Instant Pot Empty Your Pantry Soup—head to your pantry and clean it out with this soup recipe. There are lots of substitutions and ways to mix and match this soup.

Instant Pot Empty Your Pantry Soup
When I’m falling short on fresh groceries I automatically turn to my pantry and freezer and give it a look. What’s in there? What can I put together without having to hit the grocery store? A lot of times these items come together in a soup. And most of the time the soup is actually pretty dang good.
Today’s recipe for Instant Pot Empty Your Pantry Soup is a matter of picking and choosing which ingredients you have and which sound good to you. Here is a formula for how to make your pantry soup…
Pick a broth:
- 8 cups of chicken broth
- 8 cups of beef broth
- 8 cups of veggie broth
- 8 cups of water and 8 tsp of Better Than Bouillon Base (whatever flavor you like best–chicken, beef, veggie, garlic, etc.).
Pick a protein:
- 1 ½ pounds of uncooked chicken breasts or thighs or 1 pound cooked chicken (such as rotisserie).
- 1 ½ pounds of ground beef, turkey, sausage or chicken that has been browned.
- A bag of frozen meatballs
- A couple packages of smoked sausage that has been sliced into quarter inch rounds
Pick a type of beans/legumes:
- Can of kidney beans
- Can of black beans
- Can of pinto beans
- Can of chickpeas
- Can of navy beans
- Can of black eyed peas
- Can of chili beans or chili
Pick veggies:
- Can of corn or frozen corn
- Can of diced tomatoes
- Can of green beans or frozen green beans
- Frozen mixed veggies
- Frozen cauliflower
Pick a starch:
- 1 cup of white rice, parboiled rice, jasmine rice, basmati rice or brown rice
- 8 oz of macaroni, cellentani, orzo, wagon wheels, shells, ditalini, rotini or cavatappi
- 1 ½ pounds cubed potatoes
Pick a seasoning mix:
- 3 Tbsp (a packet) taco seasoning
- 1 packet of dry ranch dressing mix
- 1 packet of dry Italian dressing mix
- 1 packet onion soup mix
- Mix and match spices, salt and pepper from your cabinet
Add in any extras:
- Canned or fresh mushrooms
- Sliced black olives
- Green chiles
- Red or green bell pepper
- Garlic cloves
- Chopped onions
- Chopped celery
Pressure cook:
Take into consideration that the pot will take a long time to come to pressure because of the amount of liquid and how full the pot is. The whole time the pot is pressurizing the food will be cooking. So this will require you to use a short pressure cooking time. For example, I used frozen chicken breasts and they were fully cooked with only a 3 minute pressure cooking time. I used the SOUP button on my pressure cooker since it is supposed to not heat the bottom of the pot as much because it knows that nobody is stirring the soup during the cooking process.
Top it off with:
- Shredded cheese (cheddar, mexican blend, colby, pepper jack, monterey jack, parmesan, mozzarella)
- Sour cream or greek yogurt
- Cilantro
- Green onions or scallions
- Diced avocados
- Salt and pepper and extra seasoning to taste
When you make your version of Instant Pot empty your pantry soup please leave a comment below and let me know which items you used and how it worked out! I’m dying to know.

More Instant Pot Soup Recipes…
Instant Pot Amish Chicken Corn Soup
Instant Pot Contest Winning Hearty Hamburger Soup
Instant Pot Chicken Tortellini Soup

Want more tried and true Instant Pot recipes?
Receive FREE daily Instant Pot recipes and tips in your email box. Sign up by filling out the gray form below. Other ways to follow: join the 365 Days of Instant Pot Recipes Facebook group and subscribe to my YouTube channel where I share Instant Pot stuff with you weekly.
Print
Instant Pot Empty Your Pantry Soup
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 minutes (plus 5 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 13 minutes
- Yield: 8–10 servings 1x
Description
This is my version of empty your pantry soup. See the article above for ideas on how to personalize your pantry soup recipe.
Ingredients
- 8 cups chicken broth (or 8 cups water + 8 tsp better than bouillon chicken base)
- 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (15.5 oz) can light red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 (15.25 oz) can corn, drained
- 1 cup uncooked white rice
- 3 Tbsp taco seasoning
- 1 1/2 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Instructions
- Add all ingredients into Instant Pot.
- Cover Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the SOUP button to 3 minutes.
- When time is up let the pot sit for 5-10 minutes and then perform a controlled release by moving the valve to venting. If any liquid spews out move the valve back to sealing and wait 20 seconds and try again. Remove the lid.
- Shred the chicken.
- Ladle into bowls and serve. Top with desired toppings such as sour cream, shredded cheese, diced avocados.
Notes
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*.
- Category: Soup
- Method: Instant Pot

*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Great inspiration. I used frozen turkey meatballs, frozen lima beans, stewed tomatoes, beef stock, white and green onions, celery, carrots, jalapeno, romano cheese, basil, garlic, salt, red and black pepper, a little white wime.
★★★★★
I love that you truly did empty out your pantry/fridge! Sounds like an awesome version!
Hi there! In the recipe directions at first lists to set the manual / pressure button for 3 minutes. Then under the steps it actually says to use the soup button for 3 minutes. Is there a difference and how it will cook using the manual / pressure over the soup option?
Thank you for any feedback!
Oh sorry! I used the soup button because it’s supposed to keep broths clearer.
Making this tonight with a bit of everything from your lists! “Sooper” excited to try it and have lunch leftovers as I am gluten free and teaching all day and need something good for lunch so I don’t go out.
I’m SOOPER excited for your too Nicole 😂
But Karen HOW did those fab topping avocados manage to make it to the point of “what’s in the pantry” soup?! Those delicious devils would be gobbled up way sooner at my place. 😉
Seriously, though, the soup looks good. 🙂
Cheers
This is quite similar to what I do. After the soup is cooked I add couple squeezes of lemon or lime to brighten the flavor. I always make a big batch so I can freeze some. I’m really enjoying your recipes. Thanks.
I love that idea Sherry. Thank you for sharing.
This is absolutely brilliant!! Thank you for this “formula”! Can’t wait to try out different mixes!
★★★★★
Thanks Nadia! Hope you like it!
Hi Karen,
Can’t wait to make this!
Can I skip the legumes/beans?
Do I have to substitute them?
Thank you!
You can skip them!
This soup turned out delicious and totally skipped the beans/legumes list due to allergies in our family. The best part is that we have leftovers!!!
Thanks, Karen, for another successful IP meal!!!
★★★★★
Yay for leftovers! We have some too and I think I will eat some now for lunch.
Looks like you used frozen chicken – and it’s still only a 3 min cook time?
I was wondering the same thing! Is the soup “cook time” longer?
I’m wondering if maybe the large volume takes a long enough time to get to pressure that the frozen chicken gets thawed and cooked. Just a thought.
Yes. It was only 3 minutes and the chicken was plenty done.