This Instant Pot chicken noodle soup is the best chicken noodle soup I’ve ever made. Seriously, it really is that good. What makes it even better is that it’s made in the Instant Pot which means it cooks in no time! It’s packed with big chunks of moist chicken, veggies, egg noodles, and a rich and robust broth.
I’ve been sick for over two days and craving some home made chicken noodle soup. Yesterday I drug myself to take my daughter to Barnes and Noble so she could use a gift card she got from her grandmother. Even though I was sick, I couldn’t resist helping her buy a book.
Across the street from the book store is a Whole Foods grocery so I had a great idea to buy some chicken noodle soup for dinner from its food bar. We got there and the soups of the day just didn’t appeal to me so we walked out with frozen pot stickers, an extra large chocolate cupcake with three buttercream flowers on top, and 2 overpriced salted caramel macarons.
Needless to say when the next day rolled around I still had a hankering for some chicken noodle soup, I wasn’t surprised: Instant Pot to the rescue. I haven’t made much in my Instant Pot yet, but thought it should be able to make a great batch of Instant Pot chicken noodle soup. And, I knew it could cook frozen chicken in minutes.
It didn’t disappoint.
I was able to make an amazing pot of Instant Pot chicken noodle soup with frozen chicken for lunch.
Normally, I’d do all of this on the stovetop, or in a crockpot, but I cooked EVERYTHING in the Instant Pot. Pressure cookers are the way to go when you want a meal on the table fast!
At one point I was about to get out a saute pan to cook the vegetables and then I remembered the Instant Pot has a saute setting. WIN!
Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup Ingredients
- chicken breasts (can be frozen)
- carrots
- celery
- onion
- butter
- garlic
- fresh ginger (this gives it an amazing flavor!)
- noodles
- bay leaf
- Italian seasonings
- salt & pepper
- chicken broth
Can You Cook Frozen Chicken in the Instant Pot?
This is definitely a yes! I use frozen chicken breasts for this ip chicken recipe! There are plenty of times that I have no idea what’s for dinner and didn’t think to take chicken out of the freezer to thaw for dinner. Instant Pot to the rescue. The Instant Pot cooks frozen chicken in minutes.
How To Make Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup
For this chicken soup recipe, I cooked four frozen chicken breasts with one cup of water for 10 minutes on manual. (NOTE: Depending on the size/thickness of your chicken, you may need to cook them longer. I used fairly thin breasts for this recipe.)
Then I let the steam vent and removed the chicken and drained the water.
I chopped the chicken up and set it aside.
Then I put in butter on the saute setting and added the veggies and sauteed them for 5 minutes.
Next, I put in the chicken, and then add eight cups of pre-made chicken broth.
Finished with seasonings and noodles.
Then I put the top on and set the Instant Pot to the soup setting, reducing the time to 4 minutes. (Note: it takes several minutes before the Instant Pot starts calculating the four cooking minutes.)
Once the time was up, I released the steam with the quick release valve and lunch was done.
This chicken noodle soup was so flavorful. It was the perfect pick me up that I’d been looking for.
This chicken soup recipe make a whole pot of soup. It feeds our family of four an entire meal, and leaves plenty of leftovers for another day. It freezes well so I usually put leftover soup in a container in the freezer to have another day.
I’m certainly going to make it again. Instant Pot chicken noodle soup is a new family favorite.
Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 4 large chicken breasts frozen, skinless
- 3 carrots full size, chopped
- 4 celery stalks chopped
- 1 small onion chopped
- 3 tablespoons butter unsalted
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 slices fresh ginger
- 8 oz. wide noodles
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- salt and pepper to taste
- 8 cups chicken broth 2-32. oz. containers
Instructions
Cook Frozen Chicken
- Place frozen chicken breasts in Instant Pot, adding one cup water
- Put on Instant Pot lid and close vent
- Set Instant Pot to manual and set the time to 10 minutes
- Once the Instant Pot is up to pressure it will start the 10 minute timer
- Once the timer is up, do a quick release and remove the chicken. (Be careful to avoid the steam from the Instant Pot vent)
- With kitchen gloves, take out the Instant Pot insert (pan/bowl) and drain water
- Rinse Instant Pot pan and place back inside Instant Pot
Make Chicken Noodle Soup
- Add 3 tablespoons butter and press saute on Instant Pot
- Once butter is melted, add carrots, celery, and onion. Saute until vegetables are soft, about 5 minutes
- While vegetables are sautéing, shred or chop chicken
- Add cooked chicken, chicken broth, garlic, sliced ginger, and bay leaf
- Add salt, pepper, and Italian seasonings
- Add noodles
- Close Instant Pot lid and close vent
- Set Instant Pot to Soup and reduce the time to 4 minutes
- Once the Instant Pot is up to pressure it will start the 4 minute timer
- When timer is done, press the quick release valve (being careful to stay out of the way of the steam)Serve soup warm
Nutrition
ABOUT ALICIA: Alicia is the founder of Balancing Motherhood.com. Last year, she managed to stay sane while completing an MBA, working full-time, blogging, and still baking amazing birthday cakes — all while raising a young family at home.
Gina says
Hey Alicia,
Kevin gave me and Instant Pot for Christmas and I haven’t gotten around to trying anything with it yet. So this is the perfect nudge I needed!!
Thanks
g
Gina says
sorry, wrong web address
https://www.facebook.com/GHDesigns-1162672900497228/
William91 says
Hi, do you allow guest posting on balancingmotherhood.com ? 🙂 Let me know on my email
Briana says
How many servings does this make?
Alicia at BalancingMotherhood.com says
I got about 6-8 servings from this soup recipe.
Lorraine says
Just finished your wonderful soup. It is a cold, snowy night in Colorado and the chicken noodle soup was perfect. I followed your recipe exactly as you described and it couldn’t be better. Thank you for sharing and I will use your recipe many times in the future.
Katie Graham says
Did you use frozen egg noodles from the freezer section of the grocery store or uncooked wide noodles where you buy other boxed uncooked pasta? Thanks!
Alicia at BalancingMotherhood.com says
Katie, I used a bag of uncooked wide noodles.
Katie Graham says
Thank you!
Larine says
I hope this turns out to right. I’m preparing it right now as I type. I’m so excited. Finally putting my instant pot to work.
Your soup looks delicious. Thanks so much.
Alicia at BalancingMotherhood.com says
I hope it turns out great for you. It’s such a great time-saving recipe!
Larine says
OMG…..This soup is spot on!! I will make it again. It’s a keeper. Thanks again.
Alicia at BalancingMotherhood.com says
I’m so glad to hear! It’s a recurring favorite in our house too!
Jeff says
Well I can say this works for Dads too. My daughter is sick tonight and she wanted chicken soup. I made this any the entire pot disappeared in NO TIME! Thanks for the recipe. I will definitely make this again
Alicia at BalancingMotherhood.com says
Wow! Great story, Jeff. So glad the recipe worked so well for you!
Erica says
Hi there.
My frozen chicken breast did not cook through at 10 mins. It was a larger breast, but it was still very raw inside. Other recipes I have seen suggested 14 mins for frozen chicken….
Finishing cooking the chicken on the stove then adding it back to the pot.
Alicia at BalancingMotherhood.com says
Thanks for pointing this out, Erica! I’ll update the recipe with more specifics about the size of chicken breasts. I used fairly thin breasts.
Steve Bishop says
My chicken breasts also did not cook all the way. I added another 10 minutes and the fame out perfect. Can’t wait to try the finished results!
Lori M Hegge says
I had the same happen
Sonya says
I had the same experience. Would recommend increasing the frozen chicken cook time to 15 minutes – cooked all the way thru and more tender and easier to shred.
