Instant Pot Lemony Whole Chicken

There’s been a lot of talk about how to cook a whole chicken lately in the Instant Pot® UK Community, a lot of brainstorming over whether the chicken should be breast down so that it’s more moist. So I wanted to give it a go. I also didn’t brown my chicken on Sauté this time (you can do this with some oil by pressing Sauté and then the Adjust button to set the Instant Pot to More).

The very succulent meat was used for several meals. First served with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables. Then used in stir fries and even in sandwiches! You can pressure cook a lovely bone broth / chicken stock with the carcass once you’ve taken all the meat off or you could freeze it until you have more bones to add (and then pressure cook bone broth from frozen). Chicken goes a long way in the Tapas household and I bet it does in yours too!

Also, the liquid that is left is especially good to freeze in cubes and use to flavour stews, casseroles, even all-in-one pasta dishes.

Ready for the recipe?

Instant Pot Lemony Whole Chicken


Ingredients

– 1 whole chicken (you can fit up to a 2.5 kg bird in the Instant Pot, that was the weight of mine this time)

– 1 lime

– 1 lemon

– 1 large onions or two medium ones, very thickly sliced (approx. 2 cm thick)

– 1 carrot, sliced lengthways

– 5 garlic cloves, not peeled but whacked with the hand

– 1 teaspoon turmeric

– 1 tablespoon mixed herbs (I make my own mix of equal parts of rosemary, marjoram, parsley and oregano)

– 250 ml vegetable stock (I make my own stock in the Instant Pot or the Thermomix, find the recipe here). You can add it cold but I added it hot, it means that the pot will reach pressure faster

– Salt, a good pinch

– Black pepper, a few twists of the pepper mill

Method

1. Zest the lemon and the lime. Reserve.

2. Juice the lemon and the lime. Reserve.

3. With a sharp knife, stab what you have left of the lemon and the lime, through the skin. Insert the lemon and lime inside the chicken cavity.

4. Place the onion and the carrot in the pot to create a bed for the chicken.

5. Add the garlic cloves, the teaspoon of turmeric, the tablespoon of mixed
herbs, the 250 ml of stock (hot), the salt and the black pepper.

6. Place the chicken on top, breast side down. Pour the reserved lemon zest and juice on the bird. Add a pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Press Manual, leave at 30 minutes for a bigger bird, you can do 25 minutes for a smaller bird. Natural release. In a conventional stove-top pressure cooker bring the pressure cooker to high pressure and cook for about 25-30 minutes (the psi is higher), turn off the heat and do a natural release.

Note: There are a lot of lovely juices at the end, I blended some of it with the vegetables for a lovely smooth thick sauce but also kept some of the juices for a thinner sauce. Probably used half for each thing. Lovely moist chicken.

 

Enjoy! And don’t forget to let me know how you get on!

If you haven’t got an Instant Pot yet, it’s only the most amazing bit of kitchen equipment! It can pressure cook, slow cook, keeps your food warm at the end, steams and the DUO even makes yoghurt! The list of what it can do is very long and it includes cheesecake! And, as Instant Pot UK‘s social media girl, I’m here (and there) to help you make the most of it.

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