The Instapot pressure cooker has been one of the hottest kitchen gadgets or devices available for the past few years. It’s was one of the most asked for Christmas gifts, this past holiday season, and ever since Nate Shelman got his Instapot pressure cooker, all he does is brag about how awesome it is, how amazing his food, that he makes in it is, how quickly you can make a meal from start to finish and how smart he was to have the brains to run out and purchase one……blah, blah blah. So, after all his bragging and after stumbling upon an Amazon $49 deal on the Instapot 6-quart Duo, I finally broke down and bought myself one. It hurts my soul, to say it out loud now, but damn you Nate Shelman, you were right! I love my new Instapot.
Since receiving my Instapot in the mail last week, I’ve only had a chance to cook one meal so far…well, that one meal actually accidently turned into two amazing meals, but more on that later. I thought I would share my recipe and thoughts on my first Instapot experience with you.
I do the majority of the cooking in our house…the last time that my wife cooked dinner, Obama was President. I don’t mind, because I love to cook and my wife has some very long days at work and with my schedule, I’m usually home way before she gets home anyway.
Everyone talks about how fast and easy it is to make chicken dishes in the Instapot, so I thought I would start with an easy chicken recipe I have for Creamy Chicken enchiladas.
Start with 3 to 4 lbs. of chicken, you can use breast meat, or thighs, I used boneless thighs for this recipe. Load in your chicken, then add an 8 oz can of enchilada sauce, a half cup of cut up fresh onions, a half cup of diced tomatoes, a quarter cup of chopped cilantro, a half cup of salsa verde and finally a packet of any brand of taco seasoning. Mix all that together, so all the chicken is coated. Then add chicken broth. And this is where I made my happy mistake, that turned one great meal into two great meals.
I read that it was super important to make sure and have enough liquid in your pot to make it work correctly….so I added 4 cups of chicken broth and closed the lid and hit the poultry button and waited for the magic to happen. 15 minutes later, the chicken was done and I opened the pot…. unfortunately, as I mentioned, I put in too much liquid so the sauce was still covering the top of the chicken. So, I pulled out the chicken and put into a bowl, and with two forks began shredding the chicken pieces. After shredding, I added 4 oz. of cream cheese and mixed it together.
After this is done, you are ready to make your enchiladas. In a large bake pan spread 1 quarter of an 8 oz. can of enchilada sauce over the bottom of the pan. Then spoon a couple of spoonsful of your chicken into a tortilla along with some shredded Mexican cheese. You can use corn or flower tortillas, but I prefer flour. Roll it up and place it in the baking pan. Keep rolling tortillas till you have a pan full, usually 6 to 8 enchiladas depending on the size of your pan. Then pour the rest of your enchilada sauce over the top of your tortillas….finally spread 2 to 3 cups of shredded Mexican cheese over the top, then bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes to completely melt the cheese. They were moist, delicious and took about half the time it would have usually taken me.
Now for my happy mistake that I made, using too much chicken broth in my recipe. I will be repeating this mistake from now on, every time that I make chicken like this for enchiladas, burritos, tacos or whatever, because I was able get 2 completely different delicious meals.
Take the rest of the left over liquid in the Instapot, and add the left over chicken back into it….if you want to make even more, you can add a couple more cups of chicken broth. Stir it all together, heat, and fill up a soup bowl. Then add shredded Mexican cheese, sour cream, chopped avocado, and crush up some tortilla chips over the top and you will find you have an amazing hot bowl of tortilla soup. It’s the best tortilla soup I have ever eaten, anywhere. I hate to admit it, but I liked my Mistake Tortilla Soup even more than the enchiladas which I originally set out to make.
If you try my personal recipe for Creamy Enchiladas and Tortilla Mistake soup, I’d love to hear how you liked it……and please, please, share any of your own delicious Instapot recipes that I can try in what is turning out to be one of the best gifts I’ve ever given myself……. Just email them to me at [email protected]
Ingredients:
3 to 4 lbs. of Chicken breasts or boneless thighs
2, 8 oz. cans of Enchilada sauce. (green or red) It’s your preference
Fresh or canned chopped tomatoes
1 medium onion
Cilantro
3 to 5 cups of Chicken broth
Taco Seasoning
4 oz. of cream cheese
3 to 4 cups of Mexican shredded cheese
1 or 2 large avocados
Salsa Verde
Sour cream
10 Flower or corn tortillas
Your favorite brand of tortilla chips
sliced olives (optional)
