Pressure Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup
This Pressure Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup is a family favorite that tastes like it’s been simmering all day, but comes together in a fraction of the time!
What if I told you you could make a rich, flavorful chicken soup that tastes like it’s been simmering for hours in just under 90 minutes? It may sound too good to be true, but trust me, this Pressure Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup is one of the easiest recipes and possibly one the best chicken noodle soup recipes you’ve ever tasted.
What I Love About This Soup Recipe
The magic lies in its simplicity. You’re essentially completing two steps in one: making a n incredible homemade stock and cooking the soup itself. And, when pressed for time, you can always make the stock a day ahead, cutting your soup cook time down to less than 30 minutes! Compare that to cooking on the stove, which could take hours, if not all day, to achieve a rich, deep flavor.
Not only does this soup taste great, but it also freezes beautifully, making it perfect for those busy evenings when you just don’t have time to cook. I always make extra and stash a portion in the freezer for a quick, comforting meal when life gets hectic or when I want the ultimate comfort food on a cold day.
But what I really love most about this soup is that it’s a dish my whole family enjoys, including my four-year-old, who lovingly refers to it as “chicken carrot pasta soup.” It’s truly a staple in our household dinner rotation.
Important Tools
The key tool for this recipe is an electric pressure cooker. If you’re not familiar, an electric pressure cooker uses high pressure and steam to cook food in less time than traditional methods.
For me the best part is the convenience. With an electric, multi-functional pressure cooker, you simply set it and let it do all the hard work, freeing up your time to focus on other things. So even if a recipe says the total time is 90 minutes (like this one) much of that time is hands free while you wait for the pressure cooker to do its job.
At home, I use a 6 Quart Instant Pot, but there are many different brands out there. If you are looking for a great pressure cooker recipe, Instant Pot recipe or Instant Pot chicken noodle soup recipe, definitely give this one a try!
Pressure Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup Ingredients
- Chicken Legs: Often sold as “chicken quarters,” this recipe uses bone-in, skin-on chicken legs to create a super flavorful broth and provide tender chicken meat for the most flavorful chicken noodle soup recipe.
- Carrots, Celery, Onion: A classic trio of aromatic vegetables that form the backbone of countless soups. In this recipe, every part of the carrots, celery, and onions is utilized – scraps, peels, and ends enrich the stock, while the chopped vegetables add texture and flavor to the final soup.
- Whole Black Peppercorns: Whole black peppercorns are added during the stock-making process to infuse the broth with a subtle peppery warmth.
- Dried Thyme: A quintessential herb for chicken dishes, dried thyme adds a fragrant, earthy note to the soup.
- Fresh Parsley: Fresh herbs like parsley added at the end of the cooking process offers a burst of extra flavor and beautiful vibrant green color to your bowl of soup.
- Extra-Wide Egg Noodles: Egg noodles are a staple in a classic chicken noodle soup, and my favorite kind of noodles to use are the extra-wide variety to ensure each spoonful is full of hearty, satisfying noodles.
How To Make Pressure Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup
While this chicken noodle soup recipe has a few steps, I assure you it’s actually an easy recipe and well worth the time. At a high level here is how you make it:
- PREP THE VEGETABLES
Scrub the carrots, celery and onions clean of dirt, then save any peels and scraps to make the stock and chop of the vegetables for the soup.
- COOK STOCK
The raw chicken legs, veggie scraps and peppercorns are added to the Instant Pot and covered with water. Everything is then cooked on high pressure for 20 minutes.
- STRAIN THE STOCK
Once 30 minutes completes, perform a quick release, then remove the chicken legs from the pot and strain the cooked vegetables from the stock.
- COOK SOUP
Once liquid is removed, cook the fresh vegetables using the saute setting then add in stock, thyme and black pepper and cook under pressure for another 10 minutes.
- PREP CHICKEN MEAT
While the soup is cooking, and once the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones, carefully shred it and set aside.
- FINISH SOUP
Once the soup is finished cooking, perform a quick release, then simmer the liquid and add and cook the noodles. Stir in the chicken meat and parsley and serve!
