Thai chicken in the pressure cooker

After last night's burned beef, I decided to look up how much water you're supposed to put in the pressure cooker with your meat.  My search yielded my now educated guess of about 2 cups.



The experiment:
cooking chicken breast, from frozen, with a thai red curry marinade (which was just spread on the frozen chicken breast).  I put the meat on a rack in my pressure cooker, and added 2 cups water for steaming.  It brought to pressure quickly, and I held it at pressure for 15 minutes.  The sites seem to say that when guessing at cooking times, it's best to guess low.  I would agree with that after last night -- I can still smell the charred meat.



After 15 minutes, I dropped the pressure (with a wooden spoon), and opened it up.  Looked perfect on the outside, but the inside was still frozen.  I cut it into two pieces, and put it back on.  There was still enough water that I felt safe about it (probably 1.5 cups?)



Another 10 minutes, it was mostly done, still pink in the middle of the largest piece.  So I chopped the done portions of the chicken, and cooked the middle piece just a tad more.




Total time taken
Hmm... hard to know.  Probably about a half hour.  It was in reality a bit over an hour from when I started to when we ate.  Part of that was because I didn't start the rice in a timely manner.


How'd it work?


I separated the chicken into two sections - the part near the surface, with the marinade on it, and the middle-parts, without the marinade. 



In a skillet (I could have done it in the same pot I used to cook the chicken, but it was still cooking that not-quite-done piece), I fried some garlic, then added some basil, the marinaded cooked chicken and a half can of coconut cream.  It made a lovely, but spicy, curry.


In a sauce pan, I melted some butter, threw in a half-green pepper, chopped, and some more garlic.  When it was boiling, I added flour, then milk and made a white sauce.  I finished it off with some salt and parmesan cheese, then added in the rest of the cooked chicken.  It made a lovely chicken a la king sauce. 


We served both over rice.  In spite of the rough start, it was really delish.

Pressure cooker beef stroganoff recipe

The experiment:

5 cloves garlic, sliced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 Tbsp butter
1 cube beef boullion
2/3 cup water
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 lb block of beef (frozen)

Fry garlic and onion in butter, add water, beef bouillon, water and frozen blob of beef.  Turn on high, until the weight starts rocking, then hold that pressure for 25 minutes.  Actually, after 22 minutes, it smelled like it was burning, so I took it off and dropped the pressure fast by running cold water over the lid.  Yep, it was black on the bottom.  Hmm.. failure there.

But the beef was nicely cooked anyway.  Well, except the parts stuck to the bottom.

I pulled it out, chopped it (it was about the consistency of pot roast, but a bit dryer than it should have been), then started over with the same ingredients above, only in a skillet.  When the garlic was cooked, I added everything else.  When the water was boiling, I added a can of cream of mushroom soup and about 2 oz cream cheese.  Oh, and some black pepper.  I stirred it up and heated it through.


Total time taken 
25 minutes in the cooker (including raising to pressure), another 10 to remake everything.  Since I didn't thaw the meat first, this really was a quick meal -- it was ready a half hour early.  Next time, this should be reduced even further.


How'd it work?
It was overly salty, but was actually delicious over mashed potatoes.  I'll probably try this again, with more water (and a shorter cooking time) in the pressure cooker.

Pressure cooker white chili recipe

The experiment:

1 lb baby lima beans, dry
oil
water
garlic
1 Tbsp. chili seasoning
1 tsp chicken seasoning
1 Tbsp. taco seasoning
2 cubes chicken boullion
1/2 cube cilantro
salt

I fried the garlic in a bit of oil until it was cooked.  Then I added 2 cups (1 lb) baby lima beans (I know, not really chili material, but it was the only white beans I had on hand) and 5 cups water, and a bit more oil.  I added about 1 Tbsp chili seasoning (a pre-mixes spice mix), and about 1 Tsp of chicken seasoning (also a pre-mix), since this is chicken chili after all.

Then I turned it on high, and turned it down when the weight started rocking, and continued cooking for 15 minutes.  I wasn't sure they'd be done, so I released the pressure with a wooden spoon and checked.  Nope, they weren't. And it didn't taste at all like chili.  Hmm... So I added more water, some cumin and put them back on.  I let the weight rock for another 15 minutes, and dropped the pressure the same way.  To my relief, yes, the beans were done.

I added enough more water to make it seam like soup, some cooked chicken, two cubes of chicken boullion, a bunch of salt, a bay leaf and some taco seasoning and half a cube of our dried cilantro.  Now it tasted like chili.  A bit too spicy for the kids though -- drat that chili seasoning.  Should have used less chili seasoning and more taco seasoning.

Total time taken
45 minutes.  This included 8 minutes of cool-taste-reheat time between the two attempts at cooking the beans.  It does not include the time to cook the chicken, but I think that in the future, both could be done easily in about the same time.


How'd it work?
Better than I expected the first time I tasted the beans, for sure!  I served it with garlic bread, and while the kids did think it was a bit too spicy, it went over reasonably.
 

Frozen chicken breast in the pressure cooker recipe

The experiment:

Four frozen chicken breasts
One head (12 cloves) garlic, sliced
Olive Oil

I put some olive oil (probably about a Tbsp) in the cooker, sliced garlic into the olive oil, and heated until the garlic is transparent. Then I tossed in the frozen chicken breast, right out of the freezer (I actually had to thaw them for 1 minute in the microwave to get them out of the package).  They were stuck in sections of two chicken breasts each.  I added about a cup of water.

I heated on high until the weight started rocking, then turned it down a tad.  After 21 minutes, I looked at the clock, realized that they had probably been in way too long, and took them off.  I put the cooker under cool running water to drop the pressure fast, and then opened it up.

Total time taken
23 minutes.  But it really should take under 20, it was overdone.

How'd it work?
Yep, they were a bit overdone and a bit dry.  Not terribly, but they crumbled somewhat when I wanted to cube them.  Next time, try 16 minutes or so.