After having the Instant Pot for a few days, I decided I’d try my hand at coming up with something on my own. I like chicken, and it’s a natural for the IP. The 2 attempts we’ve made with rice in the menu ended up with the rice a bit “mushy” for my taste, so I decided that chicken and rice would be a good choice to experiment and see if I can get the “rice added to food” process right.
Please Note – this being my very first “do it yourself” recipe, there’s a good chance it will change if I discover something didn’t work quite the way I wanted it to. For instance, both the other rice dishes we’ve done ended up with “mushy” rice, so I used 3/4 cup of liquid (for 1 cup of rice) on the first try with this. The rice was still a bit too mushy for me, so I changed it to 1/2 cup. My working theory is that the celery, carrots, and mushrooms add enough extra liquid to the mix to make up that other 1/2 cup. If you use the recipe with modified quantities, remember the Instant Pot requires at least 1/2vcup of liquid.
For the coating on the chicken, I used 2 packages (for 4 breasts) of Hidden Valley Original Ranch Salad Dressing & Mix. Over my wife’s strong objection, I added a very small amount of curry to the dressing, but Gini said she had to admit that it was great with the curry in it. Score one for the guy of the house!
I had planned to use jasmine rice, but my wife and I both like Zatarain’s Cilantro Lime Rice with other dishes. She asked me to use that, and it sounded good to me. If you choose plain rice instead, you may want to add some other herbs and spices to it.
I’m not a big vinegar fan, but I added a small amount of rice vinegar to the chicken broth to give it a all a little extra zing, and soy sauce instead of just using salt. I never use much salt, so you may decide to add a little.
As I said, this is subject to change as I experiment around. Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions if you see something that needs improvement.
