I did it! I used my Instant Pot for the first time. It wasn’t as difficult or scary as I feared. It was actually pretty easy. I read through my owner’s manual. I figured out how it worked and what I needed to do to work it properly. When reading, it seemed complicated, but when I got to using it, it wasn’t too bad. I’m sure as I use it more, it will become more familiar to me. I did the first test cycle, as recommended by my owner’s manual, and that made me feel more comfortable with the Instant Pot.
I decided to make my crockpot Cafe Rio Chicken as my first dish in the Instant Pot, since it was Taco Tuesday. I ended up having to do 2 cycles of it. Since it was my first time, I wasn’t sure of the time needed to cook the chicken frozen. I put a lump of chicken in frozen, so after 20 minutes, it was still raw in the center (since all the chicken was basically in a brick, when I opened the pot, the center was uncooked when I pulled it apart). So I ran the Instant Pot for another 10 minutes, the minimum I could do. At the end of that cooking cycle, the chicken was cooked through. I think 25 minutes for frozen chicken would be perfect.
The result was delicious! My husband thought it tasted a bit different from the crockpot version, but I thought it tasted about the same. Juicy, flavorful, and delicious. I added a can of black beans after shredding up the chicken. The clean-up was super easy too! The pot easily goes into the dishwasher! My biggest complaint about my crockpots is they can be a pain to clean (depending on what you made)
Ingredients
- 1.5 – 2lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
- 1/2 bottle Italian Salad Dressing
- 1 tbsp dry ranch seasoning (or 1 pkg)
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- minced garlic – to taste (2-4 cloves)
- 1/2 cup water
Directions:
Place all the ingredients in the pressure cooker pot. Secure the lid on the Pressure Cooker. Use the “Chicken” function and set the timer to 20 minutes or 25 minutes for frozen chicken. When finished, use the quick release valve to depressurize the pot. Shred the chicken in the juices.
Serve with rice, chips, or tortillas. Great in many different recipes, including lasagna! This is an excellent shredded chicken recipe that can be frozen and used in a wide variety of meals. Add a can of black beans or corn to add a little something extra to your taco!
Ingredients
- 1.5 - 2lbs boneless skinless chicken breast
- 1/2 bottle Italian salad dressing
- 1 tbsp dry ranch seasoning (or 1 pkg)
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- minced garlic - to taste (2-4 cloves)
- 1/2 cup water
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in the pressure cooker pot.
- Secure the lid
- Use the "Chicken" function and set the timer to 20 minutes or 25 minutes for frozen chicken.
- When finished, use the quick release value to de-pressurize the pot.
- Shred the chicken in the juices.
What is 1/2 bottle Italian chicken?
Ha! Oops! Fixed it. It now says Italian salad dressing! 😊 thanks for catching that!
What size bottle of Italian dressing? 🙂
Just regular size. The one I’m using today is 16oz 😊
I’m confused about the ranch dressing mix. A package and a tablespoon of ranch seem like very different amounts. Do you recommend one amount over the other? Thanks!
It is either a package of dry ranch mix or 1 tbsp if you buy the dry ranch dressing mix in bulk (like I often do). A package of dry ranch mix is about 1tbsp (usually).
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