Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup

It’s officially fall which means a couple things, I’ve dusted off the sweaters and flannels, leaves are changing (well, everywhere but here), and it’s time to get cozy! Soup is one of those things that just feels inevitable in the colder seasons, just like cider and pecan pie. Though sometimes it actually becomes inevitable when the colder weather brings… well, colds. Jimmy caught a cold a couple weekends ago and so we thought to whip up some chicken noodle soup but you know, the other part about being sick is you don’t want to wait all day to get something warm in you. And it really can’t require that much energy.

There is no shame in not making a dish from scratch, sometimes you don’t have time, sometimes let’s face it, it’s just not worth the time. But there is something nice about making dishes at home, knowing exactly what went into a bowl, being able to make a batch of something for the week, or just creating something that you can say, yea, I made that. Welcome to my ‘scratch-ish’ series.

Rotisserie chicken might be one of my favorite items to buy at the store because it’s so versatile! And of course by “the store”, I mean Costco, I think we can all agree they made the best rotisserie chicken! It’s already cooked and seasoned so immediately toss it on a salad, throw it in pasta, add it to a soup, heck I just eat it right off the bone with a fork when I first bring it home. But the best part is that once you strip it of all its meat you can still cook down the bones to make soup! Even better if you have an Instant Pot, throw everything in and be enjoying a rich bowl of soup in an hour or less!

Weird, why does your soup look so brown? Because we added grilled onions!

For this recipe we kept it scratch-ish by using store bought rotisserie chicken and broth, I actually prefer using 100% chicken broth here instead of making it from scratch as many recipes call for added butter and way more salt than I’d like to use this early in the recipe (and that’s coming from someone who loves salt, I rather salt to taste at the end.) One after effect of doing the Whole30 is that I feel like I have gotten crazy about any unnecessary ingredients that often get added to processed foods – I promise you, this soup has tons of flavor we’re just going to pull it out of the bones!

1. Start by stripping the meat off of the bones and toss the bones into the Instant Pot (don’t worry about getting every little bit off).
2. Pour in the chicken broth until it’s just nearly covering the bones.
3. Add the dried herbs – I have thyme growing in the yard so we went with fresh herbs here.
4. Ensure the pressure valve is set to Sealing then hit the Soup button – it’ll cook for about 30 minutes after the pressure has built up in the Instant Pot.
5. Optional: I like the rich flavor of caramelized onions in soup, so while the soup is pressurizing, add a little oil to a small saucepan on medium-high heat. Cook the onions down until there is no excessive oil left on the pan, then add a little water (the pan should sizzle) and the onions should be cooking in the water until all the water gets cooked off, then repeat until they are caramelized to your preference.  This technique keeps your onions from burning, and browning slowly as it pulls the sugars out from the onion to caramelize. 
6. When done, you can let the Instant Pot naturally release pressure, or if you want to speed up the process, flick the pressure valve from Sealing to Venting – this will cause steam to come shooting out so I recommend placing a towel over the valve to avoid any spurting and to make sure you don’t burn yourself in the process!!
7. Open the lid and with a slotted ladle, sift out the bones and bay leaves.
8. Add the noodles, chicken, and onions, then press Soup again.
9. Repeat the pressure release process again when done. Salt and pepper to taste, serve, and enjoy!