Name: How To Make An Instant Pot Whole Chicken
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 55 min
Total time: 65 min
Ingredients: 1 medium onion (coarsely chopped); 2 large carrots (coarsely chopped); 3 stalks of celery (coarsly chopped); 1/2 head of garlic (just smash the cloves); 2-3 cups filtered water; 1 whole pastured chicken (around 5 lbs); Thyme (oregano, sea salt, and pepper to taste)

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Learn how to optimize your time and still get real food on the table using your Instant Pot to make a whole chicken in under an hour without compromising nutrition!

Routine…

These days I literally thrive off of it. My desire to keep my kitchen real food based plus a house full of little ones makes routine a necessity.

I physically don’t have the time to be in the kitchen all day. It’s that simple!

So for years my kitchen routine – specifically my chicken and bone broth routine – has been on autopilot…literally. It was something I didn’t have to think about.

I made a whole chicken or two on a Sunday and use the meat for the next few days while freezing the rest. I would dump the bones back into the oven roaster or slow cooker and let it go overnight until the next evening when I would strain it off, cool it in the fridge overnight, and then pop it into the freezer. All in all it was a 2 day process – though certainly not all hands on time. I honestly could do the routine without even thinking about it…

…and then my Instant Pot arrived.

And it sat…

…and sat.

And sat.

Until about a month after I had it {still in the box} my husband asked if I was ever going to “try that thing out” and I decided I better try. I kept reading about chickens being made in less than an hour and bone broth in hours instead of a whole day and while it intrigued me….it’s just hard to teach an old dog new tricks!

But it can be done!

Over the last few months my routine has fallen in love with my brand new kitchen buddy…my Instant Pot! I can have a week or so worth of chicken meat and the bone broth done in half a day versus 2 days…that my friends is a game changer!

I still very much love to slow roast my chickens , especially in the winter. You just can’t take the traditional foodie out of me – there is something about warming the house up in the winter with a slow roasted chicken and a pot of simmering bone broth! But I am finding that the days don’t get less busy as you step out of newborn-hood – they actually get busier! And being able to stock up on nourishing pastured chicken and bone broth so quickly is so helpful!

I decided to lay this out “tutorial style” for all those “old dogs learning new tricks” like I was….take a deep breath – this is not much different than you were doing before!

Put the veggies and garlic into the bottom of your Instant Pot bowl, pour in the water, and set the rack for the chicken on top of the veggies.

Gently lift the skin on the chicken breast and spread about a half palm-full of herbs and sea salt over the breast. This is optional but gives really good flavor to the meat. I don’t even measure – just sprinkle it into your palm and gently stuff your fist under the skin to rub the season on the meat.

Set the chicken breast down in the Instant Pot right on top of the rack, and sprinkle sea salt, pepper, and herbs if you wish to the chicken as well as to the liquid in the pot as this will give the meat stock leftover great flavor for soups or other cooking.

Turn the vent valve to closed, plug the Instant Pot in, push the “Meat” setting, and then bring the time down manually to 25 minutes. It will turn on automatically and will say “On.” while it comes to pressure for about 10 minutes.

Once the pot comes to pressue, the 25 minute clock will count down. After your chicken pressure cooks 25 minutes, turn it off and let it sit in there to naturally release about 15-20 minutes. Turning that valve right away to release the pressure will pull all the moisture out of the meat – you don’t want that! Let it sit and release naturally and then release the valve and open the top.

From there you can take your chicken out, chop it up and either freeze it for later in the week or use it right away. You can strain out the liquid in the bowl (called meat stock) to use for soups or other cooking, and then toss the rest of the chicken carcass back in to make your bone broth.