My First Instant Pot Meal - Miso Chicken

I've seen many, many Instant Pot posts on social media.  I have several friends who've posted their delicious-looking Instant Pot creations on Instagram.

But I never had any desire to own an Instant Pot.

Why?

Two words - pressure cooker.

Images of things blowing up in my kitchen would pop into my head whenever I heard "pressure cooker."

So when Nat gave me one for Christmas, I was not only surprised, but I was very scared to try it out.

I read the manual, and even sought tips from a friend who also got one for Christmas (turns out she didn't even try her Instant Pot yet!).

After much hesitation (and about 10 days), I just decided to go for it.

I went through the test run, and while the Instant Pot was doing its thing, I made sure no one went into the kitchen until it was done.  Yes - that's how paranoid I was.

After the successful test run, I decided to make some miso chicken.

I used frozen chicken thighs, and it took an hour - a lot longer than I had expected, since I didn't take into account the time needed to pressurize and release the pressure.  I wasn't sure how long to set the Poultry timer for, so I set it for 25 minutes.  I think I could've set it for less, or perhaps used the Steam setting as I've seen in other online recipes - but obviously I'm still learning and figuring things out.

The chicken turned out great, however, and my kids loved it and even asked for seconds!

I have used the Instant Pot one more time since I made the Miso Chicken, and even though I felt more comfortable, I was still very nervous.

I hear cheesecakes are a very popular item to make in the Instant Pot, and since I love cheesecake, maybe I'll try that soon!

Instant Pot Miso Chicken:

Ingredients:

• 4 T butter, softenend
• ½ cup white miso 
• 2 T honey
• 1 T rice vinegar 
• 8 frozen boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1 c water

Directions:

• Combine butter, miso, honey, and rice vinegar in a large bowl.
• Add chicken to the bowl and spread miso mixture all over each piece of chicken.  
• Place water in Instant Pot.
• Place chicken in Instant Pot.
• Set to 25 minutes on poultry.
• Naturally release pressure for 10 minutes, then quick release any remaining pressure.

Original recipe can be found here on New York Times.