The Instant Pot Soup So Good You’ll Make It Weekly

It's a rare recipe that makes you want to copy and paste the ingredients into your shopping list immediately upon seeing its (droolworthy) photo. Instant Pot, chicken, and avocado are all easy reasons to make this ready-in-less-than-45-minutes charmer any night this week.

Not only is it fast, it's easy to execute this posole, a cross between tortilla soup and a stew. The Mexican classic features hominy, maize that has been dried and soaked, which causes the kernels to swell. Hominy has a complex corn-y taste that resists dilution in a soup. It's about three times the size of a raw sweet corn kerne. You can find cans of it in the bean aisle at the supermarket.

Locating the hominy (if you've never cooked with it before) just might be the trickiest part of this recipe, which combines convenient refrigerator staples such as boneless skinless chicken breasts and limes with inexpensive, super-flavorful new staples such as tomatillos. This recipe takes advantage of the Instant Pot's simple Saut function, so when you're done cooking, you have just the one pressure cooker bowl to clean. Talk about weeknight-friendly.

Instant Pot Chicken Posole

Ingredients

2 lb. (1 kg) boneless, skinless chicken breastsKosher salt and freshly ground pepper2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil1 yellow onion, diced4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced1 jalape?o chile, seeded and finely chopped1 tsp. dried oregano1 tsp. ground cumin1 can (25 oz./780 g) hominy, drained and rinsed4 cups (32 fl. oz./1 l) chicken broth6 tomatillos, husks removed, rinsed and coarsely choppedJuice of 1 limeFresh cilantro leaves for garnishAvocado slices for garnishLime wedges for garnish

Directions

1. Season the chicken breasts generously on both sides with salt and pepper. In an Instant Pot set to saut, warm the olive oil. In batches, sear the chicken, turning once, until golden brown, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to a plate.

2. Add the onion to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, chile, oregano, cumin, 1 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the hominy, broth and tomatillos to the pot and stir to combine. Return the chicken to the pot.

3. Cover the pot with the lid, lock the lid into place and turn the valve to sealing. Set the Instant Pot to cook at high pressure for 20 minutes.

4. When the pressure cooking is complete, turn the valve to venting to manually release the steam. When the steam stops, carefully remove the lid and transfer the chicken to a large bowl. Use 2 forks to shred the chicken into bite-size pieces. Return the chicken to the pot, add the lime juice and stir to mix. Season with salt and pepper.

5. To serve, ladle the soup into individual bowls. Garnish with the cilantro, avocado and lime wedges, and serve immediately. Serves 6.

For this and more recipes that are big on flavor but short on prep time, check out The Instant Pot Cookbook, by the cooks of the Williams Sonoma Test Kitchen.