Pressure Cooker Farmhouse Chicken Noodle Soup

By Foodiewife

This chicken soup recipe will become your new "go to" chicken noodle recipe. To make it perfect, cook your noodles separately, and a bit of soy sauce is the secret ingredient.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon vegetable or extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped fine, about one large yellow onion.
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme, or 1/4 teaspoon. dried thyme
• 6 to 8 cups water, depends on the size of your pressure cooker
• 4 carrots, peeled and sliced 1/2 inch thick
• 2 celery ribs, sliced 1/2 inch thick
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 bouquet garni made with a few sprigs of fresh parsley and a bay leaf tied with kitchen string (optional but adds extra flavor)
• 1 (4 -pound) whole chicken, giblets discarded, or, a chicken cut-up, but NOT boneless, 2 breasts with four legs
• (NOTE: I use2 chicken breasts, bone-in and either 2 thighs or 2 drumsticks any combo instead of buying a whole chicken)
• Salt and pepper
• 4 ounces (2 2/3 cups) wide egg noodles (I used extra wide.)
• 1/4 cup minced parsley

Details

Servings 4
Preparation time 40mins
Cooking time 60mins
Adapted from afeastfortheeyes.net

Preparation

Step 1

Heat oil in pressure cooker pot over medium heat until shimmering (For the Instant Pot, I use the saute button). Add the onion (and a pinch of salt) and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.

Stir in garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Be careful not to brown the garlic.

Stir in water, carrots, celery, and soy sauce, scraping up any browned bits.

Season chicken with salt and pepper and place, breast-side up, in the pot (or just add cut-up chicken parts). Putting the chicken breast side up ensures more even cooking of the chicken. NOTE: I have now opted to buy a cut up chicken, as this makes shredding the cooked meat a lot easier to do.

After adding the chicken, be sure that the contents of the pot do not exceed the max fill level of your pressure cooker.)

Lock pressure cooker lid in place and bring to high pressure over medium-high heat for a stove top PC. As soon as the pot reaches high pressure, reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 20 minutes, adjusting heat as needed to maintain high pressure. NOTE: For the Instant Pot, set on manual for 20 minutes, on HIGH.

Remove pot from heat. Quick release pressure, then carefully remove the lid, allowing steam to escape away from you. (Follow your pressure cooker’s manual for quick-release instructions.) NOTE: The first time I filled my pot with 8 cups of water, which was just below the max line. When I did a manual pressure release, a lot of liquid spurted out-- and I had to put a towel around the lid, so as not to risk being burned by hot liquid. Be careful!

Transfer chicken to cutting board, let cool slightly, then shred meat into bite-size pieces, discarding skin and bones. (I went for big chunks of chicken.)

Using a large spoon, skim excess fat from the surface of the soup. Bring soup to boil, stir in noodles, and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.

*NOTE: I do NOT cook my noodles in with the soup. Instead, I cook the noodles in salted water, separately, then rinse and drain. If you use a bouquet garni, and a cheese cloth with peppercorns, toss that, too.

Stir in shredded chicken and parsley, season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

NOTE: If cooking noodles separately (highly recommended by me), place some noodles in a bowl, and then the broth, with chicken meat and vegetables to serve. Garnish with parsley.

TASTING NOTES: At first, I wasn't sure if adding soy sauce was all that great. My family loved it. The next day, the soup took on a whole new life, and it tasted even better! This is now my "go to" chicken soup recipe, and I keep a quart or two in the freezer at all times.

This recipe can easily be adapted to a regular stove top stock pot, so no worries if you don't own a pressure cooker. I use an Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker and it has become a regular cooking tool in my kitchen. I was surprised to find so many internet recipes for pressure cooker chicken soup includes adding bouillon or chicken stock! Really? Why can't I use a whole chicken, add vegetables, herbs and aromatics to get a soup that has plenty of flavor? Well, thanks to America's Test Kitchen "Pressure Cooker Perfection" I achieved that-- and the secret ingredient (that I was dubious about) actually gave the broth a depth of flavor that tasted even better the next day. I made a couple of tweaks in the recipe and this is now my "go to" chicken noodle soup recipe.