Get Better Quick Chicken Soup

This chicken soup will cure whatever ails you.

If you need help using your pressure cooker click here.

1 chicken (I prefer organic)
4-5 carrots, peeled and sliced or chopped – your preference
Celery-all the leaves, plus about 4-5 good sized stalks cut in half lengthwise and chopped
1/2 large yellow onion
1 generous tsp of dried rubbed sage
6 cups water
salt and pepper to taste (add after soup is cooked)

Remove breast meat from chicken, and set aside. Cut up the remaining chicken into quarters.
Take cut up vegetables and put in bottom of pressure cooker
Top vegetables with cut up chicken
Sprinkle on sage
Add 6 cups of water

Put pressure cooker on high heat until your pressure indicates pressure is built up. I have a fairly old Presto cooker, and there is a piece that sits on top, and rocks steadily when the pressure is right. Maintain pressure for 15 minutes- for me this means keeping the top piece rocking steadily but not violently.

While soup is cooking poach chicken breast meat:
Bring a pot of water to a boil, add a few peppercorns, and 1 TBL salt.
Remove from heat and add chicken breasts to water.
Simmer for five minutes, remove from heat, allow chicken to sit in hot water for another 5-10 minutes, cool and dice for soup.

After 15 minutes release pressure- I let cold water run on the cooker until the pressure drops enough to safely open the lid.

If you are preparing this for company strain out the used vegetables, and sauté some new ones in a bit of butter, cook them in some of the broth until tender and add to the soup with the diced white meat. Or you can toss in two handfuls of frozen mixed vegetables.
I also recommend that unless you need to eat some now, you let this cool, and skim off the fat before reheating.

If you are sick, and/or just making this for yourself, pull out the chicken meat, toss our the bones, dice up the chicken breast you cooked, throw that and any (cooked) rice, noodles, matzo balls or whatever you may want to add, back into the pot and season if necessary. You can also press the veggies through a sieve or chinoise and add back into the broth which is what I do.