Creamy Instant Pot Chipotle Shrimp Soup is loaded with potatoes, corn, bacon, and shrimp, finished with cream and gets a spicy kick from Chipotle chilies. This Instant Pot soup recipe is quick and easy and perfect for a busy weekday. To make the soup more of a chowder, mash some of the potatoes to thicken the soup.
Instant Pot Chipotle Shrimp Soup is one of my favorite soups. It’s so quick and easy and really hearty and filling. And it’s also thick enough that you might even call it a chowder. I love to have a bit of spice in my recipes. The Chipotle (pronounced ‘chi-poat-lay’) adds that spicy touch and is counter-balanced by the cream. Perfect.
Tips and substitutions
For many years I’d been buying cans of Chipotle Chiles in Adobo Sauce, and I would freeze the leftover chilies for later use. But now I’ve discovered Diced Chipotle peppers which come in a glass jar. It’s very convenient and easy to use and keeps in the fridge for a long time.
Since shrimp can get overcooked in the Instant Pot, you’ll add it in after cooking the vegetables and let it cook in the residual heat for 10 minutes. I find the shrimp is cooked perfectly at 10 minutes. It’s also possible to add the shrimp and cook it in the ‘Saute’ setting until done. This will speed up the recipe by about 5 minutes.
You can either use broth or homemade Instant Pot seafood stock if you’d like more of a seafood flavor.
You could omit the shrimp and make a delicious Spicy Instant Pot Potato Soup. I use Yukon Gold potatoes for most of my cooking, including for this Instant Pot soup recipe. I sometimes substitute salmon for the shrimp and that turns out delicious too.
Here’s another tip for you that I use all the time. Since white wine really doesn’t keep for more than a few days, I substitute dry white vermouth. It works really well if you don’t want to open a new bottle of white wine. See my Kitchen Hacks and Tips for more tips.
As for the flour that is used as a thickener, many pressure cooker soup recipes use cornstarch as a thickener after a dish cooks. I’m not a big fan of cornstarch except in Asian recipes, so I use flour just like in my stovetop version of this soup recipe, and as long as I deglaze the inner pot before pressure cooking, the Instant Pot reaches pressure just fine.
If you’re new to the Instant Pot and aren’t familiar with how to use it, please read the Instant Pot DUO Beginner’s Quick Start Guide or the Instant Pot ULTRA Beginner’s Quick Start Guide first and then come back here to learn how to make Creamy Instant Pot Chipotle Shrimp Soup.
Instant Pot Chipotle Shrimp Soup Ingredients
Instant Pot Chipotle Shrimp Soup Step-by-Step Instructions
- Instant Pot Duo: Select the ‘Saute’ function.
- Instant Pot Ultra: Select the ‘Saute’ function and press ‘Start’.
- Add bacon to inner pot of Instant Pot and saute until crisp, about 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add onions, celery and garlic.
- Saute till vegetables have softened, about 3 minutes.
- Stir in flour and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Press ‘Cancel’ and add white wine to deglaze the pot. Stir to remove brown bits from the bottom of the Instant Pot.
- If not completely deglazed, add a tablespoon or two of broth.
- Stir in broth, milk, potatoes, corn, chipotle, salt, black pepper, and thyme.
Instant Pot DUO Pressure Cook:
- Close the lid and make sure steam release handle is in ‘Sealing’ position
- Press ‘Manual’ (or ‘Pressure Cook’) and ‘+’ or ‘-‘ until display reads ‘1’ (1 minute).
Instant Pot ULTRA Pressure Cook:
- Close the lid.
- Select Pressure Cook mode and adjust time to 1 minute (00:01).
- Press ‘Start’.
- Instant Pot display will change to ‘On’.
- Once the Instant Pot is pressurized, the float valve will go up.
- The display will count down from 1 to 0; it will then switch to ‘Keep Warm’ mode and display ‘L0:00’ or ’00 00′ and begin to count up.
