pressure cooker

I’ve been trying to experiment with the pressure cooker more lately. As I’ve said before, the decision to use a pressure cooker or slow cooker is entirely dependent on your timing. If you would rather get your prep done early in the day and/or you want to eat as soon as you walk in the door in the evening, the slow cooker is the way to go.

On the other hand, if you have 30-40 minutes before dinner and/or you forgot to load the slow cooker in the morning, drag out the pressure cooker.

Recipes often state the cook time for the pressure cooker to be mere minutes. While this is true, it isn’t the whole truth. The cook time doesn’t take into account the amount of time for the cooker to reach full pressure or how long the pressure release takes.

This recipe for Pressure Cooker Chicken Cacciatore Sandwiches is based on the Slow Cooker version. Instead of serving it with pasta, I decided to make a sandwich out of it.

We love hot sandwiches, and this was no exception. Sandwich meals are great if you need to eat in shifts or if you’re in a hurry. Sides can be kept simple and it’s easy to pile the filling on a bun.

The ingredients are all very basic, but I failed to snap a photo of them this time.

I started this with frozen chicken tenders and it worked great.

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Pressure Cooker Chicken Cacciatore Sandwiches

Servings: 6 -8 servings

Ingredients

• 2 lb. frozen chicken tenders
• 1 onion sliced
• 1 red pepper sliced
• 1 green pepper sliced
• 14 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 cup red wine broth or water
• 3 cloves garlic crushed
• 1 tsp. oregano
• 3/4 tsp. basil
• 1 bay leaf
• salt and pepper to taste
• Sandwich buns
• Sliced mozzarella or provolone cheese

Instructions

• Place all ingredients in order listed in pressure cooker, except cheese and buns.
• Cook on high pressure for 14 minutes.
• Do a quick pressure release.
• Remove lid and shred chicken with two forks.
• Serve meat on buns topped with cheese.

While that’s cooking, go ahead and check out my 10 Best Instant Pot Accessories post for more tips to get the most out of your Instant Pot.

The other day, I decided to alter the recipe for Slow Cooker Jerk Chicken Sandwiches with Cucumber Mango Salsa and make it work for the pressure cooker.  Honestly, I didn’t have high hopes.  I’ve been thinking that all this pressure cooking frenzy going on around the interwebs was a bunch of craziness.

And then I tried it for myself.

Now, I will say that the sandwich meat isn’t as tender in the pressure cooker, but it was still good.  The key to knowing which appliance to use is knowing what the timing of your day is like.

If you have time to put the food into the slow cooker in the morning, then that’s the way to go.  But if you have more time in the afternoon (hands on time is still short), and can wait 30 or so minutes for dinner, then the pressure cooker is your friend.

I used chicken tenders that were still frozen.  I set the pressure cooker for a 12 minute cook time.  The total time it took was about 30 minutes, including the time to come up to pressure, cook and pressure release.

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Pressure Cooker Jerk Chicken Sandwiches

Servings: 6 -8 servings

Ingredients

• 2 lbs. frozen chicken tenders
• 16 oz. jerk marinade
• 1 mango
• 1 cucumber
• 1-2 Tbsp. lime juice
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Rolls for serving

Instructions

• Place chicken, still frozen, in pressure cooker.
• Pour jerk marinade over chicken.
• Set timer on pressure cooker for 12 minutes.
• When cooking time is done, do a quick pressure release.
• Shred meat and serve.
• While chicken cooks, peel and dice the mango. Dice the cucumber. Toss together with lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

You might also be interested in The 10 Best Instant Pot Accessories for getting the most out of your Instant Pot.