Instant Pot Tasty Steamed Chicken

Have I said yet how much I am enjoying my Instant Pot???? Every day as mealtime approaches, I look forward to seeing what I can cook next in my new kitchen device. It’s not that I dread cooking; rather, it is that I am still working on menu planning, and that means that if I don’t plan far enough in advance, I often end up with frozen meat and no plan of action at 5 p.m.

The fact that with the Instant Pot I can go from frozen to done in under 30 minutes means that my life, and the life of my family, has taken a sharp turn for the better. Even if I haven’t planned a meal, I can still prepare one in less time than it would take to order out. More home cooking means more meals where I know what ingredients are in the food, and less expense, as well as less wastage of the groceries we buy.

So today I had no plan. We’ve been staying up rather late at night to catch up on some episodes of a series called Reign, and with later nights comes later wake-ups. When I awoke, I was feeling even worse than yesterday – I was stuffy, my throat still hurt and I was exhausted. It was not the best time to slave over a stove. Frankly, though, unless my older daughter or I cook, we are left scrounging for food, or ordering out. My husband makes a great chili and a fantastic chicken noodle soup, but I was in the mood for neither of those today.

I remembered we had chicken breasts in the freezer, so I asked my older to take them out, rinse them, and drop them into the stainless steel liner of the Instant Pot. While she did that, I mixed up a Feingold-inspired alternative to Worcestershire sauce, as well as my personal go-to seasoning blend. Once the chicken breasts were in the pot, I poured 3/4 cup of the sauce over them, and then shook seasoning onto them, making sure to season both sides of the meat.  Once seasoned, I closed the pot, put it on manual, then put it on for 16 minutes (the recipe book says 8 minutes for chicken breasts, but since they were frozen I doubled the time).

If you’re visual like I am, you may enjoy this video. The exact recipe follows the video.

Ingredients:

5 chicken breasts

3/4 cup chicken stock/broth/water

seasoning to taste (I use garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, oregano, basil, black pepper and salt)

Method:

Put frozen chicken breasts into steel inner pot. Pour liquid over the pieces.

Sprinkle on as much or as little seasoning as you desire.

Turn pot onto “Meat/Stew” setting. Set the timer for 16 minutes (if the breasts are thawed, set timer for 8 minutes).

Make sure the pot is set to “Sealing” (beside the float valve).

The pot will beep when it is completed. Either use the Quick Release or Natural Release method to depressurize the pot.

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