Instant Pot DUO Quick Release:
- Do a Quick Release: move the steam release handle to ‘Venting’. I like to place a folded towel over the steam release handle and move it to the venting position. Remove the towel after turning the knob.
- When your Instant Pot is depressurized, the float valve will be in the down position.
- Press ‘Cancel’ and open the Instant Pot.
Instant Pot ULTRA Quick Release:
- Press down on the Steam Release Button until it locks into place, and steam begins to come out of the Steam Release Valve.
- When your Instant Pot is depressurized, the float valve will be in the down position.
- Open the Instant Pot.
- Add shrimp and cream and stir to combine.
- Close the Instant Pot.
- Allow the shrimp to cook in the residual heat for 10 minutes. *
- Open the Instant Pot and serve.
- Garnish each serving with scallions, parsley and/or crumbled bacon.
* Alternately, select the ‘Saute’ setting and cook the shrimp until done, and stir in the cream to heat through.
Creamy Instant Pot Chipotle Shrimp Soup
Ingredients
- 3 slices bacon - chopped
- 1 cup onion - diced
- 3/4 cup celery - chopped
- 1 tsp garlic
- 1 Tbsp flour
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- 1 1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth - or Instant Pot Seafood Stock
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1 1/2 cups potatoes - cut into small (1/3-inch) cubes
- 1 cup frozen corn kernels
- 2 tsp diced canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
- 3/4 tsp salt - or to taste
- 1/2 tsp black pepper powder
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 lb shrimp - peeled and deveined
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Select the ‘Saute’ function.
- Add bacon to inner pot of Instant Pot and saute until crisp, about 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add onions, celery and garlic.
- Saute till vegetables have softened, about 3 minutes.
- Stir in flour and cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Press ‘Cancel’ and add white wine to deglaze the pot. Stir to remove brown bits from the bottom of the Instant Pot. If not completely deglazed, add a tablespoon or two of broth.
- Stir in broth, milk, potatoes, corn, Chipotle, salt, black pepper and thyme.
- Close the lid and select 'Manual' or 'Pressure Cook' and cook for 1 minute.
- Do a Quick Release of Pressure (QR).
- Stir in shrimp and cream.
- Close the Instant Pot and allow the shrimp to cook in the residual heat for 10 minutes.
- Garnish each serving with scallions, parsley and/or crumbled bacon.
Notes
- Prep time does not include steps that are already accounted for in the ingredient list, e.g. chopped onions, minced garlic, diced chicken, etc.
- Adjust the quantity of Chipotle chilies to taste.
- Instead of cooking the shrimp in the residual heat for 10 minutes, you can select the ‘Saute’ setting and cook the shrimp until done, and stir in the cream to heat through.
- See the blog post for more detailed recipe tips
Nutrition
I am not a certified nutritionist. I provide my best estimate of nutritional information merely as a courtesy to my readers. If you depend on nutritional information for dietary or health reasons, I suggest using your favorite online nutrition calculator to confirm the nutritional value of this recipe based on the actual ingredients that you use.
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You might also like to try:
Instant Pot Shrimp and Grits | Instant Pot Gumbo | Instant Pot Chicken Curry Soup |
Arlene Murphy
My favorite soup. I just have to watch the heat in the 🌶 Actually used red wine instead of white since that is what I have. I used Lobster base from Better than bouillon. I omit any salt then.
This is a fabulous recipe. Thank you so much.
Paint the Kitchen Red
Thanks Arlene! Interesting modifications you’ve made. I never thought to try it with red wine 🙂
Cheryl
I see it serves 5. Are they bigger or smaller bowls. Trying to figure out if I need to double recipe. I guess I should ask how full does the instant pot get after adding the shrimp? What are the serving size?
Paint the Kitchen Red
Cheryl, I would say the quantity per bowl would be about 1 cup or a bit more. The Instant Pot is about 1/3 full. Hope that helps.