Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup with Frozen Chicken

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 too with breasts or thighs, egg noodles and vegetables. A family friendly meal you’ll love.

You can totally forget to defrost your meat and still make this soup fall apart and tender. A hearty protein packed comfort food in a bowl you can enjoy even if you aren’t sick. Just one of many Instant Pot recipes featured on our blog this week. (affiliate links present)

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 two ways to get this going. You can cook frozen chicken in Instant Pot first, chop up and then continue on with this. OR easier than that is explained in the recipe card below.

Have a Crockpot Express, use that. As a Ninja Foodi recipe 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.

Ingredient Tips

I like to use medium size boneless skinless chicken breasts that are still frozen, no need to defrost in this case. 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. You could use Instant Pot frozen chicken tenders too, that would take closer to 18 minutes.

For vegetables I like to use sliced Celery, sliced yellow or white Onions, and Carrots should be peeled and cut into large bite size chunks, or use a bag of baby carrots. 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.

For the liquid necessary it is best for flavor to use Chicken broth or stock vs. just water. You can find gluten free and low sodium options if those are needed. Seasonings of your choice but salt and pepper are the basic ones but use what you normally would.

If you wanted to add brown rice I would refer to our Instant Pot chicken rice soup recipe. 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.

with thawed chicken

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 temperature of 165F.

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. I talk about this same thing when making Crockpot chicken soup too.

When cooking frozen chicken, 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.

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. pressure cooker carrots, celery, ninja foodi green beans, snap peas, would all work, Things like broccoli will be too soft.

How long do you boil frozen chicken breast in 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.

Storing Leftovers

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.

Other frozen chicken recipes in pressure cooker you’ll love

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. Believe it or not there are so many different ways of cooking frozen meat but I will say that with high pressure I will say that with chicken pieces they cook quickly and stay so moist it almost melts in your mouth.