Easy Pressure Cooker Recipes: Honey Sesame Chicken (2024)

FAQs

Why is my pressure cooker chicken tough? ›

If your boneless chicken breast winds up with a weird, rubbery texture, it probably means that you need to cook it longer. In general, the Instant Pot does better with longer cook times for meat.

If you cook a 3.5 oz (100g) tiny chicken breast for 2 minutes it's totally overcooked (like 200F kinda overcooked). Also, I've cooked two same weight but different thickness breasts at the same time but they had different internal temperatures after cooking. Naturally, the next experiment was the thickness.

Like the slow cooker, the Instant Pot (and other pressure cookers) creates a moist cooking environment that does not dry out the skin.

This dinner staple cooks up perfectly every time in the Instant Pot. You can aim for firm but juicy chicken for cubing, or let it cook a little bit longer for tender shredded chicken.

Ultimately, slow cooking allowed our chicken to be perfectly seasoned without compromising the meat texture, a luxury pressure cooking can't afford.

Chicken breasts, thighs or drumsticks

By placing cooking liquid in the bottom of the pressure cooker and placing the chicken in the steamer basket above the liquid, you are guaranteed tender, moist chicken every time. However, you can also use the cooker to make a sauce and cook your chicken submerged in flavour.

Cook. Then pressure cooked at a low temperature to preserve all the great taste we're known for around the world.

Chicken Broth – The Instant Pot requires a minimum of 1 cup of water or liquid for the pressure to build. Plus, liquid makes your chicken moist and juicy. While you can use water, I much prefer broth for flavor. You can use store-bought chicken broth, my homemade chicken broth, or even bone broth.

Open the pot, then use a digital thermometer to check the thickest part of a piece of chicken—it should be at least 165oF.

Once you're getting 4 “jiggles” per minute, or your dial gauge has come up to pressure, start your timer and process the chicken. If you're canning pint jars, you will process them for 1 hour 15 minutes (75 minutes). If you're using quart jars, you will process for 1 hour 30 minutes (90 minutes).

How much water do you add to pressure cooked chicken? ›

Add 1 cup of liquid to the instant pot (water, chicken broth, pineapple or apple juice). Place chicken breasts on top of the trivet in a single layer and season with salt, pepper or any seasonings you like. Secure the instant pot lid and make sure the vent is set to “sealed”.

Brown it

Pressure cooked food doesn't brown so it's worth doing this at the start of cooking before adding liquid and putting the lid on. Meat looks and tastes more appetising with a little browning. Onions, garlic and spices also benefit in the flavour stakes from pre-cooking.

You can still pressure cook leaner pieces – like eye of round and top sirloin – but these work best if they've been stuffed, shredded or rolled (with other ingredients). Best cuts of beef to use: Chuck steak, Round Roast, Shoulder, Pot roast, Ribs, Brisket, Oxtail.

Both slow cookers and pressure cookers do a good job of tenderizing tough meat, but each makes meat more edible in a different way.

Leaving chicken in a pan, oven, or grill for just a little too long can suck the moisture right out and leave you with a dry, rubbery bird. Without moisture, the protein fibers in the chicken become elastic. The types of chicken you buy at the store can also make a difference.

In addition, chicken breast has less fat and can become dry (chewy or rubbery) if cooked for too long. Without moisture, the protein fibers in the chicken become elastic.

As you go higher in temperature, the proteins shrink, moisture is pushed out, and the meat turns stiff and dry. All those things are especially unpleasant, and easy to do, with chicken breasts.