy dinner.

But next time you pick one up, don’t toss the carcass! It’s great for making this super easy shortcut chicken broth. The chicken bones hold on to tons of flavor, so this broth is always delicious and ready in minutes, instead of the hours it takes to make broth on the stove. 

When we buy a rotisserie chicken, we use the meat for dishes like Instant Pot Chicken and Rice Soup, Chicken Bacon Ranch, or Chicken and Dumplings.

If you’re looking for a more in-depth from-scratch recipe for chicken broth, check out our post about How to Make Instant Pot Chicken Stock. 

INGREDIENTS YOU NEED

Here’s everything you need to make the best shortcut chicken broth:

• Rotisserie chicken. Pick up a large, fully cooked chicken to start your broth. 
• Vegetables. This recipe uses the classic broth vegetables of onions, leeks, carrots, and celery. 
• Seasonings. Add extra flavor to your chicken broth with fresh garlic, a bay leaf, dried thyme, and black peppercorns. 
• Water. We’ve found that using bottled or well-filtered water is best to avoid any off-colors or flavors. 

How to Make Shortcut Chicken Broth in an Instant Pot

✅ This easy recipe will work in any brand of electric pressure cooker, including the Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi, or Power Pressure Cooker XL.

You’ll need to start with just the carcass of the rotisserie chicken, so remove and save all of the meat for another dish. Then place the bones and skin in your Instant Pot. Add the onions, carrots, celery, leeks, garlic, bay leaf, dried thyme, peppercorns, and water to cover. 

Cook everything at high pressure for 20 minutes. Then let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, and finish with a quick pressure release. 

Place a strainer or colander over a large bowl in the sink, then carefully pour the contents of the pressure cooking pot through the strainer, catching the broth underneath. Discard the leftover bones, skins, and vegetables. 

To de-fat the stock, allow it to separate in the bowl, and then spoon as much fat off the surface as possible. If you’re not using the broth right away, you can let it cool fully and chill it in the fridge. Then the fat will be easy to remove from the surface with a spoon. 

Important Tips for Making Chicken Broth

• Don’t worry if you don’t have the exact amounts of onion, leeks, carrots, and celery. This is a very forgiving recipe!
• You can add more flavor to your broth with additional aromatics and vegetables, such as hot peppers, fresh ginger, or fennel. 
• Be sure to use cold water to cover the ingredients in your pot, as it has fewer impurities than warm water. 
• We recommend using bottled or filtered water, rather than tap water. Sometimes, there’s a metal in tap water than can react with onions and turn the stock an unappetizing gray color. 
• This recipe makes about 8 cups of broth, which is a good amount to freeze for future soups. You’ll always be glad to have delicious homemade chicken stock on hand.

Frequently Asked Questions about Homemade Chicken Broth 

Recipes that Use Shredded Rotisserie Chicken

Next time you make this short-cut stock, here are some great ways to use the chicken meat you take off the carcass:

• Chicken & Rice Soup has the same comfort-food quality of chicken noodle soup.
• Chicken Pot Pie is a family favorite, made in one pot and topped with a flaky puff pastry crust. 
• Instant Pot BBQ Shredded Chicken is a great way to bring summertime flavors inside, any time of year. 
• Pressure Cooker (Instant Pot) Green Chile Chicken and Rice is a great one-pot dinner that kids and adults love. 
• Instant Pot Chicken Enchilada Soup can be made with fresh, frozen, or pre-cooked shredded chicken and has just the right amount of heat and fresh flavors.

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Shortcut Chicken Broth from Rotisserie Chicken

Yield: about 8 cups

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Additional Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Don't throw out your rotisserie chicken bones! Toss it in your Instant Pot along with a few veggies to make this flavorful, shortcut chicken broth recipe.

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Ingredients

• 1 large fully cooked rotisserie chicken
• 1 large onion, coarsely chopped with the skin on (cut off the hairy root part)
• 1 leek, washed thoroughly with the white and light green parts halved lengthwise and coarsely chopped; dark green part coarsely chopped
• 2 large carrots, roughly chopped
• 2 ribs celery, roughly chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
• 8 cups water (we recommend bottled or filtered water)

Instructions

1. Remove the meat from the rotisserie chicken. Reserve the meat for another recipe.
2. Put the chicken bones and skin in the pressure cooking pot. Add the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaf, thyme, peppercorns, and water. Lock the lid in place. Select High Pressure and 20 minutes cook time. 
3. When the cook time ends, turn off the pressure cooker. Let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then finish with a quick pressure release. When the valve drops, carefully remove the lid. 
4. Set a strainer over a very large bowl or pot. (Use a fine mesh strainer or a colander lined with cheesecloth.) Carefully pour the stock through a strainer, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the bones, skin, vegetables, and herbs. 
5. If using immediately, use a spoon to skim the fat off the top. If using later, cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. Once chilled, use a spoon to scrape the solid fat off the top. 
6. Refrigerate for up to 4 days. Or freeze for up to 3 months.  

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 43Total Fat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 13mgSodium: 68mgCarbohydrates: 5gFiber: 1gSugar: 2gProtein: 3g

Nutrition information is calculated by Nutritionix and may not always be accurate.

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