Instant Pot Chicken Poblano Soup

Soups are one of my all time favorite things to cook. There is so much versatility, and you can make them SO PAINFULLY delicious when you add a bunch of yummy flavor combinations. There are days where I’m craving the simplicity of a straight up chicken noodle soup, but most of the time I like to make soups that are a little more unique and just bursting with a slap-you-across-the-face amount of flavor…nahmean?

This soup fits into that category. It is hearty, spicy, creamy, and loaded with juicy, tender shredded chicken.

Can we travel back and talk once again about the magic of the Instant Pot? The cook time for this is 5 minutes. BLACK MAGIC. That doesn’t include the few minutes it takes to sear the chicken, actually come to pressure, or the the 5 minute natural pressure release, but even with those steps included, it’s a fast, SUPER LOW EFFORT meal. And the results are freakin’ delicious.

I am going to create my own magic show like the one we saw in Las Vegas this past weekend, but mine is going to be a show full of Instant Pot magic. Put soup ingredients in a pot, cover it with a curtain, pull back the curtain after five minutes to a pot of finished soup. Think that would be popular? You with me? We could offer free samples afterwards? Ima do it.

This recipe is the most ideal weeknight meal possible. It’s fast, it’s so easy, it requires very little prep, and it just tastes amazing. AND – bonus: lots of super yummy leftovers that you can munch on all week. I’m a big fan of leftovers, especially when it’s the type of leftovers that get better as they sit in the fridge and the flavors continue to marry.

Okay, now that I’ve ranted for several paragraphs about how awesome this soup is, let’s talk about what’s in it.

• The chicken: simple seasoned with salt and pepper and then seared in the instant pot on the saute setting until it gets nice and golden brown on both sides.
• Flavor bases: poblano peppers, onion, garlic, jalapeno, and cumin. These veggies (and cumin) cook in the pot that is already nice and flavorful from the chicken searing, and they come together to form the most delicious, aromatic base for our soup.
• The flavor boosters: a can of rotel tomatoes and a jar of salsa verde that we throw in with our chicken broth. You could just add regular diced tomatoes, but I absolutely love using rotel in any type of southwest recipe. Rotel is tomatoes that are simmered with green chilis, adding lots of flavor and a little heat. The salsa verde is a simple, zero effort way to add a huge punch of flavor to your broth.
• The creamy element: reduced fat cream cheese and sour cream. Just about 1/2 cup of each whisked into the soup once it’s finished cooking, and you add a creamy depth to the soup that is the final element of perfection!
• The toppings: avocado is a must! Well, not a must – this soup is yummy plain, but it’s even better with avocado. I also like throwing some chopped cilantro into each bowl as well.

And that’s it, people! A bowl of heaven!

I hope you all have a Valentine’s Day filled with love on Wednesday, whether you are with someone or single! My husband is deployed, and the other women in his unit whose husbands are deployed too planned a “Galentine’s Day” party that happened the evening of Valentine’s Day. It was super fun!

Have you heard of a “favorite things” party? Basically you pick one of your favorite things that is under 6 dollars (a bottle of wine, coffee mug, lip gloss, etc…) and you buy three of them and bring all of it to the party. Then everyone lays their “favorite things” out on a big table and you go write your name on the back of three tickets.

One at a time, you go up and talk about your favorite thing briefly, and then you pull three tickets out of the bag, and the people whose names you choose get your favorite things! So I ended up leaving with a bottle of wine (was totes hoping I’d win that one, TBH), a scrub daddy (awesome, fancy little cleaning sponge) + some delicious smelling dish soap, and a deck of cards + some candy. I’ve never been to a favorite things party before, but it’s such a good idea and was a blast!

My “favorite thing” that I brought was dry shampoo. Because when you have an infant + a deployed husband, washing your hair every day aint gon’ happen. And this amazing dry shampoo was CLUTCH over the past six months, yo. I go through like a bottle every two weeks, if I’m being totally real with you………

Anyway, I hope you had a fun Valentine’s Day, too! Now that you’ve had your fancy, super in depth dinners, you can make this super easy and quick soup to come down from that 😉.

This recipe is only 2 Freestyle SmartPoints per serving!

Instant Pot Chicken Poblano Soup

★★★★★

5 from 2 reviews

• Author: Annie Chesson

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 4 chicken breasts
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 poblano peppers, seeded and diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, minced
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 10 oz can rotel tomatoes
• 16 oz jar salsa verde
• 32 oz box chicken broth
• 4 ounces reduced fat cream cheese
• 1/2 cup light sour cream
• Optional toppings: avocado and cilantro

Instructions

1. Turn your Instant Pot onto saute (on high). Season your chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Add your olive oil to the Instant Pot and sear your chicken on both sides until golden brown. Remove the chicken from the Instant Pot
2. Add your veggies, season with salt and pepper, add your cumin, and stir to combine. Add your chicken broth, rotel, and salsa. Stir to combine and add your chicken back in
3. Place the lid on your Instant Pot and cook at high pressure for 5 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes and then quick release the rest of the pressure
4. Remove the chicken breasts from the soup and shred using two forks. Add the shredded chicken back to the soup
5. Stir in your cream cheese and sour cream until it is totally combined into the soup
6. Season to taste with salt and pepper
7. Top each bowl with avocado and cilantro (optional)

If you make this or any of my other recipes, be sure to Instagram it and hashtag #thegarlicdiaries!

In the mood for more yummy Instant Pot recipes? Check these out:

Instant Pot Curry Rice with Almonds

Instant Pot Carnitas