Recipe | Instapot Chicken Soup

Servings: 3-4 quarts of soup plus a quart of leftover chicken

Ingredients:

7 lb. whole chicken, frozen
1 cup of water
1-2 tsp garlic powder
Salt/pepper, to taste
1-2 tsp paprika
1 yellow squash, cubed
2 cups green beans, discard stem end and then snap bean into bite sized pieces
4-6 celery stalks & leaves, diced
1 onion, diced
1-3 small peppers, diced
Small handful of freeze-dried chanterelles
2-3 Bay leaves
Few fresh sprigs of Thyme
Small handful of fresh Sage

Supplies:

Instapot, with trivet
Cutting board
Sharp knife
Two slotted spoons or tongs
Two large bowls
Strainer
Ladle, bowls/mugs and spoons, for serving

Instructions:

Place trivet in bottom of Instapot and add one cup of water. Place whole chicken in, be sure to take out the bag of giblets prior. I like to think of those organ meats & neck as bonus flavor so in the pot they go as well. Sprinkle spices of your choosing. I added garlic powder, salt, pepper, paprika. For my 7 lb mostly frozen chicken, I cooked it for 38 minutes on the 'Manual' setting but it could've gone for another 5 minutes because it wasn't fully fall off of the bone.

While the chicken is cooking, I prepare my produce by rinsing everything well before chopping it all into similar sized pieces. This soup is made using whichever fresh produce I currently have growing in my garden. Right now, I have summer squash, peppers, celery, green beans, thyme & sage so that is what we will use.

When the Instapot is done cooking, I manually release the pressure and carefully open the lid away from me. With two slotted spoons or similar tools, I carefully lift the hot chicken out of the Instapot and into another large bowl. Set this aside to cool. Strain the hot broth into another bowl. The giblets can be saved for pets if they can have it or freeze it to make broth later.

Now that the Instapot is empty, it is time to cook the vegetables. I added back in my chicken broth & more herbs, including the bay leaves, along with all of the chopped veggies. I cooked these on 'Manual' for 5 minutes.

While the vegetables cook, I pick the meat off the of chicken bones. By the time I am finished with this, the Instapot is done. After another careful manual release of pressure, I again lifted the lid to add half of the chicken back into the soup. Stir everything together & enjoy!

Tips:

The bones, skin, carcass & giblets can be saved in the freezer. While I'm at it, I'll go ahead and save the onions skins & veggie scraps that don't have any bad spots on them too. These will all be beneficial in making homemade stock later on.

Let this recipe spark your imagination with whatever fresh vegetables you can get your hands on!