Dinner In An Instant—Instant Pot, That Is

I have been "missing in action" in the kitchen lately. We have tried the couple of new restaurants in town. We've eaten sandwiches because it was easy. Two nights ago it was pizza from town. By yesterday I felt a little guilty. I didn't want to drive to the grocery store, so I wanted a supper that I could make from what was here. I had a pack of chicken breasts thawing (without a plan for cooking) in the refrigerator. It was 4:00 PM when the wave of guilt hit me, so I searched the web for Instant Pot chicken recipes. I usually keep frozen broccoli on hand, which isn't as good as fresh, but it's better than no vegetable. Brown rice—the cook-in-the-bag-kind—is another good pantry staple. That was enough to make a dinner.

Before I was ready to cook, I put the chicken under cool running water for a few minutes. After that, it was about half thawed. I have read that one advantage of using an Instant Pot is that you can use frozen chicken. So I didn't bother to thaw it any more. Yep. It worked fine.

If I understand it correctly, you do not have to add more cooking time to a recipe when cooking from frozen. It will just take longer for the pot to come up to pressure. That's where the extra cooking takes place. BUT should you decide your chicken or meat needs to be cooked longer after it's "done," then put the lid back on and cook it more This whole Instant Pot thing is not an exact science. Use your common sense cooking skills. I think if you had large pieces of frozen chicken or your three pieces were frozen together in a lump, then you might need extra minutes added to the pressure time. It's a judgement call and that gets better with practice. I'm still learning.

Just so you know...it took longer to write this blog post than it did to get supper on the table. The meal was really quick. Here is the recipe for chicken teriyaki that I found on my search. I made some minor adjustments. Here's what I did:

GINGER TERIYAKI CHICKEN

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved lengthwise (package was 1.36 lbs)  
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup rice vinegar (mine was seasoned rice vinegar)
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon minced garlic (I used the kind from a jar)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon water

In a cup, whisk together honey, vinegar, ginger, garlic, black pepper and olive oil. Add chicken to Instant Pot. Put onion on top of chicken. Pour the honey/vinegar mix over chicken.

Place lid on pot and seal valve. Set to Manual for 5 minutes. Use a Quick Release. (Chicken should have reached temp of 165º.) Using two forks, shred chicken in the pot. Mix cornstarch and water and pour into chicken mixture. Cook on Sauté setting until sauce has thickened a little.


Delicious! I served it over brown rice with broccoli on the side. I only had one issue. It wasn't with the recipe. It was with my chicken. It was a tough old bird! It was truly done after 5 minutes of cooking, but it was not easy to shred. I put the lid back on and set it to cook 1 minute under pressure. And it still wasn't as tender as usual. I really think it was the chicken. Nothing to do with how I cooked it.

This was the easiest and the fastest of the Instant Pot recipes I've made. I mixed the sauce ingredients up before I was ready to cook. That took less than 5 minutes. And then when it was close to dinner time, I chopped the onion and split the chicken. Put it all in the pot and set it for 5 minutes. Actual time, from coming to pressure and doing a quick release, was less than 20 minutes, I think. I forgot to time it. During that hands-off cooking time, I made the rice and the broccoli and stuck all the dirty utensils in the dishwasher.

I'm still not going to say the Instant Pot has "changed my life." (Yes, I read that all the time from other IP users.) And I don't feel the need to cook in it every day. Nor do I want to cook every kind of food in it. But this recipe that makes me happy I have an Instant Pot.