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Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Soup. Spicy and tart, with the backbone of homemade chicken broth from a rotisserie chicken.
Special thanks to Dan at work, who reminded me that I owed him a Buffalo chicken soup recipe…
Michael Ruhlman's Grocery is a fascinating look at the history of grocery stores, and a book I recommend all the time. It's also the inspiration for today's recipe. Michael mentions in passing that one of the soups in the regular rotation at Heinens, a local grocery chain, is Buffalo Chicken Soup.
Buffalo chicken soup! Why didn't I think of that?
Well, a good idea is a good idea, so I'm using my Instant Pot rotisserie chicken broth to make my own batch of Buffalo chicken soup. If you've made one of my rotisserie chicken soups before, the beginning of this recipe will look very familiar. And, that broth is the key - as much as this recipe is about Buffalo sauce, it needs that backbone of homemade broth to make it the best it can be. (That said, you can make any homemade chicken broth you like - it doesn't have to be from a store-bought rotisserie chicken.)
For the Buffalo sauce, I went with the simple, traditional version: melted butter plus Franks Red Hot hot sauce. (Not sponsored by Franks Red Hot - but it is what gives the sauce that "Buffalo wing" flavor.)
I picked up a few other ideas on the internet that I incorporated into my recipe:
- Sauté celery, onions, and garlic in a lot of butter, then add flour to make a roux and thicken up the broth
- Add cheddar cheese - a lot of it - for even more body
- Save the blue cheese crumbles for a topping at the table - if they melt into the soup, they lose their bite
Looking for a spicy soup to clear out your sinuses? Want the taste of chicken wings, in soup form? Just want something different for dinner? Give this soup a try.
Recipe: Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Soup
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Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Soup
- Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 12 cups of soup 1x
Description
Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Soup. Spicy and tart, with the backbone of homemade chicken broth from a rotisserie chicken.
Ingredients
Rotisserie Chicken Broth
- 1 (2- to 4-pound) rotisserie chicken, breast meat removed and saved for later
- Juices from the rotisserie chicken container
- 1 onion, peeled and halved
- 1 carrot, scrubbed and cut in half (or 4oz baby carrots)
- 1 stalk celery, cut in half
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 8 cups water
Buffalo Chicken Soup
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ cup flour
- 8 cups of Chicken Broth (from above)
- 12 ounces (1 ½ cups) Franks Red Hot hot sauce
- 16 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
- Cooked breast meat from the rotisserie chicken, shredded (about 2 cups of shredded or cubed cooked chicken)
Toppings
- Thin-sliced celery
- Crumbled blue cheese
- More Franks Red Hot sauce
Instructions
- Pressure cook the broth for 60 minutes with a Natural Release: Cut the chicken breast meat off of the rotisserie chicken and set aside for later. Add the rest of the rotisserie chicken, onion, carrot, celery, bay leaves, and salt to an Instant Pot or other pressure cooker, then pour in the 8 cups of water. (It should just cover the rotisserie chicken - it's OK if the knobs of the drumsticks are poking up.) Lock the lid and cook on high pressure for 60 minutes in an Instant Pot or other electric PC (Manual or Pressure Cook mode in an Instant Pot), or for 50 minutes in a stovetop PC. Let the pressure come down naturally - about 30 minutes. (It takes a long time for all that water to cool off.) If you're in a hurry, let the pressure come down naturally for 20 minutes, then quick release the remaining pressure. Scoop the chicken carcass and vegetables out of the pot with a slotted spoon and discard; they've given their all to the broth. Strain the broth through a fine mesh strainer and set aside for later, and wipe out the pot with paper towels before the next step. (For more details, see my standalone Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken Broth recipe.)
- Sauté the aromatics and whisk the roux: Set the Instant Pot to Sauté mode adjusted to Medium, put the cleaned pot liner back in the pot, and add the butter. Once the butter melts, add the onion, celery, and garlic, and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of fine sea salt. Saute, stirring often, until the onion softens, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and cook, stirring and scraping constantly, for one minute.
- Simmer the soup, melt the cheese, reheat the chicken: Pour in the 8 cups of chicken broth and the Franks Red Hot, then scrape the bottom of the pot to loosen any stuck bits of flour or celery. Adjust the Instant Pot's sauté mode to high (or turn the stovetop to medium-high.) and bring to a simmer. Stir in the cheddar cheese, a handful at a time, until it is all melted. Add the shredded chicken and simmer until reheated, about 2 minutes.
- Serve: Ladle into bowls and serve, passing blue cheese crumbles, sliced celery, and more Franks Red Hot at the table. Enjoy!
Notes
- The broth can be made ahead, and refrigerated for up to 3 days, or frozen for up to six months.
- If you have "Buffalo wing sauce" instead of Franks Red Hot sauce, cut the butter back to 1 tablespoon, skip the flour and roux making steps, and go with 12 to 16 ounces of Buffalo wing sauce. (It will already have the butter and thickeners added to it.)
Tools
- 6 quart or larger pressure cooker (I love my Instant Pot 6-Quart Pressure Cooker)
- Fine Mesh Strainer
- Flat edged wooden spoon
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Category: Sunday Dinner
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
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Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 278
- Sugar: 1.3 g
- Sodium: 1171.6 mg
- Fat: 19.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 5.1 g
- Protein: 20.3 g
- Cholesterol: 78.4 mg
What do you think?
Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
Related Posts
Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup
Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese
Pressure Cooker Buffalo Chicken Wings
My other Instant Pot and Pressure Cooker Recipes
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