Can I just say that I love my pressure cooker? It was a totally unexpected wedding gift from my aunt (thanks!) as I didn't even know what a pressure cooker was at the time. Let me tell you - it's like magic. If you don't have one, go buy one. Mine is a 2.5 qt braiser from this company and HOLY WOW, AUNT NAN! That was one helluva wedding gift (she gave us 2!). But seriously, go buy one. You will go from frozen meat to super tender and perfectly cooked in under 30 minutes - hello last minute dinner!
I've been experimenting with mine a bit and this is a recipe I've been tweaking for a while based on my picky eaterness and what I've got in the fridge.
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts (frozen)
2 strips of bacon, cut up into small pieces
1/4 sweet onion cut into thin strips
1 clove garlic
1-2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 can tomato sauce
1/4 ish cup (or less) apple juice or white wine
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tbs olive oil
Put the pressure cooker on the stove (lid off!) on medium/medium-low heat. Add the bacon, onion and oil and cook until the bacon starts to crisp and the onions start to caramelize (or at least get translucent). Toss the clove of garlic in there at some point, too. Now, I'm not gonna lie, this smells not-so-appetizing. That's okay, keep going. It'll be fine.
Add the juice or wine to deglaze the pan a bit. Then add the tomato sauce, salt, sugar and pepper, then stir it up a bit. Add your mushrooms and toss your frozen chicken in (I like using the prepacked stuff from Costco). Now put the lid on, increase the heat to medium/high.
Cook at the 2nd pressure ring for 24 minutes (give or take based on the thickness of your chicken and if you thawed it ahead of time). Turn off heat and use touch release method to remove the lid of your pressure cooker. At this point I like to scoop out the chicken and mushrooms and turn the heat back on to medium and reduce the liquid a little. Then I add them back in.
Last night I paired it with steamed brocolli and penne noodles. Normally I'd serve this over wavy egg noodles, but the hubs had a long day at work and penne noodles are one of his favorite foods, so I opted for those. Voila!
And look, I multi-tasked cooking the brocolli and noodles!
See that? That's my pot with a steamer basket. I've got the noodles in the bottom and the brocolli on top. That means one less pot to clean! Woohoo!
I don't even know what a pressure cooker is, but now I'll have to look into it! And that PICTURE thing confused me before I saw your disclaimer at the end : )
ReplyDeleteYou crack me up, Carolyn!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that the pressure cookers brought you closer to enlightenment. I now have 4 and can cook with all of them simultaneously (usually without killing anything). Very "Green" way to cook too (Auntie is a tree-hugger.
ReplyDeleteCheck out my favorite vegan pressure cooker cook book Vegan Cooking Under Pressure by Lorna Sass (or to go really radical, try Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and trick all your friends into healthy eating.
ciao. Auntie Nan
Texan, Vegan, and Buddhist (and that ain't easy)