The heartiest and easiest one-pot dinner – you can simply dump in the ingredients and forget about it, and it’ll be ready in 30 minutes. This Asian Instant Pot chicken noodle soup is so flavorful because of the added aromatics. Try it once and you’ll be hooked! {Gluten-Free adaptable}
There are times that I just need something hearty and soupy. No matter whether I’ve just come home from a trip, caught a cold, or had a long and exhausting day, I crave a hot bowl of chicken noodle soup to fill my stomach and warm my heart.
Normally I’d make this dish on the stovetop. But not this time. A couple days ago, my husband and I were both feeling under the weather after a long trip. We wanted a nice bowl of soup, but neither of us felt like cooking. That’s why I decided to take a shortcut using my Instant Pot to make a lazy version of chicken noodle soup.
The soup was ready in no time and I was surprised, myself, at how great the soup was. The chicken came out so tender and delicious, and the broth was bursting with flavor. The result was so good that I decided that I would use the Instant Pot to make all chicken noodle soup from then on.
Why this recipe
1. Dump and forget
Most Instant Pot chicken noodle soup recipes require you to saute the herbs. Not necessary if you use this recipe.
The pressure cooker raises the boiling point of the water in the pot. The extra-high heat not only speeds up the cooking process, but also promotes caramelization and browning in a different way. The flavor of the aromatics will be fully released in the liquid without sauteing in oil.
2. Finish everything in one pot
Simply pressure cook the chicken breast with the broth, then throw in the noodles and the vegetables.
Asian cooking always recommends boiling the noodles in another pot to keep the soup clear. But I’ve found that my soup looks great, even when I boil the noodles in the soup. Plus, the noodles will soak up more flavor from the broth and taste even better.
3. Make more flavorful soup
Different from your traditional chicken noodle soup, the Asian version uses a few bold ingredients to make the soup burst with flavor. You’ll be surprised at the impact of a few pieces of ginger and garlic with some drops of soy sauce.
4. You can cook with frozen chicken
Simply double the cooking time if you use frozen chicken (breast or thigh). I’ve done this in the past when I was really craving a bowl of soup but forgot to thaw the chicken in advance. It’s such a life-saver!
A quick tip if you have trouble removing the frozen chicken from the package: simply rinse the package with warm tap water for 1 to 2 minutes and the chicken will come out easily.
More hearty soup and congee recipes
- Instant Pot Chicken Congee with Spinach
- Kimchi Stew with Tofu and Meatballs
- Easy Vegetarian Pumpkin Soup
- Easy Soy Sauce Noodles
- Vegetarian Hot and Sour Soup
That’s it!
Try out this simplified Instant Pot chicken noodle soup recipe and be surprised at how great the results are!
If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
Asian Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup (A Pressure Cooker Recipe)
Ingredients
- 6 oz (170 g) wheat noodles or rice noodles for gluten-free (*Footnote 1)
- 4 cups chopped greens of your choice collard greens, baby bok choy, or spinach
- (Optional) eggs for topping
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- (Optional) homemade chili oil (or Sriracha sauce for serving)
Instant Pot
- 1.5 lbs (680 g) boneless skinless chicken thigh or breast (both thawed and frozen chicken will work)
- 2 green onions chopped and seperated
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 large slices ginger
- 1 bay leaf
- 8 cups chicken broth (homemade or store-bought)
- 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce (or soy sauce)
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Add all the Instant Pot ingredients and the white part of the green onions into your Instant Pot (or pressure cooker) and seal the lid. For Instant pot, use manual mode on high pressure for 10 minutes for thawed and fresh chicken, or 20 minutes for frozen chicken. Once done, use natural release or wait 10 minutes to use fast release. For pressure cooker, cook over medium heat until pressure is added. Turn to medium low heat and cook at high pressure for 20 minutes.
- Once done, transfer the chicken to a plate. Shred with two forks.
