I don’t know what it is but I go full on Nanna whenever someone is sick and I make them chicken soup. I honestly don’t know why I do this. It’s not a family tradition or anything and I don’t even have a stand-by secret family recipe, I tend to just throw things in my pressure cooker and hope for the best. It generally turns out quite well. Sometimes I’ll make a clear broth version with thyme and rosemary and sometimes I’ll do a coconut Thai style thing with chilli. I’ve got a few standby pressure cooker chicken soup recipes that get a regular workout. We’ve recently been buying big tubs of Greek yogurt (because we eat SO MUCH YOGURT) and I’ve been using the empty tubs as containers when I take food to people. I took a tub of pressure cooked butter chicken to my mate’s house the other day and he was STOKED. It lasted him all week and he didn’t have to worry about returning my Tupperware to me. Although he did actually wash the yogurt tub and bring it back to me… I suspect he’s hoping I’ll return it to him again with butter chicken in it! Cheeky bugger.
Back to the chicken soup. Mr Smaggle and I have been a touch under the weather this past week – blocked noses, sore throats – neither of us had been bed-ridden but we’re a little bit shit. I also had to have a blood glucose test which totally wiped me out so I made my trusty favourite soup. A while ago I put a shout out on Facebook to see what recipes people are using and who has a killer, stop-that-cold-in-it’s-tracks recipe. Two that caught my eye were the coconut lemon soup from Quirky Kitchen and this Thai Coconut soup recipe. I pretty much flat out refuse to make anything not in my pressure cooker these days because it makes meat so unbelievably tender and cooks everything in like 10 minutes. So I mixed up both recipes and adapted it a new one pressure cooker style.
WARNING – I use a teeny tiny grater to grate my turmeric and that shit is like ink. Don’t touch anything you love with turmeric hands… unless you like steaky yellow stains all over your clothes/phone/partner’s face.
Here’s my pressure cooker chicken soup recipe…
Serves 6
What You Need
2 tablespoons of oil
1 kg chicken thigh fillets
1/2 litre of chicken stock
1 stalk of lemongrass, finely shredded
3 cms fresh turmeric, peeled and minced
5cms fresh ginger, peeled and minced
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
3 x spring onions, cut into fine strips
2 x small chillis, finely chopped (seeds removed if you don’t want it too chilli)
1 small bunch of coriander, roughly chopped
1 x 400ml can of coconut milk
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
1 tablespoon sriracha sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon gluten-free soy sauce
1 bunch bok choy lightly pan-fried
2 x heads of broccoli lightly pan-fried
Fried shallots and a few coriander leaves to serve
What You Do
1. Set pressure cooker on ‘browning’ setting and heat oil
2. Add whole chicken thighs and brown for 3 minutes on each side.
3. Add ginger, turmeric, garlic, chilli and lemongrass to pressure cooker bowl and use it to ‘coat’ chicken thighs
4. Add chicken stock, coconut milk, spring onions, fish sauce, sriracha sauce, soy sauce, coriander and lemon juice and stir it all up until combined
5. Put the lid on the pressure cooker, set pressure cooker to ‘low pressure’ and cook for 10 minutes.
6. You can either allow the pressure to release naturally or release the air valve
7. Using tongs, remove chicken thighs and shred using a fork
8. Return chicken to soup and combine well
9. Add pan-fried broccoli and bok choy
9. Serve with fresh coriander and fried shallots
This usually does us for about 3 meals each and it heats up beautifully the next day. Although I usually have to fight Mr Smags for it because he loves it so much! I made this last week and he’s requested it twice since then, which is great because I still have half the ingredients left over from the first time I made it.
Tips: You can buy fried shallots in the Asian section at the supermarket. They’re usually near fried fish and long life tofu you buy in a cardboard box. You can just pop the veggies in with the rest of the stuff but I find they go a big sloppy and soggy and make the soup runny. This is why I pan fry and add them at the end. This would also be AMAZING with tofu for any vegetarians out there and it’s almost vegan too if you swap out the chicken for tofu and use vegetable stock instead. Oh and ditch the fish sauce. I think it’s also dairy free – a very odd accidentally allergy friendly pressure cooker chicken soup recipe!
Other recipes you might like –
Best Ever Healthy Salad Recipe
Have you ever tried a pressure cooker chicken soup recipe? What’s your favourite thing to make in the pressure cooker?
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