Pressure Cooker Chicken Stew

A few of my friends have repeatedly requested me to post photos of preparing something, followed by the gut shots of the final product. I have tried before, and found it tiring. As I am not in the group of the serious food bloggers, or one of those people who takes pictures while someone else slaves over the gas, most of my blogposts come with final shots and hurried shots taken between moments of cooking.

However, here is a simple thing that I made tonight, inspired by the fabulous rainy weather outside. I swear, as soon as it starts raining, either I want to cook something abysmally starchy, or soupy. I guess its the mood that hits me. So I made stew for dinner. As we speak, the Ma and the Baba are finishing off the last glorious, gelatinous bits of the stew and sucking off the nearly melty bones to get to the marrow. We are a family who loves chicken marrow.

All you need is a bit of work and this dish is a cinch.
You need about 500 gms of bone-in chicken, preferably more bone than chicken pieces. This recipe is an excellent way of making sure every bit of chicken is used, and it thrives when you leave it alone. I like dishes like this for their simplicity. So, there. we begin.

In a pressure cooker, heat 1 tablespoon refined white oil (like canola, sunflower, soyabean, safflower or similar non-smelly oil) and 1 tablespoon butter over medium high heat, till butter becomes brownish golden. Add to it 1 large pinch caraway seed (Shahi Jeera), 2 green cardamom pods, slightly bashed on the head with the back of a spoon to release essential oils, and about 10 whole Sha Morich (white pepper).

Let this make your kitchen fragrant, while you throw in your chicken. And make sure your heat is on HIGH now, because you want to sear, and seal in the chicken juices. Sear for a few minutes. I went for about 4-5 minutes before adding vegetables.

Once the chicken fries up, add 100 gms onions cut in quarters, 150 gms large potatoes cut in large pieces, and 150 gms of chopped vegetable of your choice. I generally use raw papaya and carrots, but feel free to add long strips of beans, bell pepper, or any other root veg like turnip. Also I love adding whole peeled cloves of garlic to taste. This is the point to add a generous bit of salt to render some moisture out of the meat and veg.

 

Mix well and fry on high heat for another 3-5 minutes before adding a handful of all-purpose flour. 

Mix well. Mix well. Add 2 cups of water and cover the pressure cooker and make sure full pressure is hit.

See? Full Pressure.

Let it come to full pressure, reduce heat, and let it cook for 20 minutes, or 2 whistles, whichever one comes first.

Open pressure cooker. Add 50-60 ml milk. Mix well, adjust salt and add pepper if you like it. I don’t. I adore this particular dish all by itself, but you can eat this with perfectly toasted bread (i.e. bread toasted to your liking)

This is the bowl of goodness, which I like with a bit of butter melting on it.

By the way, this post is dedicated to three of my friends, The Tramp, Rainbow Raven and Dhruva, who I miss very much in this weather, I don’t really know why.