Healing Chicken Soup for the Busy Soul Pressure Cooker Recipe

Healing Chicken Soup For The Busy Soul Pressure Cooker Recipe

Ingredients

SERVES 4 to 5 – Cooker: 6- to 8-quart – Time: 30 minutes at HIGH pressure

• 1 (3½- to 4-pound) chicken
• 1 medium onion, halved lengthwise
• 1 medium carrot, halved crosswise
• 1 rib celery, halved crosswise
• 2 sprigs fresh flatleaf parsley
• ½ bay leaf
• ¼ to ½ teaspoon peppercorns (use ¼ teaspoon if you have only black pepper; ½ teaspoon if you have a blend of different colored peppercorns)
• 6 to 6½ cups water, or as needed
• sea salt
• 1 cup cooked rice or a small soup pasta such as orzo, for serving
• minced fresh flatleaf parsley, for serving (optional).

Method

1. Rinse the chicken
2. Remove the bag of giblets from the cavity
3. Pull off and discard any large lumps of fat from inside the cavity or around the neck
4. Place the chicken in a 6- to 8-quart pressure cooker pot, breast side up
5. Add the neck, heart, and gizzard but not the liver
6. Tuck the onion, carrot, celery, parsley sprigs, bay leaf, and peppercorns around the chicken
7. Locate the maximum fill line on your pressure cooker
8. Add the water, stopping if you hit the maximum fill line
9. Depending on the shape of your cooker, the chicken should be just covered or almost covered
10. Add up to ½ cup more water if the chicken isn’t covered if you can do so without exceeding the maximum capacity of your cooker
11. Close and lock the lid
12. Set the burner heat to high
13. When the cooker reaches HIGH pressure, reduce the burner heat as low as you can and still maintain HIGH pressure
14. Set a timer to cook for 30 minutes
15. Remove the pot from the heat
16. Open the cooker with the Quick Release method
17. Be careful of the steam as you remove the lid
18. Put a sturdy wooden spoon in the cavity of the chicken and carefully lift it, tilting so that the broth runs out of the cavity into the pot
19. Place the chicken on a plate
20. Set a large colander or strainer lined with a double layer of cheesecloth over a large bowl and pour the broth through to strain it
21. Use tongs to set aside the carrot
22. Discard the remaining contents of the colander
23. Taste the broth for salt
24. Slice the carrot and return it to the soup in the bowl, or distribute it among the serving bowls if you are serving the soup right away
25. Remove the skin from one side of the chicken breast with a sharp knife and fork, then chop or shred the meat
26. Add it to the soup or distribute among the bowls
27. Repeat with the second breast half if desired
28. Add the rice or pasta
29. Before serving, top each bowl of hot soup with minced parsley if desired
30. Note: If you don’t want to discard the remaining chicken meat, use it in a filling for enchiladas, cannelloni, or another use where a moist sauce and powerful flavors take center stage
31. The meat can be frozen in a ziptop plastic freezer bag up to 2 months
32. Persian Chicken Soup for the Busy Soul: Wash 5 dried Persian limes well, then pierce them with a fork through to their centers (so that the cooking liquid can run through and they can distribute their pungent citrusy flavor)
33. Add them and 2 to 3 white waxy new potatoes, cubed, in Step 2

Full List of Chicken Recipes
Full List of Poultry Recipes