Chicken Soup in the Instant Pot

Well, I decided to make a chicken soup in the Instant Pot. Usually I cook my soup for hours & hours on the stove & then some more! Lots of skimming & skimming…this is how my grandmother made her chicken soup & my mom & my sisters… but I have found a new way for me!!!! This soup was so delicious…full of flavour…Unless I am going to make a lot of chicken soup for a crowd, I am going to make my chicken soup in the Instant Pot from now on!! The final amount of soup that I got is exactly the amount of water I put in… no evaporation in the Instant Pot.

The soup was not ready to eat right out of the pot for me. I used chicken carcasses so I took them out of the soup & strained it. But otherwise the soup is delicious. Usually I use cut up chicken pieces… I think that I will use the bones from now on if I am using the Instant Pot since it worked so well, unless I want the meat from the boiled chicken. If I was going to use chicken pieces I think I would use about 2 legs & thighs attached. If you use too much chicken the pot will be too full & you would have to put less water in…

The colour of the soup is a beautiful rich yellow which I do not always get when cooking chicken soup on the stove

When using the instant pot I do not use the soup setting anymore (I did in the past) I find that the flavour is better when the soup boils at high pressure

Here are the pluses I see to making chicken soup in the Instant Pot

1. No spill over of soup onto the stove!
2. No evaporation  (so the desire to add more water to the soup which waters down the flavour is gone)
3. There was some scum in the soup but not nearly as much as when it is cooked on the stove..so I only strained the soup once instead of a couple of times after it was finished cooking! Of course some people wouldn’t even strain the soup for this little amount of sum…but I heard my moms voice in my head telling me the soup should be crystal clear…so I strained it!
4. I put everything into the pot…turned it on & forgot about it!
5. As I stated above, the colour of the soup is beautiful

NOTE. since writing this post I have made the soup for a large group, I just make about 3 pots of soup! Depends on how many people you want soup for… but I make one recipe, strain it into my big soup pot, put it I the fridge. Then I make another recipe, and so on. I let the newly finished soup cool completely before adding it to the cold soup in the big soup pot!

BEFORE USING THE INSTANT POT…READ THE INSTRUCTIONS COMPLETELY SO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW TO USE IT PROPERLY FOR YOUR SAFETY! 

Here is my recipe

Ingredients 

4 celery stalks

3 parsnips

6 carrots

1 onion

1 kg ( 2 pkg) chicken bones/carcasses or chicken pieces that equal about 2-3 pounds of chicken .. I use 4 thighs & 4 legs.. usually attached if I am using chicken. The dark meat has more flavour for the soup than breasts, but you can use a whole cut up chicken in 8 pieces if you want. Fill the instant pot with water to the max fill line on your Instant Pot once all of the other ingredients are added so the amount of water will be different depending on which type of chicken you use

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tbsp chopped fresh dill ( optional )

Method

1. Take the lid off of the Instant Pot
2. Cut the celery, carrots & parsnips into pieces… I cut the celery into 1 1/2 inch chunks, the carrots on a diagonal about 1/2 inch thick & the parsnips into 2 inch pieces…I cut the thick ends of the parsnips into quarters first then into pieces. Cut the onion… I cut it in 1/2 then 1/2 again. I didn’t want the vegetables to be too big as that would take up lots of room in the pot,,,but not too small because they would just disintigrate
3. I put all of the vegetables into the inner pot of the Instant Pot
4. Now put the chicken carcasses into the pot
5. Then add water…*** UPDATE JULY 2018….I just made this soup & filled the inner pot up to the max fill line once all of the ingredients were in the pot… this make a nice amount of soup & it was still super tasty!
6. Add the salt & pepper
7. Close the lid according to manufacturers instructions
8. Plug the instant pot in!
9. Put the Instant Pot on High Pressure for an hour
10. I left the pot to de-pressurize naturally after the soup was done. This took awhile but I prefer this way rather then doing a manual release of the pressure. When the little button pops down you can open the lid
11. BE VERY CAREFUL TAKING THE LID OFF…DO NOT TAKE IT OFF IF THE POT HAS NOT RELEASED THE PRESSURE…YOU COULD GET HURT..READ YOUR MANUAL BEFORE USING THE INSTANT POT SO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW TO USE IT SAFELY
12. Taste the soup & adjust the seasoning. My soup always needs more salt!
13. Now, i took the bones out…& strained the soup through a cheese cloth into a soup pot… I only wanted the carrots in the soup I was going to serve, since the other vegetables were mushy… so I took out the carrots & rinsed them off & added them to the soup. You can always add the cooked chicken back into the soup. If I do this I shred the chicken
14. I served this soup with matza balls, but noodles would have been great too! ( I happened to have some frozen matza balls so I wanted to use them)
15. And that is it!

Enjoy!