Butter Chicken in an Instant Pot

As a true planner, I rarely impulse buy so I have NO idea what compelled me to buy an 8-quart Instant Pot on ~a whim~ one day a few years ago. It takes up almost all the room underneath my sink (the only space that would accommodate such a large hefty machine) and although it is multi-function, I rarely use any of them.

However, now that I am stuck at home for the foreseeable future, perhaps I will look into this "yogurt" function. I have made my own mayonnaise and whipped cream. Perhaps yogurt and some cheeses are in my future?

But, I am getting ahead of myself because I'm here to talk to you about one of the easiest meals to make in your Instant Pot (or whatever pressure cooker you may have!). When I took a Lyft home with this 20 pound box (because I had no way of delivering it to my apartment), I watched a bunch of Youtube videos trying to figure out how to actually use it. I followed what I thought were the actual directions, failed, unplugged, reset, tried again, and gave up. The key here is truly patience.

When a recipe says to cook it on high pressure for 10 minutes and you press the timer and nothing happens, so you start to freak out and unplug and try again? It is because recipes don't tell you that it takes awhile for something to build up pressure before it actually pressurizes. Maybe you already knew that, but I wish I knew that when I first started using it...it would have saved me a lot of stress.

In any case, this is truly as stress-free a recipe as it comes. You really just dump everything, and twenty minutes later, you have very tender chicken with an aromatic base, of which half you will save for a few more meals down the line (I'm planning on making it later with tofu and maybe chickpeas, because I have a few cans!).

This recipe comes from Urvashi Pitre and I found the recipe on Food52! In her recipe, she also cooks the rice in the Instant Pot but I read in the comments that Pyrex doesn't do the trick and that is the only heat-safe bowl I had in my kitchen. However, I do have a rice cooker, so I cooked my rice separately. The adapted recipe below is how I did it.

The great thing about this recipe is that it uses almost all pantry items you probably already have. Buy some chicken (or tofu, or veggies! or chickpea!) in bulk and freeze any extra.

Let's get to it!

What you need:

• 1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes (I accidentally bought one that was with "basil and oregano" because that was the only can left at the market but tbh...it was fine!)
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger 
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 pinch of red chili flakes (the original recipe called for 1-1 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper but I didn't have any, so y'know, improvise!) I did about a large pinchful. 
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons garam masala, divided. (My friend Shapan left me with all of his mom's spices when he left New York so I had a bag of "garam masala mix" which was all the whole spices that make up garam masala. So I threw it in my coffee grinder and grounded some fresh spices. Truly peak culinary skills here!)
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt (the original recipe calls for 1 tsp of salt and I didn't know what kind so, again, improvised here! I did kosher since it felt right.)
• 1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs (I usually cut the fat off but for this, I left it, which adds more liquid to your instant pot later on)
• 4 ounces (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into cubes (The original recipe suggests using coconut oil, if dairy free, which I usually am but I am living life right now!!!)
• 4 ounces heavy cream (again, recipe suggests using full-fat coconut milk, if dairy free)
• 1/4-1/2 cups chopped cilantro

What to do:

1. Without turning on your Instant Pot (that's right, there is no sauté step here!),  throw in the canned tomatoes, minced garlic and ginger, salt, and all your spices (minus 1 tsp of garam masala, which you'll save for later) into your Instant Pot. Mix it around so everything is combined, and place the chicken on top.  
2. Close the lid to your Instant Pot and put it on Manual, high pressure, for 10 minutes. While your Instant Pot is coming to pressure, prep your rice. Half a cup of rice = 1 serving = 20 minutes. When you start the rice now, it'll be ready when your chicken is ready. You can also cook rice on your stovetop, but if I'm going to be handsfree, I might as well be handsfree. 
3. Once your Instant Pot has come to pressure and cooked for the 10 minutes, set a timer and have it cool for 10 minutes before releasing the rest of the pressure. 
4. Remove the chicken, blend the sauce with the immersion blender. Add the heavy cream, butter, 1 tsp of garam masala, and mix until butter is melted. Give it a taste! I added a little bit more salt and another small pinch of garam masala to it, but this is to your preference. 
5. While the butter is slowly melting, shred the chicken (although I didn't have much to do--the chicken was pretty tender by this point and kind of just shredded itself). 
6. Remove about half the sauce for later (your tofu/chickpea meal will thank you in the future), and add the chicken back in. Give it another stir, and serve with rice and cilantro. 

And here are my chickpeas in the leftover butter chicken sauce that I saved! A recipe that serves multiple dinners! (This is my third!) It is not very photogenic, but, like Cale, I, too am in defense of slop!