Homemade Chicken Soup in the Instant Pot

 There's nothing like chicken soup, and knowing you can make it faster is always better. I have made Chicken soup many ways, Crock Pot, Stove Top, and now Instant Pot. I think I use the Instant pot method the most because its faster. So with that being said, lets take the mystery out of the whole process.

Photograph by ®Dawn Gagnon,2022

 

I prefer personally to use bone-in chicken thighs, and I like to use the equation of 2 chicken thighs per person in my recipe. You can always use more, depending on how much you love chicken soup right? That's just a basic start point. 

Before beginning your chicken soup journey, you'll want to do some prep work in advance the same as you would for any soup you're making regardless of what sort of method you use for a cooking vessel. 

Ingredients:

Chicken thighs ( 2 per person)

1-2 cups chopped celery

1 large onion

1-2 cups chopped carrots

1 cup chicken broth or water 

1-2 tbsp Rosemary

1 tsp Sage

Salt

Pepper

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1-2 tablespoons parsley

Suggested add ins: Bell Peppers,  Mushrooms, wild rice ( 1/4 cup or less) Noodles

Instructions:

Prep all your veggies you intend on putting in your soup and set aside. In your Instant pot place your chicken thighs in the bottom and all your preferred seasonings. Wait until Soup is done to add any salt.

Once chicken thighs are placed in, add all of your veggies and the 1 cup of stock or water. You can add a little more stock or water if you are putting a lot of chicken in especially if it is thawed. Note:  I would not add any more than 1/2 cup more though as you want the steam to build up and cook the chicken thoroughly. 

Place your lid on your Instant pot and make sure it locks into place. Set the nozzle in upwards position for sealing. I like to manually put in my minutes, even though my Instant Pot has a "soup" setting. I press the Pressure setting, and cook for eh, about 25 minutes on high. Then you just walk away. There should be no steam exiting the instant pot valve, and as the steam starts to build the red button (float valve) will pop up, which is what we want it to do.

Your instant pot will be done in 25 mins.. At which time it will sound off. You can let the steam do a slow release which if left alone will count down on its own. Once it is done, the float valve, ( red button on top of the lid) will drop. You can safely open at this time. If you want it sooner, you can move the release switch from sealed to vent, on mine that's a downward position, and let the steam escape that way. Once the steam is vented, the red float valve will drop. Do not attempt to open your Instant Pot until this red float valve has dropped. 

After you are able to open your Instant Pot you'll want to find  your chicken thigh pieces and remove the single bone from the meat. This only takes a few minutes and is optional. Remember, there should be one 1 bone per chicken used. You can dice or chop your chicken into bite sized pieces after all the meat is separated or shred into larger chunks. Put back into Instant Pot, add another couple of cups of Stock and stir. I usually hit the cancel button at this point and then turn on the "warm" button and stir the soup. After a few minutes you're ready to eat! Well, I am. :D

Happy Cooking!