Melissa says
Thank you so much for this recipe!! It is the best chicken noodle soup I’ve ever made! I’ve had my IP for a few months and almost gave up on it, but this recipe is a winner!
Alicia at BalancingMotherhood.com says
Thanks Melissa! I’m so glad you liked it!
Angela L Emrich says
I assume you used boneless chicken breasts…
Alicia at BalancingMotherhood.com says
Yes, I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
Tami says
Just made this today because our family wasn’t feeling well. It is delicious!!! Thank you!!
Alicia at BalancingMotherhood.com says
So glad you liked it!
Dana says
I set it to “Soup” – but do you do low pressure or high pressure? This is a DELICIOUS soup – I made this from your website a few weeks ago – yum, yum.
Another issue I had is that manually releasing the pressure spurted soup everywhere (it was soup and not just steam). Any ideas?
Thanks for the great recipe!
Dana says
I think I found my mistake! I forgot that the first time I made it, I put it for 4 minutes on manual (not soup). I’m manually releasing now – and now soup is coming out – just steam! Phew.
Alicia at BalancingMotherhood.com says
So glad you liked it, and glad you figured out why it spurted soup!!
Belinda says
Made this last night for my husband as he has a cold and was asking for soup. I did not want to use canned soup that has too much sodium. I did not have ginger or celery, but pretty much everything else, but that did not downplay the taste. I did not have wide noodles but had Rotini, which worked well. The soup was delicious ! Any time I had to go outside and re-enter the house, I could immediately smell the soup and would tell my husband ” that soup smells so good ! ” My husband says ” And it is all homemade!”
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Elsa says
One of my kids came down with the flu and your recipe came to the rescue. Since I didn’t have the wide noodles I made due with vermicelli. It doesn’t look as nicely textured are yours but it still trastes delicious and everyone in my house loved it. Thank you!
Lisa says
I made this tonight as my husband is sick and I wanted something quick for dinner. I used 2 large Costco breasts but one didn’t fully cook in 10 min. so I chopped it up and sauteed it to finish it. The recipe turned out as good as what I cook on the stove and in less time. I will definitely use it again. I changed the spices to the ones I always use (sage, thyme and bay leaf).
Joanne says
Thanks for the recipe. Hubby is sick with a cold. Smells delicious and would have been quicker except your step by step instructions said to vent the soup not seal and vent. So it took forever till I realized it would never reach pressure that way, lol. Just tasted. OMG it’s amazing! I used 2 types of broth, miso and chicken plus added sage as well as Italian seasoning. Mmmmm! Thank u!
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Hayley Effler says
Fantastic recipe! The only variances for me were:
1) My chicken took about 16 minutes to cook (it was a thick slab of frozen chicken, so no surprise there); and,
2) I didn’t use any noodles and just added extra celery and carrots.
You’re right – the ginger really adds a nice flavor to the broth.
Amanda says
WOW – this was amazing! I was sick and wanted some homemade soup and managed to whip this up and barely put forth any effort. I had some Watkins chicken base on hand so added some of that – definitely recommend. Loved the ginger – I call it the “secret ingredient.” Sharing with my friends and going to make again and again!
Kevin says
This recipe makes a good starting point.
Just, don’t throw out that water from cooking the frozen chicken.
A lot of the Commercial frozen Chicken Breasts, are usually coated in chicken broth to begin with. After cooking these you will end up with about 3-5 cups of broth, Throwing that out is a waste. so I reserve it, and add unsalted broth to bring it up to level. and then add it back to the pot.
Diane Ryan Bono says
I AM A BELIEVER!!
So after reading the recipe I was convinced the noodles would be mushy. I tried it anyway and used 8oz by weight of rotini pasta.
I was proved wrong! Everything was perfect! This recipe is a keeper!
I would say this makes 8 servings…..
(I used ground ginger because I didn’t have fresh and just used a couple sprinkles)
Thank you!