The Feisty Tapas community is on fire lately, full of creative recipes, putting me to shame with my lack of energy as I learn a whole new concept for someone like me “pacing myself”. Basically, it means turning 42 years of “me” upside down and starting small, saving energy for the next day, the next hour even, constantly saving spoons in my energy bank. This Sticky Sesame Chicken, extra quick in an Instant Pot or the pressure cooker you may have, is an extra special dish for days when I really need to cook an easy dinner, the meat is so tender you’ll think you’re dining out rather than at home. Thanks Fran A!
Fran A cooked this with chicken breasts but, thanks to the likes of the lovely Pip (you will know Pip if you’re a member of the Feisty Tapas Facebook communities) and the awesome Catherine Phipps, writer of the The Pressure Cooker Book (a bit like the bible for us pressure cooking peeps based in the UK), I am very aware of the issues surrounding chicken breasts and pressure cooking so I went for chicken thigh fillets and I’m so glad I did as the meat was so tender. Mr Tapas rated this dish both with a “very nice” and an actual thumbs up so it had to go on the blog!
Many of us instantpotters are also thermomixers and thermocookers. It’s not all my fault, until a few members started raving about their Instant Pots in my Thermo Cooking UK with Feisty Tapas group, I was none the wiser to this fabulous kitchen gadget. I just contributed by falling in love with it when Instant Pot in the UK sent me one to try. So in this one I provide both conventional and Thermomix steps for the sauce as I used my Thermomix (the 31 to be exact to help me).
To be fair, British pressure cooking authority Catherine Phipps herself says in her book that it’s important to have a good blender along with your pressure cooker.
Don’t forget that I run the Pressure Cooking UK with Feisty Tapas group over on Facebook. It’s a UK-focused group so that we have a space where can all use measurements, terminology (ingredients, supermarket names, etc.) and prices that we all are familiar with.
Oh and don’t forget the awesome Feisty Tapas Instant Pot offer, click here to see it! It keeps being renewed so please always click through to check the latest one before ordering.
You’ll find the rest of my pressure cooker/Instant Pot recipes here, if you haven’t tried Jayson’s Mac and Cheese you really really need to!
Ready for the recipe?
Sticky Sesame Chicken – Pressure Cooker / Instant Pot
Serves 4, if you serve with tons of noodles or rice, veg and a starter, it may serve more but be warned that it’s very moreish
Ingredients
Meat
6 chicken thigh fillets (boneless)
Sauce
3-4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 big chunk of fresh ginger, peeled, 40-45 g or more
5 tbsp hoisin sauce
5 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce, plus an extra dash for luck
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 and a half tbsp sesame seeds
175 ml (1/2 cup) of stock – I used my homemade vegetable stock paste. Could use chicken stock of course.
Garnish
Spring onions
Method
1. Place chicken thigh fillets (whole, spreading them a bit) in the inner pot.
2. Crush the garlic cloves and grate the ginger (Thermomix: place garlic and ginger in bowl: 7 seconds speed 5, scrape down then 2 seconds speed 7). Add rest of sauce ingredients, i.e., 5 tablespoons hoisin sauce, 5 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce, one and a half tablespoons light soy sauce not forgetting the extra dash for
luck, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 1 and a half tablespoon sesame seeds
and 175ml/half cup of stock), and whisk together (Thermomix speed 4 for 5 seconds), then pour over the chicken thigh fillets, give it all a stir to coat.
3. Cook on high pressure for 15 minutes (on instant pot press manual button and adjust time to 15 minutes), followed by a natural release (it took about 15 minutes). That’s Fran’s cooking time but I can tell you that, if you’re in a hurry, you can also cook for 5 minutes with a natural pressure release and they’ll be great.
Serve garnished with sliced spring onions and accompanied by rice or noodles and vegetables, here is another serving suggestion for you. The first night I served it with vermicelli rice noodles and vegetables as in the photo below and the next day I ate the leftovers with semolina pasta made in my new electric Philips pasta maker, it went really well together, now I just need to get the noodle and thinner dumpling discs! The pasta maker is brilliant but not marketed in the UK yet, although you can buy it from Amazon, it’s the European plug machine and it comes with Philips’ 2 year international guarantee.
This post includes an Amazon affiliate link to the Catherine Phipps’ Pressure Cooker Book and the Philips pasta machine. This means that, if you buy through this link, I will get a small kickback. A big thank you to all of you who have been supporting my work on this blog and my Facebook groups through your Amazon purchases,
Maria
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