Week 4 of the 2020 Chicken Challenge: Chicken Wild Rice Soup in an Instant Pot

Base recipe here from HappyMoneySaver.    I made a few changes.

We left off last week with a roasted chicken.   In our family of 2, a roasted chicken means there are leftovers.    

So - I had a few things that I wanted to use up:   the remains of said chicken (a thigh, a breast, possibly the carcass), the pan drippings from that roast, and about 4 cups of rich chicken stock in 2 frozen blocks that was leftover from the last couple times I made Instant Pot shredded chicken (here's how) and had frozen.

I had seen this particular soup recipe on my go-to site for freezer meal info and recipes, HappyMoneySaver.  It looked really great, so I decided to work with that.  I tweaked the recipe here and there, because that’s just what I do.   I opted to drop the chick peas and add some extra veggies instead, as well as change a few steps around.

One of the features I love about Instant Pots is the sauté function.     I started off the soup by sautéing the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic in a little of the leftover chicken fat that I’d saved from the roast.   

I didn’t have poultry seasoning or celery salt, so I substituted ½ teaspoon each dried thyme, rosemary and sage (which is essentially….poultry seasoning).   I already opted to add celery to the carrots and onions, and I also added most of the celery leaves on the bunch that I had.

Since my chicken was already cooked, I decided not to add it before running the pressure cook cycle on the IP.   I also skipped adding the extra salt because I felt that the drippings from the roast chicken were quite salty.   I wanted to wait and see what it might need later rather than risk over salting the soup.

I microwaved one of the frozen blocks of chicken stock to thaw out about a cup of liquid - I used that to deglaze the bottom of the pan, scraping up the bits from the bottom.   I added the rest of the frozen chicken stock, the rinsed wild rice, and the pan drippings from the roasted chicken.    Put the lid on, set the pressure cooker setting to 30 minutes, and let it do it's thing.

Meanwhile, I picked all the remaining chicken off the bones and chopped it into smaller bite size pieces.   You'll  notice that a lot of the chicken looks pinkish in the pictures;  it is fully cooked.   This is not uncommon when you freeze raw bone in chicken and then thaw and cook it.   Some of that is pigment from the marrow of the bones, some of that is based on what feed the chicken was raised on, and some of that is due to hemoglobin in the muscles of the meat (particularly in legs/thighs).  

Because I already had the stock and the drippings in the soup, I decided to not use the carcass bones this time around.  Those went into the freezer for another time.   

I wanted to add mushrooms to the soup, so I used a half pound each of white button and cremini mushrooms, sliced thin.   I prefer mushrooms sautéed, so instead of adding them to cook in the IP, I decided to sauté them in the remaining chicken fat and then add them when I added the chicken meat.

Once the pressure cook cycle was done on the IP, I let it sit for about 15 minutes and then released the pressure valve.    I have to say - the soup smelled SO good when I took the lid off.   I mixed in the chicken and mushrooms to the rice/stock/veg. 

I knew that the recipe was going to make more soup than I felt we'd eat - my plan was to have some for dinner and then have some leftover for lunch in a day or two.   

I ladled off about a third of the soup base into a freezer container at this point.    Look how gorgeous that is!   That went into the fridge to cool completely, and then into the freezer.    Yes, I know the stock I used was previously frozen.   I won't let this hang out in the freezer for too long because of that.    There's enough there for a dinner one night or a hearty lunch in the next couple weeks.

I turned the IP on saute on the low temp to keep the soup base warm while I finished it.   On the stovetop, I made a roux with butter and flour, then whisked in milk (and possibly some cream...) until thickened.      Added the creamy blend to the IP and stirred well to combine.    (When I finish off the portion I froze, I'll need to make the roux-milk base again).

I took a couple handfuls of fresh baby spinach, rough chopped it, and added to the soup.    I tasted the soup and the salt level was fine  - I added about a teaspoon of fresh ground pepper.  That sounds like a lot but there was 4 generous servings left and I love pepper.

I served the soup with a simple salad and some crusty rolls.   

So...how was it?

In all honesty, this is possibly the best soup I have ever made.    

In a way, it was a perfect storm of having rich chicken stock, roast chicken drippings, leftover chicken on hand to use in this.  The soup was rich with chicken flavor...the wild rice gave the whole soup a unique nuttiness as well as providing a chewy texture that contrasted with the tender chicken, the mushrooms and reserved drippings made the soup wonderfully savory, and the creamy broth pulled it all together.

Overall Rating:  9.5 out of 10.   Fantastic.

Ease of Preparation:   4 out of 10.    When I make this again, I'm going to have to replicate the enriched chicken stock and pan drippings that I used because I feel they were essential in what kicked this soup so over the top in flavor.   While not hard per se, it adds additional steps (and time) to making this.    Worth it.   

Will It Freezer Meal?   Absolutely.  It can be done as a crock pot/instant pot dump and go meal as outlined in the original recipe, or it can be done as I opted to - after cooking the rice/veggies/etc, some of that soup base can be put aside and frozen.    

Cream based soups don't always freeze great, so it's iffy how well it would freeze after the roux/milk is added.   I've had some success with freezing cream soups, but also some issues with it.    

Coming up:   The #1 most popular recipe of 2019 from NY Times Cooking just happens to be chicken...so of course I'm making it.