It’s October. It’s soup season. It’s *also* 90 degrees outside right now, which is decidedly not soup weather, regardless of the season. So, to reconcile my need for soup with my sweaty awareness of the temperature, I’m bringing the best of both worlds: Chicken Tortilla Soup.
What You Need for the Chicken:
1 1/2 to 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. coriander
salt and pepper to taste
What You Need for the Soup:
1 Tablespoon olive oil or avocado oil
1 red pepper, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
1 tsp. coriander
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. chili powder or cayenne pepper–more if you want it spicy, so I’m going to go ahead and dump in the jar, basically.
4 cloves of garlic, minced (or use jarred)
1 can of fire roasted tomatoes (14.5 oz)
1 can diced green chilis–mild or hot. Take your pick. I’m going hot because too spicy isn’t a thing in this household.
1 carton of low-sodium veggie broth/stock (32 oz)
Optional: 1 jalapeño, diced
Spinach–like half of one of the grocery store bags.
What You Need for the Garnishes:
Tortilla chips
Fresh cilantro
Avocado
What You Need to Do: Chicken
Season the chicken with the cumin, coriander, salt and pepper. Don’t go wild with the salt–you’re going to get salt in the soup from the tomatoes and, most likely, the broth/stock.
That’s it. Just…season the chicken. I’ve tried this with *not* seasoning the chicken and just throwing everything in together and assuming the broth would be enough seasoning and, spoiler alert: I was wrong. So, you’re welcome. I messed that up so you don’t need to.
What You Need to Do: Soup
Take your Instant Pot/electric slow cooker and set it to the sauté function.
Swirl around the oil.
Dump in the diced onion and diced peppers and stir them around a bit. Give them, like, 3 minutes. You don’t want them TOO cooked because then they’ll break down when you pressure cook and you’ll have mush. Less is more here.
Add in the dry spices and stir those around for a good 30 seconds.
Then add the garlic and stir that around for another 30 seconds.
Add the tomatoes and green chilis and turn the Instant Pot to “off” since you no longer need it to sauté things.
Add in the carton of stock and the diced jalapeño, if you’re going with a touch more heat.
Close the lid of the Instant Pot, make sure the release isn’t set to “release and spray steam everywhere” and set it to cook on high pressure for 13 minutes if your chicken breasts are particularly thick, 11 if they’re a little on the thin side. If you’re not sure and you’re going to freak out because you want to make sure your chicken cooks, go 12.
Once the timer goes off, quick release your Instant Pot (I do this on the stove top with the vent turned on), shred the chicken with two forks (or pull it out and dice it up) and stir in the spinach.
Congratulations, you have soup! Make yourself a bowl and garnish with tortilla chips, cilantro and avocado.
How Long is This Going to Take Me?
I started a timer before I opened the fridge to get the peppers and chicken out. From fridge opening to closing the lid of the Instant Pot, it was 15 minutes, and I’ll be honest, I took a bathroom break and refilled my water bottle in that time. It’ll take you longer if you’re a slower chopper, it’ll take you less time if you’re speedy with a knife or don’t pause because you needed to pee. It took my IP about 20 minutes total–including coming up to pressure. Putting soup into a bowl and garnishing took me less than a minute. My chicken shredded pretty easily, which helped.
Is This Even Healthy?
Yes.
What if I Mess it Up?
This…is hard to mess up. You have enough liquid that your Instant Pot shouldn’t scorch or burn, and the only real threat is burning the onion/peppers upfront. Which…just keep an eye on them. Or skip that part entirely and it’s still going to be fiiiiiiiine.
Cas Marburger 