Best Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup Recipe

Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup is loaded with flavors. It is made with fresh ingredients like chicken, veggies, spices, dry beans (not canned, and overnight soaking not required)and fresh corn. Garnished the soup with fried tortilla strips ( I used Air Fryer to make the fried tortilla) , cilantro , avocado, or add any other toppings of your choice. Make this delicious soup with Instant Pot in less than 25 minutes (cooking time + preparation time). So quick, very filling and super comforting meal for busy weeknights. Recipe includes stepwise pictures, instruction to cook tortilla with and without Air Fryer, Instructions to cook the soup with and without the Instant Pot.

We generally like Mexican food , and like to have this soup as a mandatory side when we dine-in. Now that we are stuck at home, this soup really comes in handy, basically like dump and cook recipe ( you can even skip the sautéing for two minutes and pressure cook directly). Definitely tasty and can be served hot, straight from the Instant Pot , and it is so much better than take out.

Some days , I even dump everything in the instant pot , go for my groceries shopping, come back and all I’ve to do is press pressure cook for seven minutes and dinner is done by the time I put away my groceries. The spice level are just perfect for this Mexican style soup , you can always adjust to your preferred spice levels or add a dollop of sour cream to balance it out.

How to prepare the tortillas without Air Fryer?

Traditionally corn tortilla is deep fried in oil, but I used air fryer to fry it to a crispy golden color. Alternatively you can deep fry it or bake in the regular convection oven.

If baking it in the regular oven , preheat oven to 350 F and bake it until golden brown strips, approximately it will take 10 to 15 minutes. Do not forget to drizzle the tortilla strips with some oil and season it with salt, mix and then bake .

How to prepare the soup without the Instant Pot?

You can use the Indian pressure cooker to make this soup , follow this same recipe ingredients and measurement.

• Place the pressure cooker on the stove and heat it on medium – low flame. Add oil , once hot, add onions and sauté for a minute , add tomatoes and sauté until slightly pulpy ( approximately for a minute) , then add tomato paste and stir once.
• Then add all spice powders , salt and other ingredients ( except lemon juice and fried tortilla) and mix well. Close the lid of the cooker ( with the gasket fitted in it )and put on the weight for the cooker. Cook for 7 to 8 whistles ( if you have soaked back beans for 15 minutes in hot boiling water or overnight soaking is better) or cook for more whistle (until the beans are cooked ) if you have added it without soaking it .
• Wait for natural pressure release , open the lid , remove the whole chicken and shred it and add it back to the soup with some lemon juice, stir and serve hot.

Soaking the dry black beans is important before pressure cooking it

I used dry black beans and soaked it for 15 minutes in hot boiling water before pressure cooking it. It cooked perfectly in the pressure cooker at seven minutes and 5 minutes natural release .

If you did not soak the dry black beans , then increase the pressure cooking time until the beans are cooked  (approximately 10 to 12 minutes of pressure cooking is needed + 5 minutes natural release).

You can alternatively use canned beans , drain the water in the beans, add it with other ingredients and pressure cook for 5 minutes and 5 minutes natural release.

Storing Instructions,

Store any leftovers in the refrigerator in an air tight container (preferable a clean, dry glass containers )( do not add toppings and refrigerate, it will get soggy, add later after reheating it).  Soups stays good for up to 3 to 4 days in the fridge. When reheating it on the stove top , simply stir and simmer for couple of minutes or just until boil. If using microwave to reheat , then microwave for 5 to 6 minutes or until warm, depending upon the quantity.

Check out the other Instant Pot Soup recipes, I’ve listed few below.

• CPK Dakota Smashed Pea & Barley Soup Instant Pot
• Panera’s Broccoli Cheddar Soup Instant Pot
• Easy Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

Instant Pot Recipes for a Gathering / Party ,

• Easy Instant Pot Stuffed Shells With Spinach And Cheese
• Creamy Buffalo Chicken Pizza Instant Pot
• Easy Pizza Dough Recipe Instant Pot
• Instant Pot Butter Chicken Recipe
• Easy Instant Pot Pav Bhaji – 8 Mixed vegetable curry – served with dinner rolls / breads
• Instant Pot Vegetable Kurma / Navaratan Korma

Step By Step Pictures Of How To Make The Chicken Tortilla Soup

Measure and keep the ingredients ready – whole chicken breast , dry black beans ( soak beans in hot water for 15 minutes ) ,chopped onions and tomatoes , chicken broth , remove seeds, and dice jalapeno into small pieces , fresh corn kernels , tomato paste , lemon juice , cumin powder, paprika or red chilli powder , salt , and oil. For the tortillas – corn tortilla ( cut the tortilla into 1/4 inch thickness and 2 inch in lengthwise ) , olive oil and salt.

Make the tortilla strips in Air Fryer

I used Gourmia 8-quart air fryer to cook. Preheat Gourmia air fryer to AIR FRY option to 400 F ( once the pre heating is done, you’ll get a beep sound). While the air fryer is preheating , cut the tortilla into strips using a pizza cutter. In a bowl, mix tortilla strips with oil and salt. Once the fryer is ready, place the tortilla evenly in the air fryer basket,  and cook the strips for THREE minutes or until the tortilla gets crispy and light brown in color ( for even cooking and color – half way point , remove the basket and give a quick shake and place it back for cooking ). Remove fried tortilla strips and set aside to garnish on the soup.

Sauté using the Instant Pot

I used Instant Pot Duo Evo Plus 8 Quart for cooking. Place the inner vessel into the Instant Pot. Press SAUTE mode on HIGH power. In CUSTOM settings, SET Timer for THREE minutes. Now Press START. Once it is ready and preheating is done, add oil, followed by onions , sauté for ONE minute, then add tomatoes and give it a quick stir. Press CANCEL .

Finally dump rest of the ingredients (chicken , beans , jalapeno, corn , tomato paste , cumin powder , chilli powder , salt and broth ), EXCEPT lemon juice and fried tortilla, and mix well.

Pressure cook

Close the LID of the Instant Pot . Press the PRESSURE COOK mode on HIGH power, and SET CUSTOM TIMER to “SEVEN” minutes. SEAL the Pressure Valve ( this model IP automatically seals the vent). Switch off the KEEP WARM MODE ( light should not be on in the keep warm mode). Now press START. After the pressure cooking is done. Press CANCEL . Wait for NPR (natural pressure release) leave the quick release switch in the SEAL position for FIVE minutes. Then do QPR (quick pressure release) by moving quick release switch from SEAL TO VENT.

After the steam is released, open the lid,

Take the chicken out and place it on the cutting board , with the help of two forks , shred the chicken .

Add the shredded chicken back to the soup , add lemon juice and stir well. Serve the soup, and garnish with fresh sliced jalapenos , sliced avocado and fried tortilla strips.