I have rotisserie chicken left over from a party1. It’s time to bring out my secret weapon - homemade pressure cooker chicken broth - and use that leftover chicken to make Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken Tortilla Soup.
Now, I am a fanatic, rotisserieing2 my own chickens. But, don’t let that stop you - a store-bought rotisserie bird works well in this recipe. (In fact, I kind of assume it in the instructions.) Or, use leftover roast chicken, no rotisserie necessary. If you have a chicken’s worth of roasted bones and a few cups of leftover meat, you’re good to go.
My Mexican broth is a lot like my regular broth, with a hint of allspice and a dried chile to add flavor. The big change is in the soup itself. I pressure cook the basic broth with sautéed onions and crushed tomatoes. Then I let everyone build their bowls with shredded chicken, hot peppers, cubes of cheese and avocado, and a sprinkling of crunchy tortilla strips and minced cilantro. Pour the red broth on top, and you have an amazing soup from the borderlands between Mexico and the US.
The only tricky part to this recipe was finding tortilla strips. Look near the croutons in the salad dressing aisle. You can make your own, cutting tortillas into strips and frying them yourself - or take the super-easy way out and using the leftover crumbs of tortilla chips from the bottom of a bag.
Recipe: Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken Tortilla Soup
PrintInstant Pot Rotisserie Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Total Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
- Yield: 8 cups of soup 1x
Description
Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken Tortilla Soup. Tortilla soup made with homemade pressure cooker broth from a store-bought rotisserie chicken.
Ingredients
Mexican 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 broken in half (or 4oz baby carrots)
- 1 stalk celery, broken in half
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 sprig fresh thyme (or ½ teaspoon dried)
- 5 whole black peppercorns
- 1 whole dried allspice berry (or a pinch of ground)
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 whole dried chile de arbol (or a pinch of red pepper flakes)
- 8 cups water
Rotisserie Chicken Tortilla Soup
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 14.5-ounce can crushed tomatoes (preferably fire roasted crushed)
- 8 cups Mexican Rotisserie Chicken Broth (from above)
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- Breast meat from the rotisserie chicken, shredded
- 4 ounces queso fresco (or farmers cheese), cut into ½ inch cubes
- 2 avocados, cut into ½ inch cubes
- 2 jalapeño peppers, sliced into rings
- Tortilla strips(or crushed tortilla chips)
- ½ cup minced fresh cilantro
- Limes, cut into wedges
Instructions
- Pressure cook the broth: Cut the chicken breast meat off of the rotisserie chicken and set aside for later. Add the rotisserie chicken carcass, onion, carrot, celery, bay leaves, and salt to the pressure cooker pot, then add 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 pressure cook on high pressure for 60 minutes with a natural pressure release in an Instant Pot or other electric PC (Manual or Pressure Cook mode in an Instant Pot) or 50 minutes in a stovetop PC. The natural pressure release will take 30 to 40 minutes minutes. (It takes a long time for all that water to cool off. If you’re in a hurry, let the pressure come down for at least 20 minutes, then quick release any 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.
- Sauté the aromatics: Wipe out the pressure cooker pot liner, then put it back in the pressure cooker base. Set the pot to sauté mode (medium heat for a stovetop PC), add the tablespoon of oil, and heat until the oil is shimmering, about 3 minutes. Add the diced onions and crushed garlic to the pot and sauté until the onion softens, about 5 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes and cook, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon, until the tomatoes thicken up, about 5 minutes.
- Pressure cook the soup: Stir in the chicken broth and a teaspoon of salt. Scrape the bottom of the pot carefully to make sure no tomatoes are sticking. Lock the lid and cook at high pressure for 5 minutes with a quick pressure release. (Use “manual” or “pressure cook” mode in an Instant Pot.) After quick-releasing the pressure, open the lid away from you – again, be careful, the steam is scalding.
- Build the soup bowls and serve: In the bottom of each bowl, put some shredded chicken, a few cubes of cheese, a few cubes of avocado, and a few jalapeño pepper slices. Ladle the broth into the bowl, sprinkle cilantro and tortilla strips on top, and serve, passing the lime wedges at the table.
Notes
Make ahead: Do step 1 ahead of time, and you can refrigerate the broth for a few days, or freeze it for a few months. This makes the rest of the recipe quick enough to be a weeknight dinner.
Leftovers: This soup makes great leftovers - I freeze it in 2-cup containers (pint canning jars with reusable lids).
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Category: Sunday Dinner
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: Mexican
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Related Posts
Instant Pot Rotisserie Chicken Noodle Soup
Pressure Cooker Mexican Chicken Soup in Red Chile Broth (Caldo de Pollo Rojo)
Pressure Cooker Chicken Broth and Shredded Chicken
My other Instant Pot Pressure Cooker Recipes
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- When you write a rotisserie cookbook, people expect rotisserie chicken. And I’m happy to oblige! ↩
- Is rotisserieing a word? I don’t know, but I’m going with it. ↩
Diane D says
I love this soup!! My kids loved it too. Thank you!
Mike Vrobel says
Thank you - I'm glad you enjoyed it!