How To Make An Instant Pot Whole Chicken
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!
Servings: 6 servings
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
Instructions
- 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. Set the chicken breast down in the Instant Pot right on top of the rack
- 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. It takes about 10 minutes for it to come to pressure and then 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.