Sunday Chicken and Bone Broth
Creating a batch of tender shredded chicken and bone broth in my Instant Pot has become a part of my weekly routine. With very little time spent in the Farmhouse Kitchen on Sunday, we have a warm chicken salad sandwich to enjoy for lunch followed by a pot of double strength bone broth and leftover chicken to create delicious and quick meals during the busy week ahead. My family has come to hope that the warm shredded chicken will be ready for lunch on Sunday, so we’ve started referring to this as our “Sunday Chicken”.
An Instant Pot is the perfect vessel for making this chicken and broth. The sauté setting browns the seasoned chicken beautifully in batches before the pieces are placed back in the pot for their pressure cooking. After the chicken legs have been removed from the pot, I allow them to cool to room temperature so that I can remove the tender chicken from the bone.
Every piece of bone, skin, cartilage, and other inedible bits goes back into the pot with the cooking liquid. I add a bit of apple cider vinegar followed by a little water and then process the contents as I do for a pot of chicken or turkey bone broth. At the end of its pressure cooking cycle, the resulting bone broth is deeper in color, lightly seasoned, and absolutely delicious.
Most of this cooking and processing takes place unattended in my kitchen on Sunday mornings and early afternoons. It requires very little of my attention and time, yet yields us delicious cooked chicken for quick sandwiches, pastas, and soups during the week along with the flavorful bone broth I use almost every day. My weekday meal prep is made so much easier for having shredded chicken and bone broth in the refrigerator at the ready.
I hope that this Sunday Chicken that makes our weekends more delicious and weekday meal planning so much easier will do the same for you. I think that you’ll find that Sunday Chicken makes Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday dinner a breeze!
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Sunday Chicken and Bone Broth
Ingredients
- 4-6 chicken legs
- salt and pepper
- olive oil
- 1 cup bone broth, stock, or water
- apple cider vinegar
Instructions
- Pat each chicken leg dry with a clean paper towel. Season each piece liberally with salt and pepper.
- Select the Sauté setting on the Instant Pot. Allow the pot insert to heat up before adding approximately 1 Tablespoon of olive oil, coating the bottom of the pot. Add a few of the seasoned chicken pieces, skin side down, to the pot. Do not overcrowd the pot, add only as many pieces as can easily fit in the bottom of the pot. Two whole legs fit well in the bottom of my 6 quart pot.
- Sauté the chicken without moving the pieces for 4-5 minutes. Flip the chicken pieces to the other side and brown without moving for another 4-5 minutes. Remove the browned chicken pieces from the pot to a platter or casserole dish and continue with the next batch of uncooked chicken until all of them have been browned, adding more olive oil if necessary. Don’t worry if a bit of the skin sticks to the pot and separates from the chicken.
- When all of the chicken has been browned on both sides, return all of the pieces in the pot. Cancel the sauté setting on the Instant Pot. Add 1 cup of bone broth, stock, or water to the pot. Secure the lid for pressurizing, turn the valve to sealing, and select the Poultry or Meat setting for 10 minutes. When the 10 minutes have passed, allow the pressure to dissipate naturally for 10-15 minutes before turning the valve to venting to safely release any remaining steam.
- Remove the lid from the Instant Pot and transfer the cooked chicken pieces to a large platter or dish. I like to allow the pieces to cool slightly before removing the tender meat from the bone. Place the shredded chicken in a container for storage in the refrigerator. Add a few spoonfuls of the cooking liquid to the chicken, tossing to coat. This liquid will keep the chicken moist and prevent it from drying out in the refrigerator.
- Return all the inedible bits from the chicken legs (skin, bones, tendon, and fat) to the cooking liquid that remains in the Instant Pot.Add 2 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to the Instant Pot. The vinegar will help to extract the calcium from the bones as the bone broth is cooking. Add enough water to cover the contents in the pot, taking care not to exceed the max level. Place the lid securely on the Instant Pot, turn the valve to “sealing”, select the soup/broth setting for 120 minutes, and allow the bone broth to cook.
- When the 120 minutes have elapsed, allow the pressure to dissipate naturally for 15 minutes before turning the valve to safely vent the remaining steam. Remove the lid and strain the contents. I like to store the bone broth in large Mason jars in the refrigerator for use during the week. For long term storage, bone broth can be frozen in freezer safe containers, but mine never lasts that long.