Instant Pot® Butter Chicken
I’m enjoying using my Instant Pot® since I received it as a gift last year. I’m a late adapter, but honestly I didn’t think I wanted one. I already had a slow cooker and didn’t see the value of pressure cooking. I was wrong! Really wrong! Pressure cooking softens meats, cooks vegetables in no time at all and makes morning oatmeal a snap. I’m super excited! So here I go! This is the first recipe post of what I hope will be many IP recipes here on the blog. It’s taken me time to figure out how to use it; I’m certainly not a pro, but I’m learning from all the IP users out there.
It’s such a great tool in the kitchen. And guess what? As fate would have it, my slow cooker broke recently (I burned the electrical cord accidentally because I placed it on the stove top instead of putting it away and the chord got too close to the gas burner when I lit the stove. BAD!), so to have the IP’s multiple cooking settings is a win-win.
This butter chicken recipe was a total “not-what-I-was-looking-for-but-glad-I-found-it” sort of recipe. I was searching the internet for a yummy easy starter recipe to test out the Instant Pot®. Butter chicken wasn’t even on my radar. I came across a Butter Chicken Instant Pot® recipe at My Heart Beets, an amazing blog devoted to authentic Indian food, which sounded amazing. I love Indian food, but felt intimidated by the number of spices required to make a really good sauce. I’ve failed a few times before. And Indian food tends to be very high in fat, especially Butter Chicken. One recipe I found used a whole square of butter!. But this recipe only used 2 Tablespoons. I modified it a bit to meet my preferences and present it to you.
It starts with using the Instant Pot®’s saute feature. I melt butter and saute the onions along with the garlic, ginger and chicken. I add all the delicious spices including a premixed garam masala which I easily found at my local grocery store. Then I set the IP to manual or pressure cook, set the timer to 15 minutes and walk away. The Instant Pot® does it’s magical thing. Note: It takes about 5 to 7 minutes for the IP to come to pressure before the 15 minute timer starts counting down, so be patient; the magic will happen. Before you know it the IP will stop cooking and begin a natural release of pressure. For this recipe I allow it to naturally release for 10 minutes, then I do a quick release by moving the valve to venting and the rest of the steam is released.
I add the coconut milk to the chicken, stir it in to make a luscious sauce for the chicken. It is best served over rice, but it’s also yummy just by itself. Naan bread is also a great addition so that you can soak up any leftover sauce. . . or you could just lick the plate. Feel free; I won’t tell.
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You’ll also enjoy:
Chicken Cordon Bleu with Butter Lemon Sauce
Herb Chicken with Lemon Cream Sauce
