Description
A creamy chicken soup with orzo and green chiles. It’s got cream cheese and avocados for creaminess and lots of flavor from diced green chiles and salsa verde. An easy dump and go recipe.
Ingredients
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup salsa verde (I used La Victoria brand medium heat)
- 1 (14.5 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs (frozen is okay)
- 2 (4 oz) cans mild diced green chiles
- 1 (14.5 oz) can petite diced tomatoes
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 2 tsp cumin
- 3/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 3/4 cup uncooked orzo pasta
- 8 oz cream cheese
- Salt and pepper
- Diced avocados
Instructions
- Set the cream cheese on the counter so that it can come to room temperature.
- Add broth, salsa verde, black beans, chicken, green chiles, tomatoes, chili powder, cumin and smoked paprika to the Instant Pot.
- Cover the pot and secure the lid. Make sure valve is set to sealing. Set the soup button (or manual/pressure cook button) to 10 minutes for chicken breasts and 12 minutes for chicken thighs.
- When the time is up let the pot sit for 10 minutes and then move the valve to venting and remove the lid.
- Remove the chicken and place on a cutting board.
- Add in the cream cheese and the uncooked orzo (see note) and set the pot to the saute setting. Use the adjust button to adjust the saute setting to “less.” Let the orzo cook and the cream cheese melt for about 5 minutes, stirring every minute.
- Shred the chicken or cut it into bite size pieces and add it back into the pot.
- Once the orzo is cooked through taste test and salt and pepper to taste. Ladle the soup into bowls and serve topped with avocados.
Notes
Another option is to cook the orzo on the stove top during the natural pressure release time. This will take less time overall but you’ll have one extra pot to wash 🙂
I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. You can also make this soup in the 8 quart Instant Pot with no changes. You can halve this recipe and make it in the 3 quart pot. Keep the same cooking time.
Gluten free option: to make this soup gluten free leave out the orzo. You could substitute the orzo with cooked rice. I haven’t tried it yet but think it would also work to add a half cup of uncooked rice into the pot and let it pressure cook.
- Category: Soup
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Mexican