Combine garden fresh pesto with chicken to make this deliciously simple yet flavorful soup in the Instant Pot or on the stove top!
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Summer is right around the corner here for us in Arizona and while it might feel like summer already, the true test of summer won’t be until the temps soar well into the 115 degrees range. Yikes and yikes!
While I’m not looking forward to that… I am looking forward to all the greens that come with gardening through the spring and into summer – spinach, basil, cilantro, parsley, the list goes on. While some of those are things we can get here all year long in Arizona, it seems as if they become even more prosperous during the late spring/early summer.
It’s good. It really is – because when I have too much, I use it to make the most delicious pesto varieties – this week happened to be cilantro spinach pesto. If you haven’t made it before, just toss a pound of fresh spinach into your food processor with a bunch of cilantro, 1/3 C. almonds, 3 cloves of garlic and a pinch or two of salt.
Once it pulses for a bit, add in 1/3 C. olive oil – a little at a time as the pesto continues to spin around in that food processor. I love to add the juice of a lime too, just to give it some zing and keep the color.
Even better? If you don’t have the time to make pesto, just buy some prepared pesto and call it a day. It doesn’t need to be complicated!
Season with a bit more salt and keep that pesto in canning jars to use on pasta, as a dip, or in this soup for the rest of the week. It really is a good way to use up a ton of greens!
Preparing soup with pesto might sound off the wall, but it’s a delicious soup that can be doctored up to reflect the loves and likes of your family. For this particular recipe, we threw two [thawed] chicken breasts and a half cup of water in our Instant Pot for 15 minutes, released the pressure and shredded with a fork.
We drained the liquid, put the chicken back in the pot, and threw in a few tablespoons of butter. We let the “warm” feature melt the butter and then we mixed in a few tablespoons of flour to make a roux before adding in our chicken broth and heavy cream. Once the mixture thickened up, we added the chicken, 3 Tablespoons of prepared pesto, salt and pepper, and our cooked/drained rotini pasta.
It was delicious – creamy, flavorful, rich, and satisfying enough to make this a permanent part of our future dinner rotations.
Our kids love a little spice in their soup, so I added a few red pepper flakes – yum!
Combine garden fresh pesto with chicken to make this deliciously simple yet flavorful soup in the Instant Pot or on the stove top!
Ingredients
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thawed
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 3 Tbsp all purpose flour, preferably organic and unbleached
- 3 C. chicken broth
- 1/2 C. heavy cream or half and half
- 3 Tbsp prepared pesto (find recipe far above)
- 4-5 oz. dry organic rotini pasta
- salt and pepper, to taste
- slivered almonds
- sour cream
- sliced red bell peppers
- chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Throw your pasta in a small saucepan, cover with water, and cook for 8-9 minutes. Drain and set aside.
- In your Instant Pot, place the thawed chicken breasts, along with 1/2 C. water. Cook on manual (high pressure) for 15 minutes. Quick release, remove the chicken and shred. Toss the liquid.
- Place the butter in the Instant Pot on warm function; once melted, add the flour, and mix with the butter to create a thick paste - a roux.
- Add your chicken broth and heavy cream and place pot on "soup" function. Allow the roux to thicken the broth for just a few minutes, then add the heavy cream, pesto, shredded chicken and pesto.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste. Soup should be ready to ladle into bowls - garnish with slivered almonds, sour cream, sliced bells, and chopped cilantro.
- Refrigerate leftovers & enjoy within 48 hours.
Notes
Prefer to leave out the flour? Go for it - the soup will not be quite as creamy but it will still be very delicious!
