instant pot salsa verde chicken and rice soup
I found my way into this soup because it was deep winter and I was looking for a cumin-like rich Tex-Mex-y vibe of, say, a burrito bowl, but also didn’t want to not eat greens for the fourth day in a row. For me, these are two very different need states, and I have trouble finding recipes that are terribly appetizing when overlapped.
This guy, however, answers that call, although I don’t really know how to categorize him. It tastes like a chili, but the format is more of a soup; heavier on the broth, using rice instead of beans, and with a more-than-generous amount of greens to atone for other late winter sins. It is sort of like if a chicken burrito bowl were suspended in liquid. And because this recipe came to me at a particularly low-energy time of my life, I also adapted the original to be even easier, simplifying the advance rice-cooking step (you just dump it in with everything else here) and adapting the instructions to be appropriate for the Instant Pot, which is where I make it 99% of the time.
Logistically speaking, it’s equally reheat-friendly at home on the stove or in an office microwave, or easy to freeze for later. It’s also the ideal transitional Feb-March-what-month-is-it-again? weather food for when you’re cold still but starting to feel the furnaces re-ignite as you approach an imminent return of daylight savings time. And just as I do with my burrito bowls (and I realize I may be the only one), it is particularly satisfying eaten via scooping with sturdy tortilla chips instead of a spoon.
Otherwise, here’s not much to say about it that it can’t say better itself. You know what to do!
RECIPE
Use the Instant Pot to transform store-bought salsa verde, chicken, rice, and frozen greens into a quick, healthy-ish, Southwestern soup.
Effortful time: <10 minutes
Total time: 50 minutes
Serves: 4
YOU NEED
1 1/2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs
2 cups ho-made or prepared salsa verde, preferably one that’s sold in the refrigerated section
2 tsp. ancho chile powder
2 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. Mexican oregano
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth, plus up to. 1 cup more at the end if needed
1 cup brown rice, uncooked
2 cups frozen chopped kale, spinach, or rapini
Avocado, chopped fresh cilantro, full fat Greek yogurt, tortilla chips, and/or hot sauce, for serving
MAKE IT
Cook the soup. Put the chicken, salsa verde, ancho, cumin, oregano, rice, and chicken broth into the Instant Pot. Seal and set to high pressure, 12 minutes. When finished, let naturally release for 5 minutes before manually releasing the rest of the way.
Shred the chicken. Remove the chicken to a board. Shred the chicken and add back to the pot to let simmer with everything else.
Reduce the soup. Then switch the Instant Pot to saute-low and add the frozen chopped kale; this needs to simmer for about 6-7 minutes until the greens are fully cooked through. Add more broth at this stage if you like it to be soupier.
Serve it up. Ladle into bowls with your toppings of choice. Up to you whether you eat with a spoon or, the superior choice, by using tortilla chips as a soup shovel and saving your utensils for the broth that’s left.