Anytime anyone gets the sniffles in my house, we make chicken soup. It might be a placebo effect. The research around whether chicken soup is actually beneficial during a cold vacillates between “Absolutely–chicken soup helps relieve common cold symptoms!” and “No, this is all just old wives’ tales. Bah humbug.” All I know is, when we get sick, there’s nothing quite as comforting as a bowl of chicken soup. Also, I’m not a doctor and nothing I say should be construed as medical advice, but we seem to get better faster with chicken soup. Could it be that viruses just need to run their course? Maybe. Am I going to make chicken soup whenever anyone in the house gets sick? Definitely!
When I first got married, I had no idea how to cook chicken soup. A decade prior, one of my former roommates had terrified me off of handling raw chicken. “Don’t you know that raw chicken has salmonella?!” Her frantic tone would ring in my head, “Everything the raw chicken touches has to be sanitized!” She wasn’t wrong, but the fear of germs had left a stubborn hesitance to even attempt to work with raw chicken.
Ironically, a couple of years later, when I was living in rural Ecuador, I was tasked with sending chickens to meet their maker. I really didn’t have a problem with moving the bird from life to the great beyond, but I still did not prepare the food past plucking the feathers.
When Aaron and I got married, we were living in New York, and the harsh winters led to inevitable colds. However, 500 miles from my mother, the responsibility for making our heart-warming, throat-healing wonder soup fell on my shoulders. After a frantic call to my mother, the sacred knowledge was passed to me, and with it, the power to heal. Ok, that might be overstating things. Still, I made the soup. We got better. See? It worked. Like a rain dance.
This recipe is simple, allergy friendly, and my children-approved. Making it in the instant pot shaves hours off of the cook time. So let’s get into it.
First, you’re going to need a whole chicken. I know that some people make their chicken soup with just chicken breasts or some other part of the chicken. However, I’ve always been taught (by my mother) that the fat in the chicken is important. So I cook the whole chicken.
Sometimes, the whole chicken you buy at the grocery store will have a bag of giblets inside. You need to check the cavity to see whether the giblet bag is included. And if you find giblets, add them to the chicken soup. Sorry, not sorry. The way I cook this soup, the giblets, fat, skin, and also those pesky carrots and potatoes that my children identify as Trojan horses in their dinners are all emulsified using an immersion blender. All the nutrients are hidden in the delicious chowder that results. I chop the white meat chicken breasts after everything is blended.
Naturally, it’s up to you whether you want to use the immersion blender to make a thick soup, leave everything in there for a chunkier version, or take them out altogether. The carrots and celery are important for the flavor, though, so I wouldn’t recommend leaving those out — but the potatoes are probably optional. (I suppose you would also want to chop up the vegetables a bit more at the beginning.) But you should definitely give the blender method a try — it’s hearty and delicious!
Instant Pot Chicken Soup
Equipment
- 1 Pressure cooker We've designed and tested this for the Instant Pot, but the principles should be the same for any pressure cooker.
- 1 Immersion blender
Ingredients
- 1 Whole Chicken 4-6 lbs
- 2 Tbsp Salt (table salt)
- 1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
- 1 Tbsp Onion Powder
- 1/2 Tbsp Black Pepper
- 1/2 Tbsp Oregano
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 4 Potatoes (medium) any variety, but I like red potatoes, skinned and halved
- 4 Carrots skinned and halved
- 5-7 cups Water Adjust the amount depending on how much space is already occupied in your instant pot by your chicken. DON'T go over the Max Liquid line. Once all the ingredients are in the instant pot I fill the pot with water until about an inch below that line.
Instructions
- Add spices, bay leaves, potatoes, carrots, and whole chicken to Instant Pot.
- Add water until about an inch away from Max Liquid line.
- Set Pressure Cooker on High for 35 minutes.
- Let Instant Pot depressurize naturally for 15 minutes.
- Remove chicken and set aside to cool.
- Remove bay leaves and discard.
- Once the chicken is cooled, remove all skin, dark meat, and giblets and add them back to the pot. Leave the white meat out of the pot.
- OPTIONAL: Using an immersion blender, blend everything in the pot until smooth.
- Chop or shred remaining white meat. Add it back to the pot. Taste, and adjust spices as needed.
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