Instant Pot chicken noodle soup with frozen chicken turns out so tender and delicious! Healthy one pot dinner you can cook in a Ninja Foodi or Crockpot Express too. With breasts or thighs and egg noodles with vegetables it’s a family friendly meal you’ll love.
This is how to make Instant Pot chicken noodle soup with frozen chicken! Yes, you can totally forget to defrost your meat and still make it fall apart and tender. Hearty protein packed comfort food in a bowl y’all. Just one of many quick Instant Pot recipes featured on our blog this week. (affiliate links present)
Table of Contents
- Instant Pot Chicken Soup with Frozen Chicken
- Can you cook chicken soup with frozen chicken?
- Easy Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe
- Ninja Foodi Frozen Chicken Noodle Soup
- How long do you boil frozen chicken breast for soup?
- Other frozen chicken recipes in pressure cooker you’ll love
- Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup with Frozen Chicken Recipe
Instant Pot Chicken Soup with Frozen Chicken
You don’t really have to add the vegetables or the pasta but they go together like peas and carrots in my world. 😉 There are so many Ninja Foodi soup recipes you can choose from really. Yes, you can use that pressure cooker as well. The brands don’t matter.
Have a Crockpot Express, use that. Ninja Foodi works too, they all have the high pressure cook function. You don’t add the carbs until the very end or they would turn to mush. The biggest difference between defrosted and frozen meat is the cook time. That is really it.
If you are new to pressure cooking we have a lot of easy one pot meal recipes for you here. To begin with let’s start with a few basic tips:
- Make sure to Bookmark our InstaPot recipes page. We add new ones each week!
- Then PRINT this —–> Instant Pot cooking times cheat sheet that will help you understand how long meat, vegetables and beans take to cook in your pressure cooker.
- I HIGHLY recommend you buy this non stick pot.
- You should know how to deglaze a pressure cooker after sautéing but it won’t have as many issues with this better liner.
For reference, this is the model I have (a 6 quart) and use for all recipe creations.
Can you cook chicken soup with frozen chicken?
Yes!! In an electric pressure cooker it works great with boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs. Beyond that you use the same ingredients you would if your meat was fresh. If you don’t have fresh produce to add I would choose frozen vegetables vs. canned.
I do not like the texture of canned veggies overall and with the increased high pressure time they would just disintegrate. Fresh cut into large chunks is best though.
If you have defrosted meat you can follow our Instant Pot chicken noodle soup recipe and timing. That takes about 20 minutes total to pressurize and get tender. This one is closer to 35 minutes because the heat has to get all the way into the middle of your chicken breasts to reach a safe internal meat temperature.
Ingredients
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts that are still frozen, medium sizes are best
- after making this you’ll be a believer in cooking frozen meat
- Celery
- Carrots peeled and cut into large bite size chunks
- Chicken broth or stock
- Diced onion
- Seasonings of your choice but salt and pepper are the basic ones
You just throw it all in, close the lid and cook really. No extras are needed, just the inner pot itself. I highly suggest the no stick version vs. the one that comes with your IP.
Easy Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe
Simple is the key here. You just dump and walk away. In about 30 minutes your one pot meal will be done. How do you know if your chicken is cooked thru? Of course you can use a thermometer into the center but basically if it doesn’t shred using 2 forks it isn’t done. It should want to fall apart when you lift it out of the pot.
If it is tough at all to pull or shred then it is thicker than mine and needs more time on high. That is why I suggest medium breasts always. Any larger than that will increase the time needed which will soften the veggies probably too much.
I talk about this same thing when making Crockpot chicken noodle soup too.
For sure, that is what we are talking about right here. We will tell you how long it takes to reach pull apart status. Want to make this even faster? Use rotisserie chicken diced up and cut the cook time dramatically. Frozen typically takes 30 minutes, fresh is about 12 and precooked would only take 5 minutes in an Instant Pot.
See all the wonderful colors??!! Add all the fresh herbs, seasonings and vegetables you love. Keep in mind that you should choose those that are firmer in nature. Carrots, celery, green beans, snap peas, would all work, Things like broccoli will be too soft.
Ninja Foodi Frozen Chicken Noodle Soup
Any pot you use will cook quickly. Naturally gluten free you could use chicken thighs too if you wanted. Those tend to be much smaller and thinner so I might adjust and set the timer for 20 minutes for those instead.
