Tropical Hawaiian Chicken

I am a novice in the kitchen and with a pressure cooker and this chicken turned out amazing! So flavorful and falls off the bone tender. Yummy! see the bottom for my recipe rating. If I can do it anyone can!

Tropical Hawaiian Chicken

Ingredients

1/4 c canola oil
3 pounds bone in skinless chicken parts (I used 4 leg quarters)
6 cloves garlic minced
3 tsp freshly grated ginger
1 1/2 c pineapple juice (12 oz)
3/4 c soy sauce
1/3 c ketchup
3 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
1/2 c chicken stock or broth

Directions

Heat the oil in the pressure cooker- medium heat
Brown both sides of the chicken a few pieces at a time- removing once browned
Saute the garlic and ginger for about 1 min in the oil
Add pineapple juice, soy sauce, ketchup, vinegar, and stock. Stir to combine
Place the chicken back in the pot stacking to fit
Lock the lid and cook at high pressure for 15 min

Naturally release the pressure then remove lid
Place chicken on serving dish/platter
Bring the sauce to a boil, let boil until sauce is reduced by about 1/4 and slightly thickened
Sauce can be poured over the chicken and served on the side- tastes amazing over rice or veggies

This recipe is adapted from The Easy Pressure Cooker Cookbook

Recipe rating:

4 of 5 for easiness factor. It does take a little more time to grate and measure the ginger- but its worth it
5 of 5 for taste factor. Tastes great as leftovers too
4 of 5 for time factor. The thing that took me longest was skinning (I couldn't find bone in and skinless at my supermarket) I think boneless skinless chicken breasts would work just fine too)

Basics of pressure cooking

As I learn to pressure cook I'm have learned a few basics to keep in mind each time (I will continually adding to this list)

 

• never fill the pot more than 3/4 full. (some pressure cookers have a marking on the inside of the pot for this purpose) 
• Bring up to pressure on high heat. once pot comes to pressure bring the heat down to between 1/4 and 1/2 (it will keep the moisture in the pot, which is needed to cook the food)
• Always check the stem for no blockage and seal for cracks 

Taco soup

We were running behind on our day and needed something quick for dinner. We had cereal last night and I didn't really want that again so we went through our food and found some left over ingredients for taco soup. (We made some last weekend when we had some family in town). The best thing about taco soup is that there is really not much to it. Open a few cans of beans cook up some meat and mix it all together with a few spices and tomato sauce.
We stated adding the ingredients and realized that we did not have any taco seasoning so I found a recipe and improvised with the spices we had on hand.

Ingredients:

• 1 can black beans
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 can tomato sauce
• V8 juice
• 8 oz cooked ground beef (or other- we just grabbed a bag of some we had pre-cooked)
• Water
• 3-5 cloves garlic
• Onion powder (or half an onion)
• 1 1oz packet taco seasoning - or the ingredients listed below (the recipe I took from for the homemade taco seasoning can be found here)
• 1tbsp chili powder
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp black pepper

Place all ingredients in pressure cooker

Lock lid in place (making sure the valve stem is clear, the gasket is in good shape, and the safety valve is clean and in place)
Place pot on burner
Put weight on valve stem
Turn heat on high
Once weight starts rocking turn heat down by about half
Cook for 1 minute
Remove from heat

Let the pressure come down. We did a quick release by running the put under water. (You can learn more about that from this post- coming soon!)

Let the Adventure Begin

Pressure cooking is a great way to cook good (quality and tasty) food fast. My husband asked for one for Christmas while in college and has been using it ever since. He has been wanting to teach me for a while now and I have been hesitant, thinking that once I learn to use it, I will become the main "chef" in the home. (Its not that I don't like cooking; its the cleanup, the planning, and the time it takes) So, here's to hoping this here little blog will help me with my quest to be better and more consistent at making dinner for my little family while taking advantage of the pressure cookers we have.