“Only the pure in heart can make a good soup”
-Ludwig van Beethoven
What is an Instant Pot?
Basically it is a new fangled pressure cooker. It can act in place of your slow cooker, pressure cooker, rice cooker, and yogurt maker. The Instant Pot makes cooking simple and quick. It allows you to set the time for cooking and walk away until you are ready to eat. It’s been a great time saver when I don’t have much time to spend on dinner. Personally, I use it much more in the winter than the summer since that is the time I mainly cook soups and stews.
Browse Instant Pots on Amazon here
I received mine as a Christmas gift 2 years ago and have been learning by trial and error ever since. I started with just placing frozen chicken in with some salt and pepper and a little water and pressing the poultry button. In 15 minutes we had chicken ready to eat. There are a ton of recipes on the web now. This is the first beef recipe I ever tried and still make it, her recipes are always delicious. The first Instant Pot recipe I created was called Chicken Kale and White bean soup. This simple soup recipe is similar as I kept the same spices but changed up the veggies and added white wine. (don’t forget the wine).
When I sent out the recipe in my newsletter I forgot to add the wine in the recipe and had to resend the email. Then when I made the recipe again at home, I forgot to add the wine. We still ate it and enjoyed it, but white wine gives it a better flavor. You know the saying, Wine + Dinner = Winner! You can also use water in place of the chicken broth, but the broth helps enhance the flavor as well.
Simple Instant Pot Chicken Soup
Ingredients
2 TBS olive oil
3 strips uncooked nitrate/nitrite free bacon cut in half (to make 6 strips)
3 garlic cloves peeled and minced
1/2 an onion peeled and chopped
1 large zucchini chopped
2 carrots sliced and peeled
2 celery sticks sliced
2 pounds boneless organic chicken breasts
1/2 cup white wine
4 cups organic chicken broth (or water)
1 tsp salt (increase to 2 tsp if using water)
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp paprika
2 bay leaves
Directions
-
- Set Instant Pot on sauté
- Pour in the olive oil
- Lay the 6 halved strips of bacon on the bottom of the Instant Pot
- Add the garlic and onion
- Sauté the bacon, garlic, and onion about 3 minutes
- Add the chicken and stir to coat. Sauté for another 3 more minutes
- Add the white wine
- Reset the Instant Pot to Poultry and increase time to 20 minutes. (poultry is usually preset at 15)
- Add all the rest of the ingredients (veggies and spices) to the Instant Pot
- Cover with lid and set valve to seal and cook
- When finished, allow the pressure to release naturally.
- Serve in a bowl and enjoy!
Helpful Instant Pot Tips
- Using the sauté button prior to cooking in order to keep the meat more tender and lessen the pre-heating time.
- When you set the time or use one of the pre-set buttons, i.e..poultry….You will see it say “ON” but the timer will not start counting down until the temp is fully heated and the pressure is set. This means the recipe will take longer than 20 minutes of cooking to allow for the full process.
- Letting the pressure release naturally takes time too and will ensure the meat is most tender. However you can manually release the valve and let the steam escape quickly once the timer has beeped to tell you it is done cooking.
