Place all ingredients into the inner liner of your Instant Pot.
Close the pot and set it to high pressure for 10 minutes.
When time is up, let the pot rest for 10 minutes. Then release all remaining pressure.
Using silicone tongs, remove the chicken from the pressure cooker and shred it.
Stir the shredded chicken back into the soup. If desired, remove the sprigs of cilantro since you were using them mainly for seasoning.
Squeeze in the lime or lemon juice.
Serve the soup as is, or with slices of avocado stirred in at the last minute. I like to serve with additional lime wedges, warmed corn toritllas, or crushed tortilla chips.
Chicken. If you want to use chicken breast for this recipe, cut it into small pieces and cook as directed. You can use chicken breasts, chicken thighs, chicken drumsticks, all the chickens!
You can use turkey instead of chicken, but cut it into 3-4 inch pieces rather than putting in a whole turkey breast for example.
Improvise. You could use this as a base chicken recipe and vary the spices to suit your taste.
Vegetables. Similarly, you can vary the vegetables to suit your taste.
Just note that since this recipe cooks for 10 minutes, you will necessarily have softened veggies.
You can use any frozen veggies you have lying around--that's what I typically do anyway!
Some additional vegetables that I might suggest for this are onions, carrots, potatoes, & fresh tomatoes. I like chayote in this recipe as well. It adds a lovely bit of bite. A few slices of red pepper added after it's cooked are also very pretty in here.
If you like a little more crunch to your veggies, I suggest you cook the soup with half the veggies. Once it is done cooking, turn the pot on sauté and add the remaining vegetables. Cook only for 4-5 minutes until the veggies are cooked through and serve.
You can use frozen mirepoix instead of chopping up all the vegetables. In that case, you do not need to adjust cooking times.
And of course, do not forget the wonderful flavor and scent of cilantro to this. You can also add chopped cilantro after it is done cooking if you are a cilantro fan!
The burst of fresh lime juice at the end is so good! Use lemon juice if you don't have any lime juice.
Keto. To make this keto, consider adding riced cauliflower instead of rice.
Water or Broth. You may also want to use chicken stock, chicken bouillon, bouillon cubes, or chicken broth for this instead of water.
Corn Tortillas or Chips. I also like to serve this with warmed corn tortillas or even crushed tortilla chips on top.
Slow Cooker. You can make this in the slow cooker with fresh chicken as well. Add all ingredients into the slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours.
Stovetop. If you want to make this on the stovetop, just add everything into a 3-quart soup pot, and bring everything to a boil. When the chicken broth or water is boiling, turn it down to a simmer, and cook until the vegetables are tender.