After a winter chock-full of carbs, I'm ready to start incorporating some low-carb dishes back into our spring meal planning. With all of the chilly, rainy days this spring is bringing, this Pressure Cooker Buffalo Chicken Soup is showing up on our menu often. It's all the best flavors of classic buffalo wings, minus the orange-stained fingers and loud sports bar.
How to serve Pressure Cooker Buffalo Chicken Soup
I like to serve this soup with a variety of toppings and have people can dress their bowl to their own personal taste. Fresh chopped green onions, shredded cheddar cheese, bleu cheese crumbles, and avocado are our favorites, but this soup is also perfectly delicious on it's own.
Which pressure-cooker do I use?
I named this recipe using the term "pressure cooker" rather than "Instant Pot" very intentionally because I want it to be flexible for the other models outside of the Instant Pot brand. I personally use an Instant Pot Ultra 6qt, but this soup can easily be made in other electric pressure cookers as well. Prior to upgrading to the Instant Pot I used a Cuisinart 6qt electric pressure cooker for many years.
The reason I mention this is because each brand varies, and with that so can cooking times. With my prior Cuisinart machine, I found that vegetables cooked at a much quicker pace, so I would have likely lowered the second pressure cooking session of this recipe (where vegetables and cheese are added) by a few minutes for that particular machine. Though I don't think this recipe would be ruined by an extra two or three minutes of cooking time in a different model electric pressure cooker, you'll want to gage this by your own particular model and preferences.
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A note for special diets
This Pressure Cooker Buffalo Chicken Soup is gluten-free, grain-free, low-carb and can easily accommodate a low-lactose diet (cheddar is naturally low-lactose + this lactose-free cream cheese). This soup is friendly for some SIBO diets and is also very friendly for Keto diets at only 6g net carbs per serving.
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Pressure Cooker Buffalo Chicken Soup
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 portions 1x
- Category: Soups & Stews, Mains
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
This cozy Pressure Cooker Buffalo Chicken Soup offers the best flavors of classic buffalo wings, minus the orange-stained fingers and loud sports bar.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs chicken breast
- 4 cups ( oz) chicken broth, divided
- 1 (8oz) cream cheese, softened (I like this lactose free one but you can use regular too)
- 1 cup sharp cheddar, shredded
- 1 medium head cauliflower (approx 6 cups), chopped
- 1 ½ cups celery, chopped
- 1 cup green onion, chopped
- ½ cup buffalo sauce
- ½ tsp cracked black pepper
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- optional toppings: extra green onions, shredded cheddar cheese, bleu cheese, avocado
Instructions
- Add chicken breasts and 2 cups of the divided chicken broth to your pressure cooker. If the chicken breasts are particularly large, I like to slice them in half first. Seal and cook for 15 minutes on high.
- I usually prefer to quick release, but you can easily allow this to naturally release without over-cooking it. The meat should be nice and fall-apart tender either way.
- Shred chicken with two forks.
- Add the cream cheese to the pot first. I like to give this a bit of a stir with a wooden spoon, breaking up the cream cheese a bit so it incorporated more easily.
- Add remaining ingredients, including the remaining 2 cups of chicken broth.
- Give the ingredients a stir to combine, then seal again and cook for 5 minutes on high.
- Taste for salt and pepper. Serve with optional topping such as additional green onions, shredded cheddar cheese, bleu cheese, or avocado.
Notes
Nutritional information on Whip & Wander is provided as a courtesy and is approximate only. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information given for any recipe on this site.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ⅙ recipe
- Calories: 371
- Sodium: 1656 mg
- Fat: 21 g
- Saturated Fat: 12 g
- Carbohydrates: 9 g
- Fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 35 g
- Cholesterol: 150 mg
Stephanie says
Just had this for dinner. The only deviation I made was to 1/2 in cube the chicken (husband does not like the texture of shredded meat) and pressure cook for 5 min on high (then immediately released) before continuing. I loved buffalo chicken and this was just what I needed today. 🙂 Thank you!
Whip & Wander says
Stephanie, I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed this recipe! It's such a great way to enjoy buffalo flavor on a cold day!
Megan Stevens says
Delicious!! This is one of my favorite comfort food dinners, and I like serving it when friends come over too. Thanks for the great recipe!
Jennifer Fisher says
This looks crazy amazing, will be making to tide us over this weekend! Thanks for the weekend.
Dana says
Woah. So. I grew up right outside of Buffalo (on the Canadian side). Naturally, that makes me a lover of all things Buffalo style—add to that a chicken wing snob 😉 I've never ever seen Buffalo chicken soup before and this sound so so so good. What a unique idea. This takes cheddar beer soup and kicks its ass.
Whip & Wander says
I bet you are an excellent connoisseur of all things Buffalo then! I hope you give this soup a try, it's one of my favorite ways to indulge in buffalo sauce.
Annemarie says
Yum! This buffalo chicken soup looks like a great way to keep my carbs down and still enjoy all the flavors I love in buffalo chicken wings along with lots of veggies. This would be perfect for a crowd since I can set up all the toppings and everyone can make the soup their own.
Whip & Wander says
Yes, it's a really fun alternative to chili in that way. I love extra bleu cheese and avocado on mine, the fella also adds cheddar and green onions to his.
Marisa F. Stewart says
I don't care what time of year it is, I am always in the mood for soup. Although I don't have a pressure cooker, I used to have one of those old ones but not anymore, this recipe sounds so good I'm going to modify it to make regularly. We are crazy about Buffalo Chicken so I know that this soup would be gobbled up in no time.
Whip & Wander says
I think this would translate to a traditional soup pot method with no problem! I hope you love it, Marisa!
Debra says
Good insight for the pressure cooker vs. intapot in the timing. I LOVE my instapot for meal prep and always looking for more inspo on that. This sounds tasty and I"m all about the toppings!!! Putting this in the rotation.
Sarah says
I need to cut down on carbs too! (Gasp, bathing suit season is just around the corner!) This soup looks delicious, and I love all those topping ideas. YUM