Aug 15 2015

Pressure Cooker Honey BBQ Boneless Chicken Thighs

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Some of the best and tenderest chicken you’ll eat that’s made in minutes thanks to the Instant Pot. Plus that BBQ sauce – 10 out of 10!

By now you all know how madly, deeply I am in love with my Instant Pot 8 qrt Pressure Cooker. Wait you don’t know this? Oh honey we need to talk! Come grab a seat at my kitchen table, have a cookie (or 3) and let’s chat.

You see I cook every day. Every. Single. Day. And while cooking and baking (really anything that involves being in the kitchen and creating) is my passion. It allows my creative side to come to light and lets my engineering mindset take a breather. You see when I’m in the kitchen I don’t think. I know that sounds odd (or even cocky which I don’t mean) but for me, it just makes sense when I craft a new recipe.

It took those days where when I got home from work I just didn’t have the energy to stand in the kitchen for 30 minutes making a meal. I was tired, the gym kicked my butt, I needed a shower, I had 400 TKW emails to answer, I had to work on another recipe posting, I had to make sure I spent quality time with you guys on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram and oh yeah, feed Mr. Fantabulous. I won’t even go into my also logging into my day job and checking on emails and stuff.

You see if you’re like me you grew up where the pressure cooker that our Moms and Grandmothers used was deadly. They’d hiss, they spit, heck they’d even blow their lids off if you let the pressure build up too much or not have enough liquid in it. That was the only kitchen appliance that I was forbidden to touch. Heck, I wasn’t even allowed in the kitchen when my Mom would use it.

Nowadays they are the ‘norm’ yet when these new electric ones came out, it was scary as it was ‘new’. I went to Google just to read more about it and understand the mechanics of pressure cooking.

What is Pressure Cooking

Pressure cooking is a cooking method that takes a pot and tops it with a special airtight lid and seal. By sealing a liquid in a pressure cooker traps the vapor that rises from the liquid. This in turn raises the pressure inside the pressure cooker along with the maximum temperature that the liquid can reach.

In layman’s terms, the increased temperature and pressure significantly speed up the cooking process. The pressure infuses the hot steam into the food. By utilizing this method, pressure cooking can cook foods in about one third the ordinary time on average and often over 10 times faster.

Normal and Quick Release

With this pressure cooker there are 2 types of release methods

Quick – Fast pressure release means that the cook should use the valve, or pressure releasing mechanism particular to their cooker (such as a button to push, a lever to twist, or a slide to pull), to release pressure once the timer goes off. For thick recipes (such as a chili or a risotto), right after this release, the still unopened pressure cooker should be given a few small jolts to release any super-heated seam pockets in the food.
Normal – Slow pressure releases pressure using the pressure releasing mechanism. By letting the machine release it for it, it lets the pressure drop slowly from your electric pressure cooker. During this slow release, the cooking continues, so it is recommended for certain cuts of meats, and some desserts. When pressure is fully released, the float (pressure indicator) will drop and the lid will unlock to open.

Let’s talk about these luscious boneless thighs. I was at the butcher shop and he had an in-store special. 99 cents a pound with no limit! Now I normally don’t buy thighs as I’m not a huge fan of dark meat. Don’t get me wrong, it tastes great but it’s not the healthiest part only due to it having a higher fat content.

However, it’s also the most flavorful part. So you guys all know me, I firmly believe in ‘Everything in moderation so I can eat these, just not all the time.

Myoglobin is the hemoprotein (an oxygen-carrying protein) responsible for giving dark meat its reddish color. The more myoglobin, the darker the meat and the richer the nutrients. Myoglobin provides muscles with the oxygen they need during exercise or movement. And since chickens don’t fly they use their legs and thighs to get around thus building up the muscles and making the meat ‘dark’.

So I bought a few pounds and came home to make lunch. Since I had a crap ton (official term here folks) of stuff to get done, I didn’t have a lot of time to be putzing around in the kitchen. Don’t you hate it when real life gets in the way of your passion? Since I had made boneless chicken breasts in the pressure cooker a million (and 7) times before I figured the time would be about same. I whipped up some bbq sauce then thinned it out for the pressure cooker, tossed it all in and for 10 minutes I was able to sit and relax before I got all those things on my list done.

When they were done, which literally they were almost falling apart they were so tender, I kicked the pressure cooker over to brown to thicken up the sauce and popped these babies under the broiler to crisp up. And like clock work Mr. Fantabulous came out to the kitchen (or more like his nose pulled him into the room) sniffing away. When he saw me pull these slightly charred, sticky bbq thighs out of the oven he immediately went and got us sodas, plates and silverware. Oh how cute! He thought I was going to share! LOL However I’m a good wife and gave him some along with a small salad. He INHALED these things! He kept saying how tender and juicy they were. That the flavors were insane. When I told him what they were he said “but… but I don’t like dark meat…” I just smiled and said “looks like you do now honey!”