First Recipe in Instant Pot: Home made Chicken Soup

Home made chicken soup

First Recipe ever in my new Instant Pot.

Who doesn't love chicken soup? It's the ultimate comfort food.

New instant pot with home made chicken soup

My throat has been sore and I've been eating too much over the holidays, so today I decided that chicken soup would be the perfect recipe to try in my instant pot for the first time.

To be honest, I was a little anxious about it. I've been reading and watching videos and there's a lot to take in.  

Last night I unboxed my instant pot and it came with a THICK instruction manual. There were tons of warnings about safety in the manual itself, plus 3 extra warnings on cards strewn on and in the instant pot itself.  

Yeah, it's fair to say I was more than a little anxious. I washed the inner pot and all of the accessories first. That part wasn't scary, lol.

I read the instructions manual for the zillionth time, tested the pot by bringing water to pressure, then released the valve.  So far so good. Everything was working exactly like the instructions said it would. I left the hot water in the pot since it was clean, lol, and I was making soup. 

Then I added 3 frozen chicken leg quarters, 4 whole (big!) carrots, 5 celery stalks, including the heads of 2 of them, a handful of frozen fresh parsley, a pinch of basil, a dash of garlic powder, salt, and pepper, and half an onion into the inner pot.  I filled the pot with water to just under the 3/4 fill max line.  That part was easy enough.

Then I sealed the lid by turning it counter clockwise.  Or was it clockwise?  I don't remember but I turned it to the locked symbol.  It made a sound when it was closed properly.  I touched the "soup" button and it turned on, and I added 12 more minutes of cooking time by pressing the + button,  because I was using frozen chicken.

*I don't know if I needed to do that or not.  Some websites said I needed to add extra time if I use frozen chicken.  Others said I don't; the pot will just take longer to come to pressure with frozen chicken.  I decided to err on the side of caution and added the extra time. If anyone reading this knows if I need to add more time or not when using frozen chicken, please tell me in the comments.😀

The pot did it's thing automatically; it's a smart pot, after all...and I went upstairs with a cup of coffee and googled about whether I should use quick steam release or natural release.  Some of the websites said use natural release for 10 minutes, then hit quick release, and others said use only natural release with soups because the water makes too much steam.  So again I opted to go with the safer alternative, natural release. I have no idea if that was the right call or not, lol.

I drank my coffee, read some more, lost track of time, and when I went downstairs was surprised to see my soup was done and the pot had been keeping it warm for an hour and twenty minutes, lol.

It smelled nice, like soup.  But I was still afraid to open it.  I couldn't remember if the little cork thingy needed to be up or down.  It was down...did that mean the pressure was gone and it was safe to open?  I had to google it, and yes, that's what it meant.  So I opened the pot, while my Mom hovered around me sure I was going to die in a pressure cooker explosion, lol.  To be fair, I was pretty worried myself, lol.

Luckily enough, the lid came up easily, the soup smelled amazing, and looked even better. So nice and clear!

First recipe in my new Instant Pot...home made chicken soup

I didn't chop up my veggies or chicken because I like to drink the broth plain, in a cup, and eat my chicken separately, in a plate, but my parents mash up the carrots and chicken and eat theirs all together as soup.  This would be great with noodles or rice, but I'm watching my carbs, although I did cheat a little because my Dad made frittatas and I had one, filled with chicken, ricotta cheese, and a spoon of cranberries.  It was yummy...so yummy I didn't stop to get a photo.  A frittata is like a crepe, a very thin eggy pancake, sort of.  Not a lot of carbs, and I didn't have any carbs today so it was fine.

My parents liked the soup too.  

I found the chicken to be moist and tender and even better than normal boiled chicken, which sometimes tastes dry to me.  Why something boiled in water could ever taste dry, I don't know, lol, but to me, the pressure cooked chicken tasted nicer, even though it was also boiled.  

Anyway, that ends my first time trying to cook with my instant pot.  I enjoyed it and feel a lot less anxious about it.  I'm drinking  a second cup of broth right now, in my big red cup :-).

My biggest red mug, ready to be filled with yummy chicken soup broth.

My Home Made Chicken Soup Recipe  (for 6 quart instant pot)

3-4 frozen chicken leg quarters (leg and thighs attached), or any chicken, really.

1/2 onion

4-6 carrots (add more or less depending on taste)

4-6 celery stalks (add more or less depending on taste)

1 tbsp basil

handful of frozen fresh parsley

dash of salt, pepper, garlic powder (or 1-3 cloves garlic; I was out)

*water (add last)

Put ingredients in instant pot.  

*Cover with water to just under the fill line.  Do not over fill.

Close the lid and make sure it's locked in place. Plug in the instant pot.

Touch the "soup" button.  

Touch the + button to add 10-12 minutes of cooking time (I don't know if this is necessary)

Go relax or do something else; the instant pot will do all of the work.  Check it later (not sure how much later because I lost track of time).  

When the little pressure float valve (the silver thing that looks like a cork) has gone down low, the pressure has been released and it's safe to open the lid.

That's it!  You can add noodles or rice if you like, but I'm low carb (or trying) so I left them out.

You can add fewer or more spices depending on your tastes.  I have a sore throat and wanted a non spicy soup.

*add maggie or parmesan cheese, more salt, etc., in your own cup or bowl to taste. This way it's not too salty for people who don't like salt (like me). 

I like my soup as a broth, so I don't cut up my veggies and I remove the chicken when it's done. You can definitely cut up your veggies and remove the chicken, debone it, shred it, and put it back in.  You can add noodles or rice. That's how my parents like it, so after I take out 2 cups of broth for myself, I add the chicken back in and mash the carrots/cut the celery.