Instant Pot Chicken Soup

By Kath Dedon

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Instant Pot Chicken Soup is so easy. We love it and I’ve made it at least three times.

The recipe is from Coco Morante on Elise Bauer’sSimply Recipes blog. This is chicken soup with no noodles or rice, and we don’t miss them! Coco suggests you could cook some noodles separately to add to the soup, but I don’t think that’s necessary. Instant Pot Chicken Soup is a low carb soup and it’s delicious the way it is!

I have a 6-quart Instant Pot and this recipe fills it up quite a bit, but not to the Max line. The Max line is really the maximum for doing non-pressure cooking functions, like slow cooking. Guidelines for pressure cooking in any type of pressure cooker say the pot should only be half full for things that expand and might possibly foam, like dried beans or grains. It should only be 2/3 full for everything else, including pressure cooked soup. With the 6-quart Instant Pot, ½ full is just under the 3 Liter mark and 2/3 full is just under the 4 Liter mark.

The first two times I made it, I used a natural release. In other words, I just turned the pot off when it was done and waited until the float valve dropped before opening the pot. It took maybe 30 or 40 minutes to drop. That worked great and I didn’t have to worry about the broth “spitting” out of the valve.

When I made it last week, I decided to try Coco’s suggestion to let it release naturally for 15 minutes and then do a quick release. I learned that my pot was too full to do a quick release. When I released the pressure, there was quite a bit of soup that spit out of the pressure valve making a bit of a mess on the counter. The soup was still as delicious as ever, but if I do the full recipe in my 6-quart pot I’ll use a natural release.

This makes a lot of soup. Coco says it is 4 – 6 servings, but I found that it makes at least 6 servings. I may try cutting the recipe in half for just the two of us. We’ll have plenty of soup for dinner and leftovers and I won’t have the sputtering issue if I use the quick release after a 15-minute rest.

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Instant Pot Chicken Soup

(Adapted from Coco Morante’s recipe on Simply Recipes)

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(print the recipe)

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Prep time: 20 minutes

Time for the Instant Pot to get up to pressure: 30 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

Natural release time: 30 – 40 minutes

Time for cutting up the cooked chicken: 15 minutes

Total time, start to finish: A little over 2 hours, mostly unattended

(If your pot isn’t over 2/3 full and you do a quick release after a 15-minute natural release, the total time will be about an hour and 45 minutes.

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I used a 6-quart Instant Pot. This will work equally well in an 8-quart Instant Pot. Just follow the same timing and cooking procedure. With the same quantity of soup, the 8-quart pot will not be too full and you should be able to do a quick release after a 15-minute natural release.

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Generously serves 6

 

1 (3-4 pound) chicken, or an equivalent mix of bone in chicken pieces(I used 3.5 pounds of bone-in skin-on chicken thighs.)

4 ribs celery, sliced

4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced

½ large yellow onion, peeled and diced

3 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled

A few sprigs fresh flat leaf (Italian) parsley

3 sprigs fresh thyme

4 teaspoons salt

2 quarts water

1. Put the chicken in the pot skin side up.

.22. Put all of the other ingredients in the pot.

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My pot is pretty full. It’s just shy of the 4 Liters mark which is the maximum (2/3 full) for pressure cooking in the 6-quart pot.  (The Max mark on the pot is for slow cooking, NOT for pressure cooking.) With the pot this full, I should have used the longer natural release to avoid having some soup sputter out of the release valve. You can read this to learn more about the maximum fill lines.

3. Put the lid on the pot, and turn the pressure regulator to Sealing. You can use the “Manual” program or the “Soup” program. Select 25 minutes of cooking time.

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4. When the time is up, turn the pot off and let the pressure release naturally.

5. When the float valve has dropped down, open the pot. Remove the chicken pieces to a cutting board. When they are cool enough to handle, remove the skin and bones. Chop the meat into bite-size pieces and return it to the pot.

6. Serve.

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If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can make it on the stovetop.

Chicken Soup cooked in a pot on the stove

Prep time: 20 minutes

Bring to a boil: 15 minutes

Simmer: 1 hour

Time for cutting up the cooked chicken: 15 minutes

Total time from start to finish: A little under 2 hours

 

Put all of the ingredients in a large Dutch oven (or similar pot). Cover, bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 1 hour. Remove the chicken from the pot. When it’s cool enough to handle, remove the skin and bones and chop the meat into bite-size pieces. Return the chicken to the soup and serve.

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