IM BACK!

I hope you enjoyed my first post! I had so much fun writing it, and such positive feedback (other than my dad telling me to shorten it up..), that I thought I would give it another go! I think you guys are going to like this one!

As I mentioned in my last post, I have several kitchen gadgets, and I do, like 1 million. In this post, I'm going to take you guys on a little kitchen gadget adventure. So bare with me, because this is going to get a little crazy.

THE. INSTANT. POT. Dun Dun Dun.... Raise your hand if you have heard of this 'miracle' appliance. Do you all have your hands raised? Good!

I got this gem for Christmas this year and once the excitement of being able to cook things freaky fast wore off, I was feeling one thing, and one thing alone. PURE TERROR. So much terror. I did days of research, reading countless negative comments online and each one more terrifying than the last (why do I do this to myself?). How bad could it really be? I mean, they wouldn't sell something that is known to explode right? RIGHT?

I was (and still am) SO intimidated by this thing. But I was determined to use it. After all, Santa had searched far and wide for this little ticking time bomb. So after reading the safety instructions (and not feeling one bit safer) it was time. I had to use it. Who in their right mind is afraid of a kitchen appliance. ME. That's who.

Other than the initial water test (which was awful) I have used it once since getting it home. I was so worried it was going to explode, that I just stood there staring at it for a good 20 minutes. JUST STARING AT IT YOU GUYS. Like, to the point where I overcooked and ruined the batch of mashed potatoes I was making because I was so focused on what the instant pot was doing. Let me just be very clear about one thing.. Once the lid is closed and the start button is pressed, there is literally nothing that can be done. But that didn't stop me.

Well, its a new year and I'm here to try it again. YEP. And this time I thought, why not try to cook a whole chicken? I mean I have never tried this before, so what's stopping me now? This is supposed to be one of the easier recipes to make, so I'm going to give it a whirl. (Ill just have to wait to make my side dishes this time).

Lets talk about the chicken for a second. Have you ever bought a whole chicken? Well let me just say that I have not. And I was blissfully unaware that it comes with a couple of ORGANS stuffed inside. Oh. My. God. That's all I have to say about that.

The recipe is as follows:

Faux-Tisserie Chicken

For the Chicken:
2 1/2 - 3 lb whole chicken
2 tbsp olive oil
S&P to taste
1/2 medium onion (cut into quarters)
5 large cloves fresh garlic (peeled and left whole)
1 cup chicken stock/broth

For the Southwest Seasoning:
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp basil
Or any seasoning mixture of your choice!

OH BOY. This sounds amazing right? I mean, the fact that it is faux-tisserie is just the best part. There is a zero percent chance that I am going to mess this up. Here's what happened.

I started with the chicken. Now I don't have any children, so nothing could prepare me for how disgusting it is to hold a whole raw chicken. It was GROSS. Once I removed the nasty giblets (it just keeps getting better) I followed the instructions. Lathered him up with olive oil, salt and pepper and placed him in the pot for saute-ing (is that a real word)? It says to saute each side for about 4 minutes, seems easy enough right? WRONG. Once the 2 lb chicken is IN the pot, it is crazy hard to get it OUT. I had no luck. The best I could come up with was dumping the chicken out onto a cutting board and then quickly (before completely burning my fingertips off) placing him back in on the other side.



While my chicken was in the pot doing its thing, I mixed up the seasoning. I used the above recipe without any additions or changes. It was just spicy enough for me.


Once the chicken was done with the first step, I poured him out onto the cutting board (again, couldn't come up with a better way) and let the pot cool. Thats the cool thing about the instant pot, it cools down REALLY fast. Like really fast. Within minutes I could handle the internal pot with bare hands. AMAZING!

I put a little over a cup of chicken broth in the bottom of the pot, added the trivet and lastly in went my chicken, covered in seasonings (breast side up). It was showtime. I kept thinking to myself, you can do it, you've been preparing all day! And I had. Want to know how many times I read the recipe? 11. 11 times. But who's counting?

Thats it! OH.MY.GOSH. I set it to manual high pressure for 25 minutes, and left it at that. I only checked on it 34 1/2 times. The 1/2 is because Reno walked in and I didn't want him to see me obsessing...

It was so easy! Once it was done cooking, I let the steam release naturally (this took about 20 minutes). In the meantime I had cooked up some baked potatoes and creamed corn (I know, but it's Reno's favorite). Successful entrée and sides, all cooked up and ready to go. Holy cow. Had I done it?

We dumped the chicken out and covered it in the broth it had cooked in. You guys, this chicken was falling off the bone. It was crazy! We served it up, and boy was it GOOOOOD. Tender, juicy, flavorful. All the adjectives I was going for. It turned out so much better than I expected. And all 3 of us couldn't get enough! Yes, I allowed Boone to try some! I would give this recipe a 10/10. Anyone who has an instant pot, try this! And if you don't have an instant pot, I feel sorry for you..


BRB, Im gonna go eat the leftover chicken now.