Chicken Soup in the Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 1 3-to-4 lb chicken, or an equivalent mix of bone-in thighs, legs, or breast meat
- 4 ribs celery - sliced
- 3 medium carrots - peeled and sliced
- 1 medium parsnip - halved lengthwise and sliced
- 1 medium yellow onion - diced
- 3 cloves garlic - smashed and peeled
- 12 sprigs fresh flat leaf parsley
- 3 large sprigs fresh thyme
- 4 teaspoons salt
- 2 quarts water
Preparation
- Put the chicken in the pot of a pressure cooker, breast side up.
- Layer all of the other ingredients into the pot, pouring in the water last to avoid splashing. Adding four teaspoons of salt at this point will result in a well-seasoned soup broth. Use less salt or eliminate if you'd like to make basic chicken broth to use for other purposes.
- Cook the soup: Place the lid on the pressure cooker. Make sure the pressure regulator is set to the “Sealing” position. Select the “Manual” program, then set the time to 25 minutes at high pressure. (Instant Pot users can also select the "Soup" program and follow the same cooking time. For stovetop pressure cookers, cook at high pressure for 22 minutes). It will take about 35 minutes for your pressure cooker to come up to pressure, and then the actual cooking will begin. Total time from the time you seal the pressure cooker to the finished dish is about one hour.
- When the soup has finished cooking, wait about 15 minutes before "quick" releasing the pressure. This helps prevent a lot of steamy broth spitting out of the valve. Even so be careful when releasing the steam! You can also let the pressure release naturally, though this will take quite a while. Wait until the pressure cooker’s float valve has returned to its "down" position before opening the pressure cooker.
- Prepare the chicken meat: Use a pair of tongs or a slotted spoon to remove the chicken from the pot, and transfer it to a dish to cool until you can comfortably handle it, about 20 minutes. It may come apart as you are removing it from the pot, so go slowly and carefully. Take the meat off of the bones, and discard the bones, skin, and cartilage. Cut or tear the meat into bite-sized pieces.
- Stir the chicken meat back into the soup. Ladle into bowls and serve.
- Let any leftover soup cool completely, then store in the fridge for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 3 months. The soup may gel as it cools; it will liquefy again when heated.