Whole Chicken in the InstantPot

I love the color one gets doing the stock in this way. If I am making gravy I’ll cook the stock down to the consistency of fruit leather, a very sticky dark brown, then add water back and re-dissolve the thickened product. Doing this really brings out some intense flavor but a person has to be right on top of the cook down process or it’ll burn.

When I’ve got the gravy thickened to where I want it I’ll blend in maybe two or three tablespoons of butter with a whisk. The butter adds character to the gravy and makes it silk smooth.

I decided to look up a new recipe to make with all this shredded chicken, so I made a Chicken Parmesan Casserole. Incidentally I also used this as an opportunity to use two jars of cooked tomatoes from our garden last year. Billy cooked down the tomatoes and added what I thought was just a little jalapeno to each jar… yeah my mouth IS ON FIRE! Holy crap! It’s a really good recipe, don’t get me wrong, but damn I’m breathing fire over here!

Sharon’s Chicken Parmesan Casserole

12 oz ziti pasta (or any shape you like!)
3 cups shredded chicken
8oz shredded mozzarella
4 cups marinara sauce (with or without jalapenos!)
1 cup Panko bread crumbs
3/4 cup shredded parmesan
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp parsley
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375°F. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain and rinse under cool water; set aside to drain well.

Place marinara, shredded chicken, mozzarella in a large bowl. Add pasta, and toss gently to combine. Transfer to a lightly greased 9×13 glass baking dish. Stir together the Panko, parmesan, parsley, olive oil, salt, and pepper in a small bowl, and sprinkle evenly over pasta mixture.

Bake in preheated oven until bubbly and topping is browned, about 35 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!

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Any leftovers?
Trying to decide what’s for dinner…

How much do you like jalapenos, Ron??

Love them this much

I really do love spicy food, it help if it is really flavorful and not just hot to be hot.

I totally agree. I love spicy, but not necessarily hot just for the sake of hot. Many people don’t recognize there is a difference!

It’s too hot to cook tonight and I wanted something cold, so I made a chicken salad with the shredded chicken! I added chopped celery, green onions, mayo, ranch salad dressing, and some pepper and served over crispy wheat crackers. Delicious and light!

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I’m having some of my meal-prepped Chicken Parmesan Casserole for supper tonight…. yep. My mouth is on FIRE again! I thought perhaps the strong jalapeno heat would dissipate a little after being in the freezer for a couple weeks, but I was wrong. Still delicious though!

^^^ Time for a popsicle?

You bet! I had to buy another box! Hot summer = lots of popsicles! 😋

I kick myself for not using the instapot more often. We have used it a handful of times and the only results I didn’t like were prepping the pork ribs for the grill. I usually render the ribs in the oven under low temps, so that bad result wasn’t surprising.

I made some potatoes in it that were amazing.

The instapot is intimidating, but you can’t learn if you don’t use it often.

By the way, enchiladas are a top 3 food for me behind steak and fish tacos.

I don’t have an instantpot but do have a smaller stovetop pressure cooker and use it all the time in the winter. I don’t like using it during the summer because it adds too much heat into the kitchen. It only takes 20 min to make real mash potatoes. Does the instantpot through off a lot of steam and heat like a stovetop pressure cooker?

It doesn’t generate a lot of heat that you feel in the room and doesn’t release steam while pressure cooking until it is done cooking. The stove top one would be generating heat all the time as the heat radiates off the heat source.
I did a thawed 4.5 # whole chicken in 45 minutes. I went to pull the drumstick off and all I got was the bone. I made “bone” stock with the rack and bones and put it in the freezer for later.

Rodwork wrote:

Does the instantpot through off a lot of steam and heat like a stovetop pressure cooker?

It’s not bad, but I don’t have a frame of reference for a stovetop cooker. It definitely doesn’t heat up the kitchen like running the oven for 30-60 min. The pressure you release is a bit steamy, but it dissipates quickly.

You might have more fun trying to cook a live chicken in the instapot