Last night I got home and was STARVING plus had a headache all day. I wanted some comfort food and neither Jim nor I felt like going out. It was dreary and raining out on top of everything, and Jim wasn't really hungry as he had a late lunch. So I decided to experiment with the pressure cooker, without a recipe. I figured, if it doesn't work, I can always just eat cereal for dinner (something I do when Jim's not really hungry, especially when I'm in the mood for comfort food - that and pasta with lots of parmesan cheese are my two faves for that kind of mood.)
So here's what I did. I got two frozen skinless boneless chicken breasts out of the freezer, thawed them out in the microwave on the "turbo defrost" setting, and then fired up the pressure cooker. Mine has a "browning" feature, so I put that setting on and put a tiny bit of olive oil in the (nonstick) pot. Jim buys minced garlic by the 55 gallon drum (well, not really, but it's a decent sized container) and so I put about a teaspoon or so of that in there. We always use that instead of chopping garlic and it's actually a bit stronger than using fresh garlic for the same measurement, so you use less. I lightly browned the two thawed chicken breasts in the garlic and olive oil for a few minutes on each side.
After browning the chicken breasts, I added a can of cream of potato soup* and a can of milk, two cans of water, and some uncooked small shell pasta (about half a small rectangular box.) I immediately put the lid on and set it for high pressure for six minutes. It took maybe three or four minutes to get up to high pressure, then it cooked the six minutes. I released the pressure with the quick method (just pull the valve up and the steam comes out) and opened the pot. The chicken was cooked but the pasta was still al dente and the sauce/soup was too liquid and I wanted to thicken it up. So I decided to put it back on high pressure for three more minutes and that did the trick perfectly.
It was delicious! Jim even had some and we had lots left over as I made too much pasta. The chicken came out really moist and tender that way, and the garlic flavor really made it all come together. With a nice glass of Duckhorn cabernet, it was just what the doctor ordered. I will definitely be making it again some weeknight!
*When going through the cabinet to find an appropriate cream soup for this adventure, I kept coming up with cans that were expired. Like WAY EXPIRED. Like 2002 expired. I obviously haven't cooked with cream soup in a while. We ended up tossing out eight or nine cans before finding the one that we had bought more recently that we used.
Ooh! Sounds delicious, we may have to try this tonight with some chicken I thawed out. We'll probably use cream of mushroom, since that's the only cream soup I buy. :-) I've got tenderloins though, so I'd probably cook it for about 4 minutes before adding the chicken back in and cooking for the rest of the time. Thanks for the idea!
Posted by: CGCouture | October 14, 2011 at 09:44 AM
I wonder if you need to thaw out the chicken or just cook it a bit longer? I don't know how these things work, but that sounds like it could save some microwave time.
Posted by: Amanda | October 14, 2011 at 10:04 AM
that sounds yummy!!!!
great dinner idea
know all about those expired things
i bring back tons of things from USA i cant get here and dont use them because i'll need them again when i use them up and then ...they expire! duh! how stupid is that?
has happened with jello, bisquick mix, and water chestnuts :P
Posted by: rebeccawip | October 14, 2011 at 10:06 AM
Pressure cooking is SO faast! I hardly ever do it, but I can totally get why you would. And we occasionally (like every 3 months or so) have a kitchen cupboard clean out week. We look in the cupboard, come up with recipes that use those things (even if we have to buy bits and pieces to make it work) and that way it doesn't get too old....cause otherwise, yeah
Posted by: Carol | October 16, 2011 at 11:13 AM