Instant Pot Whole Chicken Soup

Name: Instant Pot Whole Chicken Soup
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 31 min
Total time: 41 min
Ingredients: 3.25 pound whole chicken ((pat dry with a paper towel, inside and out)); 2 medium onions ((chopped)); 5 carrots ((sliced)); 2 stalks celery ((sliced)); 4 cups chicken broth; 1.5 cups water ((or 2 - do not go over the maximum level line in the instant pot)); 2 teaspoons garlic paste ((or two cloves - chopped)); 1 teaspoon basil ((dried)); 1 teaspoon tarragon ((dried)); 1 teaspoon parsley ((dried)); 1 teaspoon salt; 1 cup orzo ((or other soup pasta))

Last updated on April 1, 2020. Originally posted on March 30, 2020 By Elaine 28 Comments

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This instant pot whole chicken soup recipe couldn’t be easier. Just place the ingredients in your pressure cooker, set the timer and you’ll be slurping down this delicious and comforting soup in no time.

Everyone knows that chicken soup is great for you when you are feeling under the weather. They also can appreciate that it’s comforting and can be eaten year round, even when you’re at perfect health.

But one tends to forget how delicious it is. And the beauty about this recipe is it’s super easy to make.

Don’t have an instant pot? Try my other chicken soup recipe.

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Helpful tips

Buy organic free-range chicken. There are no hormones or added antibiotics, which experts have written aren’t good for us. It’s not that much more expensive than conventional chicken but tastes so much better and is probably healthier.
They’ve changed their recommendation on whether to wash poultry before cooking it. They now say that washing chicken increases the chances of getting food poisoning and of cross contaminating other things, like tools, surfaces and utensils in the kitchen. Here are two websites that talk about it.
- What I do is unwrap the chicken, drain the liquid straight down the drain and pat the bird dry with a paper towel, both inside and out.
If your chicken comes with a bag of giblets in the cavity, like mine did, you can add them to the instant pot insert along with the rest of the chicken and throw away the bag. Love me some giblets!
I recommend using chicken broth because it enhances the flavor, but if you don’t have any on hand, use water instead.
The best chicken broth I’ve ever had (other than homemade), is Trader Joe’s organic, free-range broth. The end.
You can use any soup pasta in this recipe. I use orzo because I find it very satisfying but ditalini is also good in this soup.
Even though I use an instant pot, any pressure cooker will work.
If you are used to peeling your carrots, try washing them and leaving the skin on. You will get more nutrients from the peels.
To do a quick release of pressure, first wait for 10 minutes then don an oven mitt and either tap the venting knob gently until the pressure has fully released or turn the knob to the venting position, which will then take an additional 3 – 5 minutes to release the pressure. Please be careful as you can get scalded by the steam.
- Make sure the silver pressure indicator has dropped before you open the lid.
When the instant pot is as full as it is with this recipe and you are adding an extra ingredient past the regular cooking time (in this case, orzo), it can sometimes be difficult to replace the lid on all that pressure now generated by the heat and steam of the contents. Here’s my work-around: press the cancel button and unplug the IP. Place the lid on it (it may take you a few tries) and lock it – then you can plug it back in and continue with the recipe.

How to make instant pot whole chicken soup

Pre-step

Get your instant pot or pressure cooker out. Unwrap the chicken and pat dry both inside and out with a paper towel.

Step one

Gather the vegetables – onions, carrots and celery.

Step two

Cut the vegetables in chunks and get the chicken broth. (1)

Step three

Get the dried herbs – basil, tarragon and parsley. (2)

Step four

Place chicken in the instant pot insert, along with the giblets, if they came with your chicken. (A)

Step five

Add the vegetables on top. (B)

Step six

Add chicken broth, water, herbs, salt and garlic paste. (C)

Step seven

Place the cover on the instant pot and lock it in place. Make sure the venting knob is in the sealed position and press the pressure cooker button. The settings should be on normal mode and high pressure. Set the timer for 25 minutes.

Since the instant pot is pretty full, it will take up to 25 minutes to come to pressure. Don’t worry, that is normal.

Step eight

After the instant pot beeps that it is done, let it rest for 10 minutes before doing a quick release. (See helpful tips above for how to do that.)

Step nine

Open instant pot. (D)

Add orzo or other soup pasta. (E)

Step ten

Replace the cover on the instant pot, seal it and make sure the venting knob is again in the sealed position. Press the pressure cooker button again and set the timer to 6 minutes.

The instant pot will only take a few minutes to get back to pressure.

Step eleven

You can either do a quick release after 10 minutes (see tips again) or you can let it release naturally, which will take an additional 25 – 30 minutes.

Step twelve

Carefully remove the chicken to a platter. Start removing the skin and breaking it up into smaller pieces. It will be hot so be very careful not to burn yourself.

There will be a lot of chicken meat. I never use the meat from the whole chicken in the soup, but set aside some of the breast meat to make chicken salad.

Replace chicken to the IP insert and stir. (F)

Step thirteen

Either serve the soup straight out of the IP insert or transfer to a big enough serving bowl or pan as I did.

Ladle chicken soup in a few bowls and get some bread.

How about a closer view?

I hope you enjoyed this instant pot whole chicken soup recipe as much as we do.

I hope you all stay well and don’t ‘need’ to eat this soup, but WANT to eat it. Stay safe out there!

Other delicious soup recipes

And as always, may all your dishes be delish!

If you’ve tried this instant pot whole chicken soup recipe, I’d love the know what you thought about it in the comments below. I love hearing from you! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see more of my delicious food and delightful cocktails!