Make ghee with this Homemade Instant Pot Ghee recipe, perfect every time. You can make ghee with very little hands-on time using the Instant Pot. Stovetop instructions also provided.
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It seems that the world has finally discovered ghee, which Indians have used for thousands of years for everyday cooking, medicinal purposes, and religious ceremonies.
I will show you how to make homemade ghee so you never have to buy it in the store again. It can get quite expensive buying good quality ghee!
So, what is ghee? Ghee is essentially clarified butter. This means that butter is heated, melted, and free of all milk solids and impurities.
However, unlike regular clarified butter, ghee is cooked longer, so the milk solids have a caramelized color. What’s remaining has an intense flavor, aroma, and color.
Ghee has a much higher smoke point than butter, which means it can be heated to high temperatures. It also tastes great unheated, used in place of butter.
Ghee doesn’t spoil at room temperature like butter can, and it has a longer shelf life than clarified butter.
To make traditional ghee, you don’t use butter; you use milk skin (lactoderm), the sticky film that forms on top of hot milk. My mom has been making ghee this way for years. She boils milk every day for tea and coffee. She collects the milk film that builds up when she boils milk and freezes it.
Over time, she gets enough lactoderm to make ghee. She processes the milk fat in a food processor to make butter and then melts it and makes ghee, similarly to how you’ll be making ghee with this recipe. I use store-bought butter as the base ingredient.
➡ Looking for ways to use ghee? I have a few recipes that use it, like this Chicken Curry Soup, Ethiopian Lentil Stew (Misir Wot), Rogan Josh, Chicken Curry, Cashew Butter Chicken, and Vegetarian Risotto.
Ingredients and Tips
🧂 Ingredients for Ghee
More details in the recipe card at the bottom of this post
💡 Recipe and Ingredient Tips
Equipment
There are a few kitchen items that I recommed for this recipe:
- Splatter screen to protect your countertop and floor in case the melted butter bubbles up. This can happen during the Slow Cook phase and the Saute phase.
- Fine mesh strainer to strain the ghee from the milk solids.
- Large mason jar or a few smaller jars.
Butter
I use butter made from grass-fed cows. I like to use Kerry Gold or Trader Joe’s butter for making ghee.
Although grass-fed butter is more expensive, I feel it’s worth it because good-quality ghee makes good quality recipes! I also find that there’s less foaming with the grass-fed butter.
The color of Kerrygold butter gives the ghee a wonderful golden color, as you see in my photographs. The choice of butter is entirely up to you; use what you like. Even regular supermarket butter works well.
I prefer to make ghee from unsalted butter. Salt is a preservative and therefore unsalted butter is fresher. It tastes more authentic and the leftover milk solids are not salty and can be used in desserts.
Also if you use unsalted butter, you won’t need to adjust your recipes to account for the salt.
But can you make ghee with salted butter? Yes, you can. If it’s all you can find, then go ahead and make ghee from salted butter.
Slow Cook vs. Saute
There are many Instant Pot ghee recipes that go directly into the Saute mode and skip the Slow Cook part of the recipe. And that’s fine, but you have a greater chance of burning the butter and that’s why I prefer this recipe. You melt the butter on Slow Cook mode and although it takes more time, it requires no babysitting.
That being said, you can skip the Slow Cook stage and melt the butter in Saute mode. Keep a very close eye on the butter to make sure it doesn’t brown too fast.
Temperature
When you’re programming Saute mode, it’s very important the temperature isn’t too high. Make sure it’s on Normal or Medium (Level 3 on some models) temperature.
Please note that the Instant Pot models vary and so the amount of time it takes for the milk solids to turn color may be different for you. For me, it takes about 9 minutes. You need to keep a close eye on the ghee and take it off heat when it’s a golden color.
To a certain extent, this recipe takes a little practice and experience. Maybe you’ll have darker ghee the first time, that’s okay! As long as it’s fragrant and not burned, it’s usable.
How to Make Ghee
Recipe card below has detailed instructions!
⏲️ Instant Pot Method
- Place sticks of butter in Instant Pot. Leave the lid off. This will keep condensation from dripping into the melting butter.
- Select the Slow Cook function and cook the butter for 2 hours. The milk solids will settle to the bottom and will still be pale yellow in color. *
- Press Saute and set the temperature to Normal (or medium heat level). While stirring often, cook until the milk solids turn golden, about 8-10 minutes.
