Monday, August 31, 2020

Chicken Kedra with Almonds & Onions

I have discovered one feature of that takes the Instant Pot from "Yet another gadget cluttering the kitchen" to Awesome Device: the ability to pull the meat out of the soupy sauce and hit "saute" to reduce it down.

The downfall of the slow cooker is that it often leaves dishes far soupier than I want - especially when I don't want to serve them on couscous, crackers, biscuits, or rice. This doesn't quite eliminate that, but it goes a long way to correcting it without the danger inherent in pouring hot liquid from one vessel to another, and back!

This is first pass at adapting a dish to the new device, making it simple enough I can cook it on a day when I don't have the time, patience, or pain tolerance for 3 hours in the kitchen attending simmering dishes.

Chicken Kedra with Almonds and Onions (Instant Pot)

1 can chickpeas, drained
1 cup blanched almond slivers
2 pounds chicken thighs, thawed
1 cup warm water
1 pinch saffron threads
1/2 Tablespoon chicken better than bullion
1 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 large cinnamon stick
1/4 teaspoon ground tumeric
2 Tablespoons ghee or butter
2 large onions
1/4 cup chopped flat parsley
Juice of 1 lemon, or to taste

Drop the saffron threads in the warm water and let them soak while prepping everything else.
Toss ghee (or butter if you don't have any) in the Instant pot. Add the ground spices, and cinnamon stick.
Pull out the food processor. Turn one onion into tiny grated near-paste. Leave the lid on! Or, if you hate your tear ducts, grate the onion. Chop the second onion into thin slivers.
Turn on the Instant Pot to saute. Stir spices and ghee, so they can heat a little. Add grated onion and bullion to pot, stir.
Wait a moment, then add chicken. You can let sit on saute for a couple minutes while everything blends a little.
Turn off saute, and add chickpeas, saffron water, and slivered onion on top of the chicken.
Put lid on, seal vent, and set to high for 10 minutes.
Let release pressure naturally for 10 minutes, then pull lid off. If too soupy for you, pull out chicken, and hit saute to reduce down to a thick sauce.
When at the correct for you thickness, add in the parsley and lemon juice, and turn off the heat. Add chicken back in, stir, and serve. 

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