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Instant Pot Tortilla Soup
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Instant Pot Tortilla Soup

A fairly quick tortilla soup thickened with chopped tortilla. Consider this soup a template and adjust the heat or flavorings to taste.
Course Soup
Cuisine Mexican
Keyword tortilla soup
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 4
Author Anna
Cost 5

Equipment

  • Instant Pot

Ingredients

  • 2 slices bacon
  • 1 tablespoon butter or oil
  • 1 cup chopped onions (100 grams)
  • cup chopped carrots (50 grams)
  • 1 large jalapeno, optional, seeds removed
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced (18 grams)
  • 3 large chopped corn tortillas (72 grams)
  • 1 can RoTel tomatoes (10 oz) or a 14 oz can fire roasted
  • 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth, low sodium or regular
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 ½ teaspoon smoked paprika (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
  • 2 teaspoons honey, plus more as needed (8 grams) -- I sometimes use more
  • ¼ to ½ teaspoon salt or to taste! And you may need less depending on broth.
  • 1 bay leaf, whole
  • 1 can corn, drained
  • 1 cup chopped cooked chicken
  • 5 corn tortillas for air frying or baking (optional)

Instructions

  • Set the Instant Pot to Sauté, and adjust to high. Add the chopped bacon and cook it for about 10 minutes or until browned. Remove it from the pot leaving behind the grease. There shouldn't be too much -- about about 2 teaspoons. As for the bacon, you can serve it on top of the soup or save it and use it on salads or pasta.
  • Add the butter, onions, carrots and jalapeno and together for 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and chopped tortillas. Cook for another 2 minutes, stirring and scraping any tortilla that sticks to the bottom.
  • Add the whole can of Ro-Tel or tomoatoes, undrained, and scrape bottom of Instant Pot. Add 3 cups broth, the cumin, honey and smoked paprika. At this point it won't be very hot because you are still in Sauté mode.
  • Taste the soup and adjust any salt or pepper or add any other ingredients you like. Add the bay leaf.
  • Put the top on the pot and set steam valve to the center, press manual, set time to "2", press manual again. Let soup pressure cook for 2 minutes. Allow for a natural release. This should take about 20 minutes. If you are in a hurry, you can do a quick release.
  • Open pot and stir in chicken. Alternatively, you can leave the chicken out and pour the soup over the chicken like they do in restaurants. Adjust any spices you like (more salt, less, pepper, whatever). Throw in some corn if you feel like it. Set the slow cook function or put it on a keep warm setting and serve when you are ready.
  • For more flavor, make the soup earlier in the day and leave it in the pot on the slow cooker "low" setting. This will allow the flavors to develop a little more.
  • Serve with air fried or baked corn tortilla strips. Cut the tortilla strips about ½ inch wide. Arrange in an air fry basket and spray with cooking spray or olive oil spray. Air fry at 250-300 for about 7 minutes. Alternatively, just bake them at about 350 for 8 to 12 minutes or until crisp.