- Press Cancel and let the ghee cool down. The milk solids will darken to a caramel color in the residual heat. If the milk solids start to darken too much, remove the inner pot from the Instant Pot, to cut off the heat source.
* You can make the recipe entirely in Saute mode, which is much quicker. Keep a close eye to prevent the butter and milk solids from burning!
✏️ PRO TIP FOR AVOIDING A MESS!
- Your butter may bubble up initially while it’s melting. A splatter screen is handy to ensure you don’t get splattered butter on your countertop.
- If the milk solids are too light, the ghee will spoil quickly.
- Make sure the milk solids are golden yellow when you press Cancel.
- When they cool down in the residual heat of the Instant Pot, they will become a caramel color.
- Allow the ghee to cool completely.
- Strain the ghee through a fine-mesh strainer into mason jars.
- Store in a cabinet away from sunlight. Ghee will last for months at room temperature because all the milk solids have been removed. Storing in the refrigerator will make it last even longer.
♨️ Stovetop Method
- Place the butter in a heavy-bottomed pot or dutch oven over medium-low heat. Allow it to melt completely.
- Once the butter has melted, it will foam and then become clear, with the milk solids settling to the bottom.
- The ghee is ready when the melted butter turns golden and the milk solids at the bottom turn golden brown.
- Remove from heat and let it cool. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean mason jar.
Homemade Instant Pot Ghee
Ingredients
- 24 oz. butter (1 ½ lbs), preferably grass-fed
Instructions
Instant Pot Method
- Place sticks of butter in Instant Pot.
- Leave the lid off. This will keep condensation from dripping into the melting butter. *
- Cook in Slow Cook mode for 2 hours at Normal temperature. Use a splatter screen if necessary.
- The milk solids will have settled to the bottom and will still be pale yellow in color. Turn off Instant Pot.
- Cover the pot with a splatter screen because there may be some bubbling and splatter.
- Select Saute mode and make sure the temperature level is at Normal, Medium or Level 3 (depending on the model). Cook in Saute mode for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often till the milk solids turn to a GOLDEN color. Don't be tempted to cook for longer to make them darker; the milk solids will darken more after the heat is turned off. (Be careful to keep your face away from the Instant Pot in case the ghee bubbles up.)
- Press Cancel and let the ghee cool down. The milk solids will darken to a CARAMEL color in the residual heat. If the color changes too quickly, remove the inner pot from the Instant Pot and place the inner pot on a heatproof surface.
- Allow to cool completely.
- Strain the ghee through a fine mesh strainer into mason jars or glass bottles that can be closed tightly.
- Store in a cabinet away from sunlight. Ghee will last for months at room temperature because all the milk solids have been removed. Storing in the refrigerator will make it last even longer.
Stovetop Method
- Heat the butter in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium-low heat. Allow it to melt completely.
- Once melted, continue cooking on low heat. The butter will foam and then the milk solids will sink to the bottom and the liquid will become clearer. It will stop bubbling.
- The ghee is ready when the liquid turns golden and the milk solids at the bottom turn golden brown. You'll notice a nutty aroma.
- Remove from heat and let it cool. Carefully strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean mason jar.
- It can be stored at room temperature for several months or in the fridge for even longer.
Notes
- * If the butter starts bubbling up during the melting phase while in Slow Cook mode or during the Saute mode, use a splatter screen to keep your countertops from becoming messy.
- If the milk solids are too light, the ghee will spoil quicker.
- Every Instant Pot is different, so the times I’ve listed may be different for you. The important thing is to keep an eye on the milk solids and remove them from heat when they turn golden.
- See the blog post for more detailed recipe tips, and see the step-by-step instructions and photographs for details on what color the milk solids should be.
Nutrition
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I am not a certified nutritionist. I provide my best estimate of nutritional information merely as a courtesy to my readers. If you depend on nutritional information for dietary or health reasons, I suggest using your favorite online nutrition calculator to confirm the nutritional value of this recipe based on the actual ingredients that you use.
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ANNE says
Thank you so much for the Ghee in the Instant pot,so easy,so well explained.
Love it and will make again
Kind regards from New Zealand
Neena Panicker says
Hi Anne, thank you for your comment and I’m glad you enjoyed the ghee recipe!