- Lay chicken pieces, add carrots and all ingredients EXCEPT noodles into your pressure cooker. You could use frozen chicken tenders too, that would take closer to 18 minutes. Close lid and steam valve.
- Set to pot to high pressure for 27 minutes followed by a quick release wen done.
- Remove the chicken and chop into small pieces on a cutting board. Pour egg noodles into pot with broth. Turn pot to saute and allow to bubble until noodles are as soft as you’d like. Then turn off and unplug.
- Add chicken back into pot and serve.
If you wanted to add brown rice I would refer to our Instant Pot chicken rice soup recipe.
Yes! We show you here how that is done quickly in a pressure cooker but you could do the same thing on the stove in a pot. You will get the best results by separating your frozen breasts or thighs first under cool water and then submerge into the broth. Boil or pressure cook until meat reaches 165 F., shred and serve together.
How long do you boil frozen chicken breast for soup?
If you were making this on the stovetop you might want to make boiled shredded chicken first. Whether you have fresh or rock hard pieces it is the same method. Timing is just longer. Once that is done you can add as much meat as you want into the broth with veggies and simmer until everything is nice and tender.
This requires a lot more attention on your part as you stand by your large pot on the stovetop to ensure it doesn’t boil over. You would need to check periodically to see how tender each piece is getting. Then the second step would be to add everything together and boil together.
Yes, that takes much longer and you cannot just walk away. I don’t know about you but the latter is my kinda’ cookin’ y’all. If you do love batch cooking though this might be the way to go for you. Then you can cool it all and transfer to freezer bags to lay flat in your deep freeze.
Then lay in fridge to defrost overnight and reheat in a pan on the stove. This will make multiple dinners all at one time. You could do the same thing in the IP with multiple batches, or if you had the 10 qt. you may be able to double this one.
If you do have leftovers they will save nicely for a day or two, no longer. Once it is room temperature store it inside airtight containers in the fridge. Transfer to a microwave safe bowl and heat for 1 minute or so until warmed.
There is a printable recipe with nutritional information like calories, saturated fat, etch below. You can keep it on hand in your recipe book or just come back to make it again and again. I offer this feature in every recipe on my site so look for the button under the pic. below.
Other frozen chicken recipes in pressure cooker you’ll love
Once you enjoy this one you might want to know how to cook frozen chicken in Instant Pot other ways too! You don’t have to make a soup to do it. If you want them to stay whole with your favorite bbq sauce on top you should try our delicious Instant Pot frozen chicken breast with sauce instructions.
You would never know that either of them used meat out of your freezer either. I bet you can trick your family into thinking that you didn’t have a forgetful moment in time. Give them both a whirl and let us know what you think.
Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup with Frozen Chicken
Equipment
- 1 pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts, boneless skinless, frozen
- 64 oz chicken broth
- 4 stalks celery, sliced
- 3 carrots, cut into large chunks
- 1/2 onion, sliced
- 2 tsp oregano
- 2 tsp thyme
- 6-8 oz egg noodles
Instructions
- Put all ingredients EXCEPT noodles into pressure cooker. Close lid and steam valve.
- Set to high pressure for 27 minutes followed by a quick release.
- Remove meat and chop on cutting board, pour egg noodles into pot with broth. Turn pot to saute and allow to bubble until noodles are as soft as you'd like. Then turn pot off.
- Add chicken back into pot and serve.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
AMAZING!! Came out perfectly! Used Italian seasoning instead of other herbs but I wouldn’t change a thing! Thank you!!!!!
oh yay
Absolutely delicious and ridiculously simple to make! Saved this one to make again and again. I think the thyme was the magic ingredient.
Oh good!!
I wondered about the amount of time to cook. Wouldn’t the celery and carrots be too soft after 27 minutes in the pressure cooker?
If you cut them into larger chunks yes they will be quite tender but they’ll be just fine
This was the easiest recipe for soup ever with frozen chicken breast… I omitted the oregano and thyme and used herbs de province and Morton’s Nature seasonings, salt and pepper. Also used a little more onion and used a tablespoon of chicken bouillon for an extra kick! Delicious!!!!! Thank you!!
So glad
Absolutely delicious!!!! Perfect timing!!
Yay