This Instant Pot Tortilla Soup is THE BEST and can be made with fresh or rock-solid frozen chicken breasts for an easy flavor-packed dinner!
This soup is really THE BEST chicken tortilla soup ever. It’s one of my absolute favorite things to cook in my Instant Pot.
There are a lot of pros and cons to Instant Pots, but, for me, the most significant advantage is the ability to make dinner from a rock-solid chicken breast.
(Okay, and the ability to saute something and then pressure cook it in the same place like in my healthy butternut squash and turkey chili, instant pot pork carnitas, and egg roll in a bowl. )
I order 99.9% of my meat from either Thrive Market or Butcher Box, so all of the meat I keep in the house regularly is frozen. While I love those services, I hate having to remember to defrost meat.
Can you guess when I usually remember I didn’t defrost it? Usually, right about the time, I go to make dinner.
With the IP, it doesn’t even matter! You can throw a full rock-hard frozen chicken breast, walk away, and have dinner ready in 30-60 minutes depending on the recipe. It makes those who don’t have our sh*! together seem like we have it all together at any given time.
It’s like magic! Both for the frozen chicken and my sanity.
Just dump everything in and get it going!
This recipe, in particular, takes a bit longer to cook the frozen chicken breast because the IP is filled to the MAX. Literally, the PC Max line, watch that and make sure you don’t go over. See the photo above.
So it takes 20 ish minutes to come to pressure, then cooks for 20 minutes, then if you used frozen chicken, I recommend letting it naturally release for 20 minutes (you can quick release if you used defrosted chicken.) So, dinner will be ready in about an hour if you use frozen chicken breast, 45 minutes if you use fresh.
Of that time, you’ll spend about 10 minutes dumping everything in the IP, and then you’ll be free to do whatever you want while it cooks.
I suggest making homemade crispy tortilla strips. You could use chips, but the handmade tortilla ships are just so so so so so so much better. I used corn tortilla strips, which I highly recommend because they will crisp up nicely.
Just spread them out evenly accross a pan and bake at 400F with a little bit of cooking spray until your desired crispy level is achieved. Mine took 15 ish minutes, tossing them on the pan every 5 minutes or so.
Totally worth your time, I promise! You can’t have “tortilla soup” without the tortilla part! But, if you are in a hurry you could try making tortilla strips in the air fryer instead! If you aren’t in a hurry and have defrosted chicken, you could make this recipe in the slow cooker.
Let me know if you try this one! Tag me @hungryhobbyRD or #hungryhobby, so I can see what you made!
HOW TO STORE & FREEZE CHICKEN TORTILLA SOUP
Store soup separately from toppings in an air-tight container. Soup can be refrigerated for up to five days, reheat on the stove or in the microwave.
To freeze this soup: once it cools you can freeze this soup in individual containers to have any time! Again, freeze it without any of the toppings. You could freeze it flat in a gallon freezer bag or in a glass container. Make sure to only fill your container 60-70% full as liquid expands when freezing. You can freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost under refrigeration for 24 hours and consume within 1-2 days after reheating to 165F. You can also reheat from frozen if you froze your soup in a microwave-safe container, make sure it reaches an internal temperature of 165F when reheating.
Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken breast frozen or fresh
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 16 ounces red enchilada sauce
- 2 cans canned fire-roasted diced tomato
- 4 ounces canned fire-roasted green chiles
- 2 cans no salt added canned black beans rinsed
- 1 white onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 jalapeno chopped, de-seeded, deveined
- 3 green onion sliced for garnish
- 8 corn tortillas
- cooking spray
- 2 avocados, chopped optional topping
- 1 cup cilantro, chopped optional topping
- 1 cup sour cream optional topping, omit for dairy-free
- 1 cup Mexican cheese optional topping, omit for dairy-free
Instructions
- Place chicken breast on the bottom of the instant pot. Now add chicken broth, enchilada sauce, ONE CAN fire-roasted diced tomatoes, onion, green chile, ONE CAN black beans, garlic, and jalapeno. DO NOT EXCEED THE PC MAX LINE. You should have one can of tomatoes and one can of black beans we will add later.
- Replace lid on the instant pot and set the valve to sealing. Set the Instant Pot to pressure cook for 20 minutes. It will take 15-20 minutes too come to pressure because the instant pot is so full, then it will cook for 20 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spray the paper with cooking spray. Cut the corn tortillas into 1/4 inch strips and spread out evenly over the baking sheet, then spray with cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes, shake to mix up and bake an additional 5 minutes. Check on the tortilla strips often, depending on climate, oven, etc they may cook faster or slower and you don't want to burn them! Bake until your desired crispy level is achieved!
- Once the 20 minutes are up, the instant pot will switch to warm. If I used frozen chicken breasts I like to let it naturally release for 15-20 minutes (aka don't touch anything) just to make sure my chicken is nice and tender before switching the valve to venting to quick release. If using fresh chicken, go ahead and switch that valve to venting to quick release. Make sure to follow best practices as outlined in your IP manual, steer clear of the steam etc.
- Open the instant pot lid. Remove the chicken breast and shred it with two forks, replace shredded chicken into the instant pot. Add in the remaining cans of tomatoes and black beans. I do this for TWO reasons. First, because you can't add them before or you'll exceed the PC max line. Second, because stirring this in helps cool down the soup while adding more yummy ingredients.
- Serve garnished with green onions, cilantro, sour cream, avocado, and cheese.
Notes
Nutrition
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