Instant Pot recipe of the day

[dreamshark]

Cub Foods (at least the one on south Nicollet) has split chickens on sale. It turns out that this is the perfect cut of chicken for cooking in an Instant Pot with baby potatoes and carrots. The secret to Instant Pot cookery is balancing the ingredients so that they all get cooked thoroughly but none of them turn into mush. The other secret is to have enough fat in the pot so that everything is bursting with flavor instead of tasting like washed out steam table fare. This is that perfect combo.

It looks very much like my usual chicken stew made with boneless chicken thighs, but it's SO MUCH BETTER with a whole chicken. The meat is moist and tender and falling off the bones. The potatoes are soft without being mushy and totally infused with rich chicken broth.


Oh, right, the recipe. It's pretty much what it looks like: two half-chickens, 2 cups of water, a couple of onions, and a mess of baby potatoes and baby carrots. I used little potatoes from the Farmers Market, but you can buy them at the grocery store. You want the smallest ones. The only secret ingredient was Coffee and Garlic Grill Rub from Trader Joe's. I would think that any grill rub would work, or just make your own with salt and pepper and paprika and garlic powder. If I had been a little more organized I would have rubbed the chicken a couple of hours in advance and let it sit in the fridge, but I did it at the last minute and it was fine. I browned the spiced chicken pieces first. Then took the chicken out, poured in the water and the vegetables, and layered the chicken on top. It was a very full pot. Cook on high pressure for 30 minutes, Natural Release. 

It makes 6-8 servings, depending on how hungry you are. And as a bonus you end up with enough incredibly rich chicken broth for a pot of your favorite soup the next day To gild the lily, I scooped out the vegetables with a slotted spoon and threw the bones back in the broth with some vegetable trimmings to simmer into even better broth. 

Comments

[spiderplanet]

Is "Coffee and Garlic Grill Rub" or is it actual ground coffee, plus Garlic Grill Rub? I suspect the first one because of capitalization, but I've never heard of coffee as a meat rub before.

[quadong]

Me neither, and I have the same question. If it's good, I want to know.

[dreamshark]

It's a grill rub that contains coffee and garlic. I bought it on a whim because it was so unusual, but I like it. It has a vaguely chocolaty smell and flavor, like chicken mole.

[maruad]

Looks great and sounds tasty.