Beef Free Pressure Cooker Chicken Stock

Total time2 hr

Prep time15 min

Cook time1 hr 15 min

5.0

(18)

A rich, golden chicken stock is the kind of kitchen staple that quietly transforms everything it touches — from soups and risottos to pan sauces and braised greens. This pressure cooker version delivers deep, slow-simmered flavor in a fraction of the time, using chicken backs, necks, or a whole carcass along with classic aromatics like carrots, celery, onion, garlic, thyme, and parsley. A splash of apple cider vinegar is the quiet hero here, helping to draw minerals and gelatin out of the bones so your finished stock has that silky, full-bodied quality you'd expect from something that simmered all day. Store-bought stocks can be a minefield of hidden beef-derived ingredients, natural flavors, or shared production lines — making a homemade batch the cleanest and most reliable option. The process is straightforward: load the pot, seal it up, let pressure do the heavy lifting for an hour, and strain into a beautiful, amber liquid ready to refrigerate or freeze. Once chilled, you simply skim the solidified fat from the surface and you're left with a pure, versatile base that's entirely your own. Keep a stash in the freezer and you'll always have something genuinely good to build a meal around.

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Ingredients

8 servings

3 lb chicken backs, necks, or a mix of bony pieces (or 1 whole carcass plus 1 lb wings)
2 medium carrots, cut into 2-inch pieces
2 stalks celery, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 large yellow onion, quartered (skin on)
4 cloves garlic, smashed
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp whole black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
4–5 sprigs fresh thyme
4–5 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tsp salt
10 cups cold water (or enough to reach the max fill line)

Instructions

1
Add the chicken pieces, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, apple cider vinegar, peppercorns, bay leaves, thyme, parsley, and salt to the pressure cooker insert. Pour in the cold water until the ingredients are just submerged, stopping at least 2 inches below the max fill line.
2
Lock the lid and set the pressure release valve to the sealing position. Cook on high pressure for 60 minutes.

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