Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Cheesy Chicken Rice Pressure Cooking!

Evening friends!  I hope this finds everyone well, sane, and keeping up the health precautions recommended.  I pray nothing but the best for you all!


As you may or may not know from my last post, I got a Crock Pot, Multi-Cooker for Mother's Day!  YASSSSS!  Seriously!!  I was never going to jump on this pressure cooking bandwagon and I did good for 3 or 4 years, but....I WAAAAAAANTED one!

I wanted to create a recipe that was quarantine friendly.  Pantry and freezer staples that I thought you might already have on hand.  I tried a recipe from a blog I will not name and was a mess.  A MESS.  I did some tweaking, changed ingredients and measurements and it was delish..  I made it again, for this video and post and it was AMAZING!  My grand-babies went nuts for it, my husband AND myself.  That being said, with 5 people eating we still had half left.  It makes a good size batch but leftovers are da bomb!

Let's make this one short and sweet so I can get this out to you and figure out the next pressure cooker experiment!  Sorry I am late to the Instapot/Multi-cooker/Pressure Cooking life, but I am officially here for it now!

3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
1T butter
1T oil (veg or olive)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
3 cups chicken broth
2 cups long grain rice (NOT instant)
1-1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup

Set your pot on saute.  Melt butter and oil.  Add in chicken and stir while it gets some color.  Add in salt and pepper.  There is no need to cook chicken all the way through.  Just get it browned up a bit and then add chicken broth, and rice.  Stir.  Place lid on pressure cooker, lock, and make sure your steam valve is CLOSED.   Using your MANUAL button or the button assigned to that function, adjust time to 6 minutes.  Now we wait!

When it is done and has come down from pressure, remove lid away from you and add in soup and cheese.  Stir completely and eat dinner!  We ate this with a big huge salad and it was perfect!
Remember leftovers rock and so do second day leftovers!

I hope you enjoy this recipe.  Oh and YES  you can use boneless skinless thighs!

ENJOY!


Friday, May 15, 2020

The Best Pot Roast!

Hey friends!  Been awhile, I know.  It kind of feels like I start everything out that way these days.  I am so ashamed.


HOWEVER, something major has happened.  I finally gave in to the "pressure cooker", multicooker, contraption you all have been loving for years now.  I wasn't going to give in, I just didn't see the point.  My husband got me an Instapot for Christmas and I exchanged it for an air-fryer (2 years ago).  Well for Mother's Day he got me the Crock Pot Multicooker, and I melted.   I was so excited.  I just finally wanted one.

Now if you are older like myself, you remember your mom canning in a huge, heavy, terrifying looking pressure cooker.  You thought it would explode and take out an entire neighborhood.  I can remember her watching the little do-dad and making sure it manually came to the correct temp and having to regulate it by burner temp and ack, it was way to intimidating to ever make me want to can anything or use one in any capacity!

Well, now, I am a new woman and t is a new day.  I made my pot roast with the pressure cooking setting and holy smokes my friends.  I mean I know it is almost summer and most aren't making pot roast but to me there is no season for whatever you are hungry for.  It could be 180 degrees and I could have a pot of soup on the stove.  I have been so hungry for pot roast, I couldn't stand it, and what better first meal to make with my new multi-cooker?!

Without further delay, let's get into this.  NOW, if you want to use a regular crockpot, wait for 150 hours for it to be done, etc.....go for it.  7-8 hours if you want it falling apart.  We prefer to be able to slice the beef and not have it be mushy like baby food meat.  Just sayin....
So if you want a plate that looks like this.....follow me kids....follow me.

You will need:
2.5 (ish) lb roast  (Use whatever cut you want, I use bottom round roast because I like how it keep me able to slice it)
2 T butter
Potatoes, carrots, celery, onions.
   I used potatoes I had that needed used, probably 6 baby golds, and I cut up 2 russets.  I used about 5 carrots that were small and I keep whole.  4 stalks of celery and cut up an onion if you so desire.  My husband hates onions so I rarely have them on hand.

1 lg, or 2 small brown gravy mixes.  You want it to yield 2 cups of brown gravy
2 cups beef stock
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp onion powder
1/4 tsp poultry seasoning
pepper
salt

cornstarch
water

Ok, prep your veggies.  I thawed my roast out as well.  Set your pressure cooker to saute and add butter. Place your roast into the pot and let it brown on both sides.  Get some good color on that baby!  Color means flavor.  Also, salt and pepper each side of the meat!

Now, in a container combine, beef stock, gravy packet(s), onion powder, poultry seasoning, Worchestershire, and pepper to taste.  Whisk it together and pour over roast.  Add veggies to the top and sprinkle a little bit of salt, your potatoes NEED salt!

Place your lid on, lock it as per your pots directions, close the vent and for mine, I hit the meat button.  I do natural release as well.  If you have a larger roast you may want to manually set it for 45-55 minutes.

When the pressure has released remove meat and veggies, Turn pot back to saute. Make a cornstarch slurry, 2 tbsp water and 2 heaping tbsp cornstarch, mix until smooth and add to pot to thicken your gravy.  Oh you guys, this kind of perfection can't be explained.  This is how I have made my pot roast for years, but in the pressure cooking world, it is about 2 levels better than amazing.  You can slice your meat and add it back to the gravy or just let everyone add their own.


Here is a video from my YouTube channel!  Make sure to subscribe while you are there!


I hope you enjoy and let me know if you give it a try, regardless of in a crockpot or your Instapot or Multi-cooker!

ENJOY!