Make a Small Instant Pot Chicken Soup
One of the main complaints I’ve heard about the Instant Pot is that it makes so much food. If you are a member of the nuclear family, this will never be a problem, but too much food can cause both anxiety and taste fatigue for those of us who live in the same family. I feel it the most when I cook soup.
I love soup. But soup recipes make a lot of soups, and I’m not one of those people who can eat the same soup for several days in a row, at least without complaining about it. This means that I rarely soup, or at least I used to rarely soup. That all changed when I saw Food52 ‘s article on using game from Cornwall to make the right amount of chicken soup for the “individual soul”. In it, Eric Kim, who writes the preeminent Table for One series, fills a chicken with rice and garlic and then sautés it with onions and ginger for about an hour. The result is the perfect amount of soothing, warming chicken soup for one person.
This is a great recipe, but you need to stand over the stove for a while to bathe the chicken in the broth. If you don’t feel like doing this, you can use Instant Pot. The Soup function makes this particularly easy, and the size of our bird makes it especially fast. You can use whatever flavors and vegetables you want, but I added carrots for sweetness, shallots instead of onions, five cloves of garlic, and fresh ginger and herbs. I also added some healthy apple cider vinegar, which helps in collagen extraction and adds a nice subtle flavor.
Did I put monosodium glutamate in there too? Yes. Yes I did. I did this as a tribute to Campbell’s cans I used when I was a sick kid, but I also did it because it tastes so good, especially if you’re all overwhelmed and struggling to try something. You don’t need a lot – just one-eighth of a teaspoon – and this will add a special zest to your soup. Combined with the juiciness of the meat, the acidity of the vinegar and the sweetness of the carrots, this makes for a perfectly balanced broth in which steamed chicken can float.
To make it you will need:
- 3 glasses of water
- 1 medium carrot, chopped into 4 large pieces
- 1 shallots, cut into quarters
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 1 1/2 ” thin slices of ginger
- 5 sprigs of fresh thyme
- 1 sprig of fresh rosemary
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 Cornish game chicken
- 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
- 1/8 teaspoon monosodium glutamate
Add water, vegetables and ginger to the insert of the Instant Pot. Tie the thyme and rosemary with a small kitchen string and add it. Add apple cider vinegar to the water. Holding the chicken over the liner, sprinkle salt and MSG on both sides, allowing excess to fall into the water below.
Place the chicken breast side up in the pot, close it and press the Soup function button. Press the “Adjust” button to set the value to “Less” and set the time to 10 minutes using the “+” and “-” buttons. After the cooking time has elapsed, let the pressure drop naturally.
Transfer the chicken to a large soup bowl, then drain the broth from the vegetables and herbs. Pour the broth over the chicken and add some rice (or perfectly cooked vegetables ) if desired. You can also chop the bird on a cutting board and add it to the broth bowl, but I like to pry it off the bone with a fork while it floats in the soup. Garnish with green onions, Italian parsley, lemon zest, or all three. Eat and take it easy.