Winter weather is still around, so chicken soup is on for tonight. Nothing beats the frigid temperatures in the northeast like a hot bowl of soup. It’s comforting and warms you all over inside and out.
You can purchase a can of soup from the store, but why not make it from scratch. Making soup from scratch is healthier and you can customize the soup to fit your personal tastes.
There are a several methods you can use to cook chicken soup. It can be cooked on the stove all day in a large stockpot. You could use a slow cooker, or a pressure cooker. Personally, I absolutely love the flavor I get when cooking in a pressure cooker.
Pressure cookers lock in a ton of flavor in a short period of time and achieve the same great flavor as cooking it for hours on the stove.
INGREDIENTS
- 6 chicken thighs – bone and skin on
- Delallo – gluten free orzo pasta
- 8 cups water
- 4 chicken bouillon cubes (maybe more)
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1/2 bag baby carrots, sliced
- 1 small onion, diced
- spinach (optional)
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- gluten free flour to coat the chicken
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 1 tablespoon parsley
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- salt
- pepper
- pressure cooker
You can add any variation of vegetables to your soup. I always add celery, onions, and carrots because I feel they are essential to the flavor of the chicken soup. The rest you can modify any way you want to get the end result that you enjoy.
Making Chicken Soup in a Pressure Cooker
My pressure cooker has a setting to brown/saute, so I add a little oil and turn on that setting to a high temperature. I put some flour in a bowl and season it with salt and pepper. Coat the chicken and add to the hot oil, just long enough to brown both sides. The reason I coat the chicken with flour is because I like my broth to have a thicker consistency. If you like a thinner broth then don’t use the flour.
Add the water, celery, onion, carrots, potato, garlic, tomato paste, and spices. Turn the cooker off and reset as a pressure cooker. I put mine on high temperature for 1 hour.
TIP: I use chicken thighs with the bone and skin because it lends the most flavor to chicken soup.
Once the pressure cooker is done, release the steam, open the cooker, and check the seasoning. Now is when I decide how many bouillon cubes I add. You will be surprised how much flavor comes out of using a pressure cooker.
I turn the cooker back to the brown/saute setting on low and add the pasta. Continue cooking for about 10 minutes, or until the pasta is al dente. (The pasta will add starch and thicken the broth, so you may need to add a little more water.)
I add the spinach to my bowl and pour the chicken soup over it. The soup has plenty of heat to wilt the spinach.
Serve the chicken soup with some bread and butter or biscuits.