Instant Pot Creamy Chicken and Pancetta Rigatoni Pasta
Maria Bravo
A delicious, simple and quick all-in-one pasta dish that helps minimise the washing-up and uses ingredients you can find in UK supermarkets. If you can't find rigatoni, use penne
80gpancettadiced (both smoked and unsmoked will work)
2chicken breastsdiced in biggish chunks (I tend to prefer pressure cooking with chicken thigh fillets but had breasts to use up)
1tablespoonWorcestershire sauce
1tablespoonmixed herbs
125grigatoni
250mlwaternext time I'd use stock if I had any, even better the 250 ml water with a heaped teaspoon of my vegetable stock paste concentrate, see Notes section below for link to recipe
1.5tablespoongrain mustard
2tablespoondouble creamapprox, do it to your own personal taste
To serve
Fresh parsleychopped
Instructions
Sauté the pancetta in a little extra virgin olive oil. Then add the chicken to brown, stirring regularly. Add Worcestershire sauce and mixed herbs and stir. Add water and pasta, stir then make sure the bottom is deglazed by scraping any caramelised burnt-on bits off the bottom of the inner pot with the help of a wooden spoon.
Check the sealing ring is in place properly by pressing it down section by section following its circumference a few times. Lock the lid in. Steam release handle pointing to Sealing.
Press the Manual / Pressure Cook button and programme 5 minutes with the - and + buttons. When the pressure cooking cycle finishes and your Instant Pot beeps, let it do 5 minutes NPR* (Natural Pressure Release) followed by a QPR (Quick Pressure Release).
Once all pressure has been released and the float valve has popped down, open the lid and stir in 1.5 tablespoon grain mustard and double cream (about 2 tablespoon worth, just do it to taste). We all have different tastes in pasta. If it's not cooked enough for you, just put the lid back on and let it be, pasta and rice both keep cooking in the residual heat.
Deglazing means scraping the bottom with a wooden spoon and the help of some liquid to remove any caramelised bits
*Terminology
Quick release (also called quick pressure release or QPR) means venting the steam as soon as the pressure cooking process finishes, i.e. moving the steam release handle from Sealing to Venting.
Natural release (also called natural pressure release or NPR) means letting the float valve pop back down of its own accord, so basically you don’t need to do anything at the end and can keep your feet up. If it takes over 15 minutes, you're ok to release the rest of the steam (by turning the steam release handle to Venting) that may be left in order to unlock and open the lid.
Sometimes you'll see me talk of a combination of NPR followed by a QPR. For example this recipe has a 2 minute NPR followed by a QPR. You wait for 2 minutes at the end of the pressure cooking time and then do a QPR by moving the steam release handle from Sealing to Venting.