Instant Pot Chicken Parmesan Soup — The Doctor in the Pot

October. The leaves peaked on Wednesday — all at once, as if the trees had been waiting for a signal and the signal came and the whole city turned gold and orange and red in a single day. I drove along Skyline Drive on my way home from work and the view stopped me — the city below, the trees on fire, the lake gray and enormous, the sky that particular autumn blue that exists nowhere else and exists here for maybe ten days a year. I pulled over and sat in the car and looked. Not for a long time — five minutes, maybe — but five minutes of looking at Duluth in October is enough to reset whatever's wrong. The lake is still there. The trees still know how to change. The sky still does that thing it does. These facts are immovable. They help. Paul's hand has been the same. No better, no worse. He's back at school, teaching, using his right hand to write on the whiteboard (he switched from left to right in September, casually, as if it were a choice rather than a necessity, and I noticed and said nothing). The December appointment sits on the calendar like a date with a stranger — inevitable, approaching, unknowable. I've been thinking about what to tell the kids. About Paul's hand. Anna knows — I told her on the porch in July, in the vaguest terms. Peter has enough to carry. Elsa is at Voyageurs, in the woods, in her element. I don't want to burden anyone with uncertainty. But keeping it to myself is its own burden, and the weight of it — Paul's hand, Peter's marriage, Mamma at eighty-six — is considerable. I talked to God about it. Not formally — I don't pray on my knees, I'm too Scandinavian for that level of display — but I sat in the church on Wednesday evening, alone, in the quiet pew, and I said: "I need help carrying this." The church was empty and the stained glass was dark and God didn't answer, which is His usual response, but the asking helped. The asking always helps. I made a big pot of chicken soup — not the canned kind, not the shortcut kind. Real chicken soup: a whole chicken simmered for three hours with celery, carrots, onion, and dill. You strain it, you pull the meat, you add egg noodles, and the result is a soup that cures everything, which is not medically accurate but is emotionally true. Mamma calls it "the doctor in the pot." She's not wrong. Paul had two bowls. I had one. Sven had the chicken skin, which is his tax for being present during all cooking operations. The leaves are falling now. They peaked and now they're falling and the trees are going bare and the world is getting ready for winter, which in Duluth means the world is getting ready for endurance, which is what we do. We endure. We've always endured. I can endure this too. Whatever this turns out to be.

This is the soup I keep coming back to when the season turns and the days get short and the list of things I’m carrying gets long. It’s not Mamma’s classic broth — it’s heartier, cheesier, the kind of bowl that feels like sitting down and letting someone else hold things for a while. After a week of watching leaves fall and holding my breath about December, I needed something warm and abundant, something that fills the kitchen with steam and fills the house with the smell of things being okay. This is that soup.

Instant Pot Chicken Parmesan Soup

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 cup small pasta (ditalini or small shells)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• Fresh basil, for serving

Instructions

1. Sauté the aromatics. Set the Instant Pot to Sauté mode. Add olive oil, then cook the diced onion until softened, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute more.
2. Add the liquids and chicken. Pour in the crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, and chicken broth. Stir in the Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes. Nestle the chicken breasts into the liquid.
3. Pressure cook. Lock the lid and set the valve to Sealing. Cook on High Pressure for 12 minutes. Allow a natural pressure release for 5 minutes, then carefully quick-release any remaining pressure.
4. Shred the chicken. Remove the chicken breasts to a cutting board and shred with two forks. Set aside.
5. Cook the pasta. Set the Instant Pot back to Sauté mode. Stir in the pasta and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 8 to 10 minutes.
6. Finish the soup. Turn off the heat. Stir the shredded chicken back into the pot. Add the heavy cream and Parmesan cheese and stir until the cheese is melted and the soup is creamy.
7. Serve. Ladle into bowls and top each serving with shredded mozzarella, an extra sprinkle of Parmesan, and fresh basil leaves.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 410 | Protein: 36g | Fat: 16g | Carbs: 32g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 980mg