- Meanwhile, turn on the saute function of the Instant Pot. For pressure cooker, heat it uncovered over medium heat. When it starts to boil, add the wheat noodles and boil them according to the package instructions. 2 minutes before the noodles are ready, add the green vegetables and the eggs, if using. Cook until the vegetables are just cooked through and the egg white is cooked through but the inside is still runny (*Footnote 2). Taste the soup and adjust seasoning by adding more soy sauce or salt. Add the green part of the green onion and drizzle with sesame oil. Give it a final stir.
- Transfer everything into serving bowls and serve hot with a few drops of homemade chili oil or Sriracha sauce, if needed.
Notes
- You can use egg noodles, udon noodles, or shaved noodles. For a gluten-free dish, use rice noodles instead.
- If you prefer fully cooked eggs, add them 2 minutes earlier or let them sit in the hot soup a few minutes longer before serving.
Oh yum. I’m all about easy instant pot recipes. This sounds just delicious. So perfect after a long day, and who doesn’t like a little chicken noodles soup? especially with these delicious asian flavors. I love this!
Where can I find the noodles in your picture? Thanks for sharing!
I don’t understand why you’d increase the pressure cooking time for frozen chicken. I thought that if you start with frozen chicken, it would take longer to come to pressure but then the pressure cook time would stay the same.
Thank you for this tasty soup recipe. It was so yummy on cold winters night!
Sooo Yummy!!
Wow! I just made this and my boyfriend & I devoured it. This is my new favourite instant pot soup recipe!!!
It was SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!
Thank you!
Your recipes are amazing, I’ve tried many of them, and they all turned out perfectly. Thank you so much for sharing your gifts with me.
Simple to make and absolutely delicious!
As I’m on the hunt for more delicious pressure-cooker noodle soup recipes, I was delighted to give this one a go. I’m also trying to reduce meal costs a bit at the moment, so decided to use a whole chicken for this recipe rather than the more expensive individual thighs or breasts. The whole chicken was about 1.6kg, so I upped the initial cooking time to 25 minutes to ensure it was cooked right through and would fall off the bone. This did make it a bit tricky to fish out, but was well worth it for the sheer amount of delicious meat we were able to get.
I also used chicken bone-broth powder to make the stock, as we have someone in the family on a keto diet and stock-powder is a no-no. However, I honestly prefer the bone-broth powder for sheer depth of flavour and that it can be cheaper in the long-run for how little you need to use. But because my pressure cooker is on the smaller side, I made the soup base more concentrated so I could top it up with more water once I had removed the chicken later without sacrificing a single bit of flavour.
Once cooked, I added several more generous splashes of flavourings to it to really make it sing. We’re also a largely gluten-free household, so I used some dry sherry instead of rice wine, and gluten-free light soy sauce. Then we also stirred some pak choy, and a range of mushrooms into the broth and brought that to the boil to cook them a bit before serving.
So happy I tried this recipe!
Thanks so much for leaving a positive review and sharing your experience! 🙂
Back in China my mom always make chicken broth from a whole chicken. It adds much more flavor to the broth although it takes longer time. It’s so great that you don’t mind the trouble to cook with a whole chicken.
I’ve never heard of chicken bone broth powder and it sounds very interesting. Is there a brand you like?
I always use regular chicken bouillon for adding flavor to stir fries (like a stir fried vegetable, just to add a bit of a kick). And I like to use Better than bouillon chicken flavor to make soup when I feel lazy.
Rice wine vinegar is aledy gluten free
I had to simplify this recipe for allergens but my kids love it! Love how it’s so easy and 1 pot! Made it 2x this week. And the noodles come out so good cooked in the broth and love not having to cook them separate
One of our go-to recipes. The kids love it.
I love the soup recipe but it was the article that sold me.
Healthy, nutritious, comforting, and easy! Thank you, I had basically everything in my pantry, just needed fresh bok choy. My family enjoyed it so much. Will keep this in the rotation from now on z