Make quick chicken soup in the pressure cooker! This classic recipe features whole chicken (or chicken pieces), carrots, onions, and celery and is ready in 60 minutes. Just add noodles for chicken noodle soup!
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The minute anyone in my house has the slightest sniffle, I run to the store for ingredients for chicken soup. It’s the panacea here!
Why use the pressure cooker?
Pressure cooking in the Instant Pot (or other electric pressure cooker) significantly reduces cooking time. If you’re using an electric one, you can also leave the pot unattended while it cooks. The cooker even switches to “keep warm” once the cooking is done, so you don’t have to worry about turning off the cooker as soon as the soup is ready.
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How to make chicken soup in the pressure cooker
Just throw all the ingredients in the pot, press a button and come back later for a piping hot soup!
- New to Instant Pot? Check out our post How To Use an Instant Pot: A First-Timer’s Guide.
What kind of chicken to use in the Instant Pot
I use a whole chicken for my soup for several reasons:
- First, this is the most economical way.
- Second, I like a mix of white and dark meat.
- third party All of the bones and gristle help create a rich, nutritious broth.
You can also use any mixture of boned drumsticks, drumsticks, or breast meat. Remove the skin if you like, but I like a little bit of rendered chicken fat in my soup!
Tips for the best pressure cooked chicken
- You will need a 6 quart or larger pressure cooker for this recipe. The pot should be just large enough to hold a 3 to 4 pound chicken. If you have a larger pressure cooker (8 liters or larger), you can get away with a slightly larger chicken as well.
- Be careful when making a quick release. This is because liquid-rich pressure cooker recipes like this soup can release a lot of steam during the post-cooking venting step.
- Afraid of steam? That’s okay! If you want to avoid the jet of steam entirely, you can wait for the pressure to discharge naturally. Just wait for the pressure cooker’s float valve to return to its “down” position. However, this will take quite a while as this recipe contains a lot of liquid.
- Chicken Jelly?! A good chicken soup made with whole chicken often develops a jelly-like consistency after cooling, so don’t worry if this happens to you! The soup becomes liquid again when heated.
Instant Pot Chicken Soup Add-ins
- Chicken Noodle Soup: Stir some cooked noodles into the soup; I prefer to cook the noodles separately so they don’t absorb too much moisture from the soup itself. I mix them in just before serving and keep them in the fridge separate from the soup.
- Chicken and Dumplings: Make this recipe in the Instant Pot if you’re dying for some dumplings!
No instant pot? Make this on the stove!
Place the chicken, breast-side up, in a large stockpot or casserole dish. Add the remaining ingredients to the saucepan, pouring the water last to avoid splashing. Cover the pot and place on the stove over medium-high heat.
When the soup is simmering, turn to low and simmer, covered, until the chicken is tender and the meat just pulls away from the bones, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Continue with the rest of the steps as outlined in the recipe below.
More chicken soups to cure what ails you!
- Homemade chicken soup with noodles
- One pot chicken and rice soup
- Mama’s Cold Season Chicken Soup
- Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup
- Chicken Mulligatawny Soup
Note: This recipe was updated on February 2, 2022. The vegetables are now added during cooking.
Instant Pot Chicken Soup
ingredients
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1 (3 to 4 pounds) chickenor equivalent mixture of thighs, drumsticks or bone-in breast meat
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3 cloves Garlic, crushed and peeled
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12 branches fresh flat leaf Parsely
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3 big branches fresh thyme
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4 teaspoon Salt
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2 liter water
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4 ribs Celery, cut
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3 Middle carrots, peeled and cut
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1 Middle Parsnip, halved lengthways and sliced
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1 Middle yellow onion, rolled
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Cooked egg noodlesOptional
method
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Place the chicken in the pressure cooker pot, breast side up.
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Add the garlic, herbs, water and salt to the cooker:
Adding four teaspoons of salt at this point will give you a flavorful soup stock. Use less salt or leave it out if you want to make plain chicken broth for other uses.
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Cook a soup:
Place the lid on the pressure cooker. Make sure the pressure regulator is set to the “Sealing” position. Program the cooker to cook at high pressure for 25 minutes. (Instant Pot users can also select the Soup program and follow the same cook time. For pressure cookers, cook on the stovetop for 22 minutes at high pressure.)
It takes about 35 minutes for your pressure cooker to reach pressure and then the actual cooking begins. The total time from closing the pressure cooker to the finished dish is about 1 hour.
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release pressure:
When the soup has finished cooking, wait about 15 minutes before releasing the fast button Print. This will prevent a lot of steaming broth from splashing out of the valve. However, be careful when releasing the steam!
You can also release the pressure naturally, but this will take quite a while. Wait for the pressure cooker float valve to return to its “down” position before opening the pressure cooker.
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Remove the chicken to cool, then cook the veggies:
Use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove the chicken from the pot and place on a bowl to cool until comfortable to handle, about 20 minutes. It may fall apart when you take it out of the pot, so go slow and carefully.
While the chicken is cooling, add the celery, carrots, parsnips, and onion to the hot broth in the saucepan. Place the lid on the pressure cooker. Make sure the pressure regulator is set to the “Sealing” position. Program the cooker to cook at high pressure for 5 minutes.
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Prepare the chicken:
While the vegetables are cooking, remove the meat from the bones and discard the bones, skin, and gristle. Cut or tear the meat into bite-sized pieces.
When the cooker beeps, either release the pressure quickly (for firmer veggies) or release the pressure naturally (for more tender veggies).
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Stir the chicken back into the soup:
Remove the herb sprigs. Pour into bowls and serve. Add cooked egg noodles if you like.
Allow leftover soup to cool completely, then refrigerate for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 3 months. The soup may gel as it cools; It liquefies again when heated.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 606 | calories |
| 41g | Fat |
| 9g | carbohydrates |
| 48g | protein |
