On a Tuesday night when everyone is hungry and the clock is against us, this Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup has saved dinner more times than I can count. It delivers deep, slow-simmered flavour in under an hour, uses one pot, and tastes even better the next day — which means tomorrow’s lunch is sorted too.

Recipe Overview

• Prep time: 15 minutes
• Cook time: 25 minutes (plus natural release)
• Total time: Approximately 55 minutes
• Servings: 6 generous bowls
• Difficulty: Easy — beginner friendly

Why You’ll Love This Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup

• One pot, one cleanup: Everything happens in the Instant Pot insert, so there are no baking trays, no splattered hobs, and no mountain of washing up on a weeknight.
• Faster than takeaway: From fridge to table in under an hour, which is often quicker than waiting for a delivery driver.
• Hands-off cooking: Once the lid is locked, you can help with homework, fold laundry, or simply sit down for ten minutes while the pressure builds.
• Make-ahead friendly: The base freezes beautifully, so you can batch cook on a Sunday and reheat on a chaotic Wednesday.
• Genuinely nourishing: Real chicken, real vegetables, and a golden broth that feels like a hug in a bowl when someone in the house is under the weather.

Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup

15 min prep  ·  30 min cook  ·  4 servings

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Ingredients You’ll Need

• 1.2 kg bone-in, skinless chicken thighs (or a mix of thighs and breasts)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion, finely diced (about 200 g)
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced into 1 cm rounds (about 200 g)
• 3 celery sticks, sliced (about 150 g)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1.5 litres good-quality chicken stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt, plus more to taste
• ½ teaspoon cracked black pepper
• 200 g dried egg noodles (or any short pasta you have in the cupboard)
• 150 g frozen peas
• A generous handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional, but it lifts everything)

Tip: Bone-in thighs give you a richer, more gelatinous broth than breast meat alone — that silky body is what makes this soup taste like it has simmered all afternoon. If you only have boneless chicken, reduce the pressure time to 8 minutes so the meat does not shred into nothing.

Equipment You’ll Need

• Large stockpot or Dutch oven
• Immersion blender (optional)
• Ladle
• Sharp knife and cutting board

How to Make Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup

1. Sauté the aromatics. Set the Instant Pot to Sauté on the medium setting and add the olive oil. Once it shimmers, tip in the onion, carrots, and celery. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion turns translucent and the celery smells sweet rather than raw. You want soft, glossy vegetables — not browned ones.
2. Bloom the garlic and herbs. Add the minced garlic, thyme, and oregano and stir for 30 seconds. The kitchen should fill with a warm, savoury aroma almost immediately. Do not walk away here; garlic turns bitter in seconds if it catches.
3. Add the chicken and stock. Nestle the chicken thighs into the pot, then pour in the stock. Add the bay leaves, salt, and pepper. The liquid should just cover the chicken — if it does not, top up with a splash more stock or water.
4. Pressure cook. Secure the lid, set the valve to Sealing, and cook on High Pressure for 12 minutes. The pot will take roughly 10 minutes to come up to pressure, and you will hear a gentle hiss once it seals.
5. Let it release naturally. When the timer beeps, switch the pot off and leave it alone for 10 minutes. This natural release keeps the chicken tender and stops the broth from sputtering out of the valve. After 10 minutes, turn the valve to Venting to release any remaining pressure.
6. Shred the chicken. Lift the thighs out onto a board. They should be pale, opaque, and fall apart at the touch of a fork. Discard the bay leaves, then shred the meat and return it to the pot.
7. Cook the noodles. Switch back to Sauté and bring the broth to a lively simmer. Add the noodles and cook for 5 to 6 minutes, until they are just tender with a slight bite at the centre. Stir once or twice so they do not clump.
8. Finish and taste. Stir in the frozen peas and cook for 1 minute more — they will turn bright green and plump. Kill the heat, then add the parsley and lemon juice. Taste and adjust the salt; the amount you need depends entirely on how salty your stock was.

Tips From My Kitchen

• Cook the noodles separately if you plan on leftovers. Noodles left sitting in broth keep drinking liquid and turn bloated and mushy by morning. Boil them in a separate pan, store them apart, and combine only what you are eating right now.
• Undercook the vegetables slightly. Because the noodles get a second simmer, keep the carrots and celery just shy of fully soft during the sauté. Otherwise they collapse into the broth and lose all texture.
• Season at the end, not the start. Pressure cooking concentrates flavours, and shop-bought stock varies wildly in salt. Start with 1 teaspoon, then taste after the noodles go in and adjust from there.
• Use the natural release every single time. A quick release on a broth-based soup can spray liquid through the valve and leaves the chicken tougher. Those ten minutes are not wasted time — they are part of the cooking.
• Chill the broth and skim the fat. If you are making this ahead, refrigerate the soup overnight. The fat rises and sets into a solid layer that lifts off in one piece, giving you a cleaner, lighter broth the next day.
• Double the batch, freeze half. This recipe scales easily in a 6-litre Instant Pot. Freeze the soup base without noodles in 500 ml portions, then reheat gently and add freshly cooked pasta.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Overcrowding the pan: If you pile in too many vegetables during the sauté, they steam instead of browning and release water that dilutes the flavour. Work in batches or use a wider pot so everything sits in a single layer with room to breathe.
• Wrong temperature: Keep the Sauté function on medium, not high, for the aromatics. High heat scorches the onion and leaves brown bits on the base of the pot, which can trigger a burn warning during pressure cooking.
• Skipping the rest time: Cutting the natural release short rushes the process and leaves the chicken stringy. Those ten minutes allow the muscle fibres to relax and reabsorb juices, so the meat stays tender when you shred it.

