Cooking chicken w/ a pressure cooker

[htc]

Hi, I just tried using a pressure cooker for the first time. Made cornish game hens using a recipe that came with the cusinart pressure cooker. I ended up modifying the original recipe (chicken stock, green onion, ginger, sherry, soy sauce and garlic) by adding some gram marsala seasoning to it.

I think had I not added this, the chicken would have been REALLY plain. Ended up not bad...ok, so to my main question...what seasoning techniques can I use to season my meat so that it's REALLY flavorful? Specifically poulty, since I eat lots of chicken.

Thanks! [/list]

 

[Lifter]

Hi htc!

Having had "pressure cooker" chicken (from a can, jellified to death) in Army rations, I sort of "flinch" at doing this to Cornish Game Hens...the jellied chicken meat does well enough, given you are both dumb and young (and really hungry!)...but truly believe you could go better in a roasting format...

There are any number of uses for a pressure cooker, but don't believe this is one of them...

Glad you didn't mind eating the results, but hope we can help you past this phase and give you better results, that you'll like better...

Lifter

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Lifter is right. There are better ways to treat a cornish game hen, both in the oven, and on a kettle barbecue grill. If I was going to cook poultry in a pressure cooker, it would be in the form of a stew, with lots of sage, thyme, fresh onions, maybe some carrots, rice, celery, salt and pepper. I might even throw in some portabellas.

A pressure cooker works through steam under pressure. It won't sear, or brown the meat, and will dry it out some. A great way to use you cooker is to coat the meat (great with ribs that have been seared in a heavy pan first) with your favorite rub or barbecue sauce and cook for about an hour. The pork will be falling from the bone, without drying out. I imagine that this could also be done with chicken or turkey as well. Just make sure there is plenty of liquid as you cook everything hot and can easily burn the food if you steam all of the liquid away.

Seeeeeya; Goodweed of the North

 

[Yakuta]

Agree with both Lifter and Goodweed. I use my pressure cooker religiously but to make stews and curries.

I personally think a pressure cooker is great for beef or lamb stew kind of dishes. You can do all your sauting, adding of herbs, spices and lastly add the meat and then let it cook under pressure.

I personally don't think it works well for whole chicken or cornish hens or any other meat that is tender and cooks quickly on it's own. It also will not give you a nice roasted flavor that the oven will.

 

[mudbug]

I don't own or use a pressure cooker - like to fiddle with the cooking part too much, I guess - and I agree with the comments about lack of browning. However, didn't The Colonel use a pressure cooker as part of the process for making KFC?

 

[jennyema]

I love my pressure cooker but would never cook poultry in it. poultry cooks so fast that you do not need the pressure cooker. It's best roasted, grilled or poached. Otherwise you'll get mushy tasteless meat.

My first "real" job was at KFC and they indeed fry the regular (no xcrispy) chix in refrigerator-size pressure cookers. But you should NEVER, EVER try this at home unless your pressure cooker is specifically designed to pressure fry. Most are not.

 

[htc]

Thanks for the response! I didn notice the jelly crap on the bottom of the pan. It was kinda gross. I guess it won't work for what I wanted. I did notice that it was like steaming your meat. I haven't played with it enough to know, but I think I disagree with the cooking whole chicken part. At least Asian style of cooking. In my home we grew up eating poached chicken, with various dipping sauces, ginger/lime, fish sauce, etc. I don't know of many Western dishes I could make using the pressure cooker, but after seeing it with the hens, I think I could use it to make the dish my mom used to make.

Strange, it was one of my favorite dishes growing up...rice, steamed/poached chicken w/ sauce, and sliced cucuber and tomato...it's a 1/2 Vietnamese, 1/2 Chinese thing, I think.