Wild Rice Soup with Chicken in the Pressure Cooker

Serves 8 in about 1 hour. The pot starts with bacon, then heavy cream.

Ingredients

• 5 slices bacon, chopped
• 1 med onion, chopped
• 2 lrg carrots, chopped (2 cups)
• 3 ribs celery, chopped (2 cups)
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ teaspoon thyme, dried
• 3 lrg cloves garlic, pressed or minced
• 5 cups chicken broth low sodium
• 8 oz mushrooms, sliced
• 1 sprig rosemary, fresh
• 1 cup wild rice, rinsed
• 1 ½ cups heavy cream, divided in half
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt (or 1 ½ tsp table salt)
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 2 chicken breasts, uncut (skinless/boneless)
• ¼ cup flour
• ¾ cup heavy cream (from divided heavy cream above)

Method

1. Turn the pot on to Sauté. Tip in the bacon pieces and cook, while stirring now and then, until mostly done. If you use a leaner bacon, leave the fat in. If there is more that 1 Tablespoon of fat, spoon it out, leaving 1 Tablespoon.
2. Stir in the onion, carrots, and celery. Mix and cook a couple of minutes.
3. Tip in the butter, bay leaf, and thyme. Simmer for a couple of minutes.
4. Tip in the garlic and stir it in, cooking for30 seconds to 1 instant. Don't let it burn.
5. Tip in the broth and stir it well.
6. Tip in the mushrooms, rosemary, and rice. Stir.
7. Stir in ¾ cup of heavy cream, salt, and pepper, then stir. You can use half and half instead of heavy cream, if you want (if you want to use milk, add it after pressure cooking as it will not cook well. Heavy cream or half and half tolerate pressure cooking).
8. Stir in the chicken breasts, and submerge them in the broth.
9. Put the lid on the pot and set the steam release knob to the Sealing position. Then cancel the Sauté setting. Press the Pressure Cook/Manual button or dial. Then press the +/- button or dial to select 35 minutes. High pressure.
10. When the cooking cycle is finished, let the pot sit undisturbed for 15 minutes (15 instant Natural Release). Then Manually release the remaining steam/pressure, carefully, using a controlled Quick Release (A controlled quick release is when you open the valve a little at a time to be sure no soup/sauce is going to spew out along with the steam when you release it.
11. When the pin in the lid drops down, open it up and carefully remove the chicken to a bowl.
12. Stir the flour and remaining ¾ cup of heavy cream together very well, and stir into the hot soup.
13. Shred the chicken and add it back into the soup. Leave it to sit for a few minutes to thicken.
14. Plate hot. Even better the next day!

More instant pot ideas are in the instant pot collection.