Instant Pot Chicken Taco Soup

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This Instant Pot Chicken Taco Soup is Weight Watchers friendly and delicious! It’s a perfect, healthy dinner that is zero points, but incredibly filling!

I received an Instant Pot as a Christmas gift, and have only had a chance to use it a handful of times. So far, I’m probably 50/50 in terms of what has been a success vs. a failure in that thing. Pretty sure I’m over-thinking it, but I am determined to win and fall madly in love with it!

I have, however, fallen in love with this Chicken Taco Soup! I’ve already made it 3 times in my Instant Pot and it has been a smashing success every time.

I seriously mean it when I say I love it. The best part is that my husband and kids do too! No one complains when I make this! They put a little more cheese and sour cream on than I do (because that means it’s no longer zero points), which might have a little something to do with how much they rave about it.

And unlike some of the other recipes that I’ve tried in the instant pot, this one actually does cook at a ridiculously fast rate! I’ve made some other recipes that take forever and leave me wondering why I didn’t just put it in the oven to begin with.

But this recipe is done, from start to finish, in under 15 minutes! And that is counting all the building pressure and releasing pressure time! Which is probably my biggest pet peeve with Instant Pot recipes… why don’t people include those times in their recipes?? I’ve had some take like 30 minutes to build up pressure, and it throws all of my timing off! But that’s a side rant for another day.

Cooking Frozen Chicken in the Instant Pot

I used raw chicken breast every time I’ve made this soup. I know you can use frozen chicken breast, but I haven’t tested it to let you know how long it would take to cook then. I’ll test it soon and come back and update this post!

It only takes 2 chicken breasts, though, so I can’t imagine it would take too much longer!

This is truly a dump and pour recipe. You won’t even dirty any bowls or anything mixing something up. Just drain your corn and beans and add them straight to the pot. Dump your spices right in and stir the whole thing up!

How to Avoid Burn Error on Instant Pot

One of my biggest reasons for my failed Instant Pot meals is because of the dreaded burn error. I’ve gotten it more times than I want to admit.

After A LOT of reading, I discover that tomatoes are often the culprit. They burn at a much faster speed than most of the other ingredients in my meals, so they were tripping the burn error. To avoid that, I’ve been putting the tomatoes in last so that most of them sit on top of the chicken rather than at the bottom of the insert where they’re closer to the heating element.

It seems to be working because I haven’t had a burn error since making that switch! If you look at the last picture, you can see that everything is added but the diced tomatoes (and chicken). I stirred all that together, pushed the chicken down into it and then added the diced tomatoes last.  I just let them sit on top of everything.

Once your taco soup is done cooking and the pressure has been safely released, transfer your chicken breast to a plate or cutting board. I just use two forks to shred it. I like big pieces of heart chicken, so I’m not a fan of shredding it in a stand mixer. You also don’t need to dirty all of that, because the chicken is so tender when cooked this way that it shreds so easily.

Once you have it shredded the way you like, transfer it back into the Instant Pot and give it a good stir with the other ingredients.

Like I mentioned above, this recipe for Chicken Taco Soup is super Weight Watchers approved. On the new Freestyle plan, it comes in at zero points.

The zero points, though, is just for the soup. If you add sour cream or cheese, you’ll have to measure and figure out those points using your app. I’ve been trying to make a big batch on Sundays so that I have it for lunches during the week. For some reason, WW-friendly lunches seem to trip me up the most. Any suggestions??