Delicious & Easy: A Good Recipe For Chicken Thighs In Pressure Cooker Recipe
There is still a lot of chicken left at home. Today, I tried cooking chicken with a pressure cooker. Unexpectedly, the taste is particularly good. Today, I will share this recipe with everyone.
A Good Recipe For Chicken Thighs In Pressure Cooker Recipe
Main ingredients
5 - 6 chicken legs: The main ingredient provides abundant protein and meat texture.
10 grams each of green onions, ginger, and garlic: Has a strong special aroma and can provide a rich fragrance for chicken legs.
5 grams each of star anise and cinnamon: Main spices can make the taste of chicken legs better and have a strong spice smell.
3 tablespoons each of light soy sauce and dark soy sauce: Used for coloring to make the chicken legs look better in color and provide saltiness at the same time.
2 tablespoons of cooking wine: Used to remove fishy smell and help eliminate the fishy smell of chicken legs.
Steps
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce: Used to enhance freshness and make the chicken legs taste more tender.
10 grams of rock sugar: Provides seasoning and adjusts the taste of salt, dark soy sauce and pepper powder.
1 teaspoon of salt: The main condiment makes the chicken legs taste better.
0.5 spoon of pepper: Increases fragrance.
Steps:
1. Chicken leg treatment: Wash the chicken legs and make a few cuts on the surface so that the chicken legs can better absorb the sauce during cooking.
2. Prepare seasonings: Cut green onions into sections, slice ginger, and mince garlic for later use. Put star anise, cinnamon, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, cooking wine, oyster sauce, rock sugar, salt, and pepper into a bowl and stir well to make a sauce.
3. Marinate chicken legs: Put the treated chicken legs into a bowl, pour in the adjusted sauce, and evenly spread the sauce on the chicken legs by hand. Marinate for 15 - 20 minutes to make the chicken legs flavorful.
4. Pressure cooking: Pour the marinated chicken legs and the remaining sauce into the pressure cooker together. Add an appropriate amount of clear water. The amount of water should be just enough to cover the chicken legs. Cover the pressure cooker lid. Boil on high heat until the pressure cooker is pressurized. After pressurization, turn to medium-low heat and pressure cook for 10 - 12 minutes.
5. Take out and thicken the sauce: After turning off the heat, let the pressure cooker simmer naturally for 5 - 10 minutes. After the gas is completely released, open the lid. Put the pressure cooker on the stove and thicken the sauce on high heat. Continuously turn the chicken legs during this period to make the thick sauce wrap the chicken legs evenly. When the sauce becomes thick and has a bright red color, turn off the heat and take it out.
Does cooking chicken in a pressure cooker make it tender?
Yes. Through continuous attempts, I found that using a pressure cooker to cook chicken can make the chicken more tender and smooth.
Mainly because during the heating process of food in a pressure cooker, it is in a sealed and high-pressure environment. This causes the moisture in the pot to not evaporate quickly during the heating process, forming a high-temperature and high-pressure cooking environment.
In such an environment, the fiber tissue of chicken will be affected by more uniform and in-depth heat, accelerating the denaturation of protein. Thus, chicken can retain more moisture during cooking, making the taste of chicken more tender and juicy.
How much water do you put in a pressure cooker for chicken?
Generally speaking, if it is a whole chicken or chicken cut into large pieces, it is best to add water to cover the chicken. This can ensure that the chicken fully absorbs moisture under high pressure and cooks the chicken in sufficient soup while avoiding the chicken from being dried out.
If the chicken is in small pieces, such as chicken cubes. When you cook with a pressure cooker, you can put less water. The amount of water can be about two-thirds of the volume of chicken. Small pieces of chicken are easier to cook and do not need too much soup.
Precautions
Due to the good sealing of the pressure cooker, relatively less moisture evaporates during the cooking process. Therefore, if you want to cook some side dishes in the pressure cooker, you need to add more water to ensure that all ingredients can be wrapped by the soup and cooked thoroughly.
How to use a pressure cooker for chicken?
Cooking chicken with a pressure cooker is very simple. First, wash the chicken clean and then cut it into an appropriate size. If it is a whole chicken, make a few cuts to facilitate the chicken to absorb the flavor.
Then prepare the sauce, such as green onions, ginger, garlic, cooking wine, light soy sauce, salt, pepper, etc., and put them into the pressure cooker with the chicken.
Then add an appropriate amount of clear water to the pot. Add water according to the amount of chicken. Generally, the amount of water can just cover the chicken.
After adding water, cover the lid. Use high heat to let the pressure cooker be pressurized. After pressurization, turn to medium-low heat. Generally, it can be cooked for 15-20 minutes. If there is less chicken, it can be cooked for 10 minutes.
After cooking, don't rush to open the lid. Let it simmer for 3-5 minutes before opening the lid. Then you can enjoy the delicious food.
Is it better to pressure cook or slow cook chicken thighs?
Each has its own advantages, as follows:
Advantages of pressure cooker
Save time: The pressure cooker can greatly shorten the cooking time. For busy modern people, cooking chicken thighs in a pressure cooker is undoubtedly a more efficient choice.
Retain moisture: The sealed environment in the pressure cooker enables chicken to retain more moisture during cooking and keep the meat tender and juicy.
Even heating: The pressure in the pressure cooker makes the heat distribute more evenly inside the chicken and can avoid the meat becoming hard due to local overheating.
Advantages of slow cooking
More flavorful: Slow cooking can allow chicken to fully absorb the taste of seasonings, and the cooked chicken is more flavorful.
Easy to control the heat: Slow cooking is more convenient to control the heat and time, and you can adjust the taste and doneness of chicken according to personal taste.
Suitable for making soup: If chicken thighs are used to make soup, then slow cooking is a good choice. Slow cooking can help slowly release the umami and nutrition of chicken and make the soup base more rich.
What is the best method for cooking chicken thighs?
There are many ways to cook chicken thighs. Common ones include braising in soy sauce, frying, making soup, roasting, etc. Each method is liked by many people. You can choose the cooking method according to personal taste.
Braising in soy sauce is one of the traditional Chinese cooking methods and can give ingredients rich color and taste. Braised chicken thighs have a relatively wide audience. The steps are as follows:
Prepare ingredients: Chicken thighs, ginger, green onions, star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, dried chili peppers and other seasonings, as well as cooking wine, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rock sugar, salt, cooking oil, etc.
Pretreatment: Wash the chicken thighs, dry them with kitchen paper, and make a few cuts on the surface for better flavor.
Blanching: Add clear water to the pot, put in chicken thighs, several slices of ginger and an appropriate amount of cooking wine. After boiling over high heat, skim off the foam and take out the chicken thighs and drain the water.
Stir-frying: Heat oil in a hot pan and add ginger slices, green onion sections, minced garlic, star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves and dried chili peppers and stir-fry until fragrant. Then add chicken thighs and stir-fry evenly until the surface is slightly browned.
Seasoning: Add light soy sauce and dark soy sauce for coloring. Put in rock sugar and stir-fry until it melts. Then add an appropriate amount of clear water to two-thirds of the chicken thighs. After boiling on high heat, turn to low heat and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes. During this period, turn it over several times to prevent sticking.
Thicken the sauce: When the chicken thighs are cooked through and the sauce is thick, add salt according to personal taste. Finally, thicken with starch water to make the sauce more intense.
