Chicken soup is one of those things that’s special for everyone. This is the way that my baba would serve her chicken noodle soup. First off, she made her own noodles from scratch. But, you can get great egg noodles that have that rustic feel at the store.
The key is that she served the noodles separately from the soup. Everyone could add that they wanted at the table. Plus, serving cold noodles cooled down the soup for kids.
Everything here starts with an excellent chicken broth. I use a 3-2-1 ratio for vegetables to add to chicken broth: 3 carrots, 2 celery stalks, 1 onion. Next, you’ll need chicken parts. I’ll use chicken feet (readily available from the local Chinese markets) or the carcass of a rotisserie chicken. Add a couple bay leaves and a teaspoon of salt. Fill the Instant Pot to the MAX level with water.
After cooking this on High pressure for 4 hours (or the same amount of time using a Soup setting), let the pressure come down naturally – which will take a fair bit of time.
Strain the broth through a fine-meshed sieve and discard all of the vegetables and chicken parts.
If I make this a day ahead, I’ll refrigerate the stock and then skim off the fat with a small tea strainer. I don’t always do this because I don’t find there’s that much fat in the stock anyway.
Return the broth to the Instant pot and add sliced carrots and celery. I also add some chopped onion. Set the Instant Pot to Saute and bring it to a boil. Because it’s so time consuming to bring this amount of liquid up to pressure and then back down, I don’t pressure cook this part. It goes on while I separately boil the noodles.
Home style egg noodles
My grandmother made her own egg noodles for soup. She rolled out the dough on a cutting board and cut every noodle with a small paring knife. I buy these home style-looking egg noodles in bulk.
The key is really boiling the noodles separate from the soup. Then, we would have the cold noodles in a bowl on the table. Everyone would get a bowl of soup and add their own noodles. This is great for kids because the noodles cool down the soup to a non-scalding temperature.
I serve out the soup by putting the cold noodles and chopped chicken into a bowl. Here, I’ve topped it with dried dill because you use what you have at hand.
Then, top the noodles with the rich, hot broth.
The same rules apply to storing – the noodles are always separate from the soup. No mushy noodles!
Instant Pot Traditional Chicken Noodle Soup
Ingredients
Broth
- 3 whole carrots
- 2 stalks of celery
- 1 onion
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 raw or cooked chicken carcass or pieces like necks and feet
Soup
- 3 carrots sliced like coins
- 2 stalks of celery sliced
- 1 small onion diced
- 2 cups cooked chicken meat chopped
- 3 cups thick egg noodles
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil optional
Instructions
- Combine broth ingredients - chicken pieces, celery, carrots, bay leaves, salt and a whole onion in the Instant Pot.
- Set the Instant Pot to the Soup/Broth setting for 4 hours on High pressure
- Allow the broth to drop the pressure naturally (this could take 30 minutes to an hour)
- Meanwhile, boil egg noodles according to package directions (usually about 10 to 14 minutes)
- Drain the egg noodles. Add the vegetable oil to prevent them from sticking to each other and refrigerate.
- Chop the cooked chicken meat and set refrigerate until the soup is ready.
- Strain the broth in a fine mesh sieve. (Optionally, the broth can be refrigerated and defatted the next day).
- Return the broth to the Instant pot with the sliced vegetables and use Saute-Normal to boil them until they are tender.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste
- To serve family style, serve individual bowls of the soup and allow everyone to combine the amount of noodles and chicken at the table.