Recipe FAQs
If you prefer to use white meat like chicken breasts instead of dark meat, try using skin on, bone-in chicken breasts in order to recreate the same rich broth. I do not recommend using boneless skinless chicken breasts for this recipe. I would also reduce the cooking time in Step 2 COOK STOCK to 20 minutes. Chicken breasts have a tendency to get dry if cooked too long.
Yes, this is a great recipe to freeze! When stored in an airtight container – I personally use a freezer bag – it can keep for up to six months. My biggest tip if you are planning to freeze this soup is to skip the final step of cooking the egg noodles and just freeze the soup base. Later you would defrost, reheat, and cook the noodles in the soup just before serving. This will help ensure that the noodles do not get mushy.
Yes, you definitely can, it will just take longer. When cooking in a traditional pot on a stovetop, for the step 2 COOK STOCK, you’ll want to bring the liquid up to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours or longer until the chicken meat is tender. Then for the step 4 COOK SOUP, you would bring the liquid up to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Then for Step 6 FINISH SOUP, you would bring the soup back to a boil, add the egg noodles and simmer according to package directions (approximately 10 minutes). By my estimation, cooking this recipe on the stovetop would take 3.5 – 4 hours or longer to make.
Pressure Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup
This Pressure Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup is a family favorite that tastes like it’s been simmering all day, but comes together in a fraction of the time!
- Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 3 large carrots (approximately 1.5 lbs)
- 3 stalks celery (1 cup diced)
- 2 medium yellow onions
- 4 chicken legs with skin on (approximately 3 lbs)
- 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, plus more to taste
- ⅓ cup chopped parsley
- 3 cups extra wide egg noodles
Instructions
- PREP VEGETABLES: Scrub the carrots clean of dirt, then peel and dice them, reserving the peels for later. Clean the celery stalks of any dirt and then remove the ends and dice them, reserving the ends for later. Remove the ends and peel the onions. Rinse the peels and ends to remove any dirt then reserve the peels. Quarter one of the onions and dice the other.
- COOK STOCK: Add the chicken legs, reserved tops, ends and other scraps of the vegetables, as well as the quartered onion to the pressure cooker. Add whole black peppercorns and 9 cups of water. Add lid to pressure cooker and set the vent to sealed, then set it to MANUAL HIGH PRESSURE for 30 minutes (it will take about 15 minutes to come to pressure).
- STRAIN STOCK: Once 30 minutes completes, perform a manual quick release and open the pressure cooker. Use tongs to gently remove the chicken legs to a plate and set aside to cool (the meat will be nearly falling off the bone). Use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove as much of the cooked vegetable scraps from the liquid. Place a fine mesh strainer over a large bowl or stock pot and carefully pour the liquid into the bowl to remove any last bits of vegetables and the peppercorns.
- COOK SOUP: Once liquid is removed, return pot to the pressure cooker and set to SAUTE again, Add the olive oil and the chopped reserved carrots, celery and onions. Saute vegetables for 5 minutes. Add in reserved stock, thyme and black pepper. Add lid to the pot, set the vent to sealed, and cook on MANUAL HIGH PRESSURE for 10 minutes.
- PREP CHICKEN MEAT: While soup is cooking and once the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones and set aside. (Note: The longer you let the chicken cool, the easier it will be to remove from the bone.)
- FINISH SOUP: Once soup has completed cooking, perform a manual quick release and open the pressure cooker. Taste for salt. Set the pot to SAUTE and add the noodles (see NOTES below for tips on how to prevent mushy noodles). Cook according to the package directions. Stir in reserved chicken meat and parsley. Serve.
Notes
I use a 6 Quart Instant Pot to prepare this recipe.
How To Prevent Mushy Noodles:
If freezing or consuming later, I recommend waiting to add the egg noodles as they have a tendency to get mushy after a few days. I often freeze batches of this soup without the noodles and then complete the last step of boiling the noodles in the soup while reheating and just before serving.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Category: Soup
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1.5 cups
- Calories: 622
- Sugar: 4.1 g
- Sodium: 241.9 mg
- Fat: 40 g
- Carbohydrates: 22.5 g
- Protein: 41.3 g
- Cholesterol: 238.6 mg
My family loves this “chicken carrot pasta soup” as my four year old calls it. I have some saved in my freezer now!