Delicious Variations to Try

• Spicy Version: Add 1 teaspoon of chilli flakes with the garlic, or finish each bowl with a spoonful of chilli crisp and a few slices of fresh jalapeño for a gentle background heat that cuts through the richness.
• Vegetarian/Vegan Option: Swap the chicken for two tins of drained chickpeas and use vegetable stock. Add a tablespoon of white miso paste at the end for that deep savoury backbone the chicken would normally provide, and use vegan noodles.
• Different Protein: Turkey thigh mince works beautifully and cooks in the same time, while leftover roast chicken can simply be stirred in at the end after the noodles are cooked, so it does not dry out.

What to Serve With Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup

• Crusty sourdough or warm buttered rolls for dipping into the broth
• A simple green salad with a sharp vinaigrette to cut through the richness
• Roasted vegetables such as these Brussels sprouts for an extra hit of colour on the plate
• Cheesy garlic toast made from whatever bread is going stale in the cupboard

Frequently Asked Questions

Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup

A hearty and comforting chicken noodle soup made quickly in the Instant Pot, featuring tender shredded chicken, vegetables, egg noodles, and a flavorful broth.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 45 minutes mins

Servings: 4 servings

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Calories: 350

Ingredients
Method
Notes

Ingredients

  

• 1.2 kg bone-in skinless chicken thighs (or a mix of thighs and breasts)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion finely diced (about 200 g)
• 3 medium carrots peeled and sliced into 1 cm rounds (about 200 g)
• 3 celery sticks sliced (about 150 g)
• 4 garlic cloves minced
• 1.5 litres good-quality chicken stock
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt plus more to taste
• ½ teaspoon cracked black pepper
• 200 g dried egg noodles or any short pasta you have in the cupboard
• 150 g frozen peas
• A generous handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley chopped
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice optional, but it lifts everything

Method

 

1. Sauté the aromatics. Set the Instant Pot to Sauté on the medium setting and add the olive oil. Once it shimmers, tip in the onion, carrots, and celery. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion turns translucent and the celery smells sweet rather than raw. You want soft, glossy vegetables — not browned ones.
2. Bloom the garlic and herbs. Add the minced garlic, thyme, and oregano and stir for 30 seconds. The kitchen should fill with a warm, savoury aroma almost immediately. Do not walk away here; garlic turns bitter in seconds if it catches.
3. Add the chicken and stock. Nestle the chicken thighs into the pot, then pour in the stock. Add the bay leaves, salt, and pepper. The liquid should just cover the chicken — if it does not, top up with a splash more stock or water.
4. Pressure cook. Secure the lid, set the valve to Sealing, and cook on High Pressure for 12 minutes. The pot will take roughly 10 minutes to come up to pressure, and you will hear a gentle hiss once it seals.
5. Let it release naturally. When the timer beeps, switch the pot off and leave it alone for 10 minutes. This natural release keeps the chicken tender and stops the broth from sputtering out of the valve. After 10 minutes, turn the valve to Venting to release any remaining pressure.
6. Shred the chicken. Lift the thighs out onto a board. They should be pale, opaque, and fall apart at the touch of a fork. Discard the bay leaves, then shred the meat and return it to the pot.
7. Cook the noodles. Switch back to Sauté and bring the broth to a lively simmer. Add the noodles and cook for 5 to 6 minutes, until they are just tender with a slight bite at the centre. Stir once or twice so they do not clump.
8. Finish and taste. Stir in the frozen peas and cook for 1 minute more — they will turn bright green and plump. Kill the heat, then add the parsley and lemon juice. Taste and adjust the salt; the amount you need depends entirely on how salty your stock was.

Notes

For best results, use good-quality chicken stock and adjust salt to taste. If you prefer a thicker soup, you can mash some of the vegetables or add a cornstarch slurry.

That is really all there is to it — one pot, a handful of everyday ingredients, and a bowl of golden soup on the table before the evening runs away from you. If you make it this week, I would love to know how it turned out, so leave a comment below and tell me whether you went classic or added a little heat. Friends always ask me for this recipe after trying it at dinner parties, and I have a feeling it will earn a permanent spot in your weeknight rotation too.

Quick Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup For Busy Nights

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