March 7: Instant Pot Whole Chicken

This is my first post linked to a dinner menu, and I have to apologize in advance for the shameless product plug included. I love my Instant Pot, which was a pandemic purchase that I’ve never regretted, but I know there are other options available for multi-cookers with pressure cook capability. My sister has the CrockPot version which she says ‘can fly the space shuttle’ if she could ‘only figure how to use it’ - but she loves it. And Pampered Chef also has a great one with sous vide capability. If you’re in the market for one, here’s a link to my PC page for more info:

https://www.pamperedchef.com/pws/amcilley2022

One thing I love about the multi-cookers - beyond their versatility - is their portability. You can pretty much take them anywhere to cook anything. On this occasion, I cooked a WHOLE CHICKEN for dinner - while cabin camping!!! I even seared the chicken skin first using the sauté setting, and then put butter under the skin and rubbed it down with Pampered Chef’s rotisserie seasoning. The result was a super moist and super flavorful chicken cooked in 30-40 minutes (which includes the time to both reach and release pressure). The IP app has a bunch of whole chicken recipes - I followed the one by Pillsbury.

A note about me and chicken cooking… I am super paranoid about undercooked chicken so have avoided whole birds for a very long time, but this method is fool proof. Legs fell right off the bird and the meat was so juicy. And bonus - there was plenty of juice when done to make a gravy.

For this dinner, I had also planned to cook the sides using the multi cooker, but to save time I used the cabin’s small oven and microwave instead. I could have easily steamed the veggies using the steamer basket insert, but I roasted them using butter and Pampered Chef’s garlic herb seasoning instead. Plus our favorite Bob Evans mac & cheese would have warmed great using the sauté or soup functions, but we were hungry!

So let’s summarize - a whole-chicken dinner with 2 sides while cabin camping, thanks to a versatile and portable multi cooker with pressure cook capability. With a whole bunch of leftovers for lunches. And clean up was a breeze. Whaaaaaaaaat?!?! You need a multi cooker on your HEROS team, I promise!